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Senators Olympia Snowe and Mark Warner have written a letter to Senate leaders urging them to move a compromise cybersecurity bill. Brendan Sasso of The Hill tells us that the letter appears to be a "nod" in favor of the Whitehouse-Kyl compromise bill. Meanwhile, Congressman Mike Rogers claims to be calling President Obama's bluff regarding vetoing CISPA, Rogers' cybersecurity legislation. Brendan Sasso is also all over this story.
President Obama is ramping up the country's preparedness for bioterrorism attacks and pandemics, Elise Viebeck at The Hill reports.
And the bipartisan intelligence committee duo of Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger are worried about vulnerabilities stemming from the lack of standards for the use of Chinese telecom equipment. Read the Politico story here.
The AP tells us that Wesam El-Hanafi, a native New Yorker, has pleaded guilty to federal charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization and conspiracy.
Micah Zenko writes at CFR on the implications of President Obama's disclosure last Friday regarding strategy in Yemen and Somalia.
Christof Heyns, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has requested that the Obama administration clarify the basis under international law for choosing to kill, rather than capture, Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects. Stephanie Nebehay of Reuters has the story.
In other U.N.-related news, Brendan Sasso at The Hill reports that a Republican-sponsored nonbinding resolution circulating in the House urging the Obama administration to oppose giving additional authority over the internet to the United Nations will be considered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Proposals giving the International Telecommunication Union added oversight will be considered at a conference in Dubai this December.
It seems that the U.S. and the Taliban are again showing their teeth on Twitter, writes Austin Wright in Politico. After a pro-Taliban Twitter account bragged about a roadside bombing, a spokesman for ISAF Regional Command Southwest tweeted: "Wow! 8 killed, don’t you think there would be some type of announcement from ISAF? how was your poppy harvest?"
Declan Walsh at the New York Times follows up on reports over the weekend that Pakistani militants are trying to prevent the inoculation of 161,000 children from Polio, in an effort to force the U.S.'s hand on its drone strike policy.
Brett McGurk, the nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, has withdrawn his name because of the prospect of a drawn-out nomination battle. Peter Baker at the New York Times has the story.
For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter, visit the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law’s Security Law Brief, Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Brief, and Fordham Law’s Cyber Brief. Email us noteworthy articles we may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com and singh.lawfare@gmail.com.
Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT.
Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.
