Today's Headlines and Commentary

Terror continues in Nigeria. After the leader of Boko Haram released a video saying over 200 schoolgirls are being held hostage, three gunmen opened fire at another school---but thankfully, no one was injured. Two bombs exploded in Hat Yai, a southern province in Thailand, wounding ten people. The Bangkok Post has the story. Although no one has claimed responsibility, the Associated Press says “more than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand's three southernmost provinces since an Islamic insurgency flared in 2004.” Saudi Arabia has arrested 62 suspected Al Qaeda members, reports the Wall Street Journal. Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution writes in the Daily Beast about the foreign fighter problem in Syria, saying "the Syrian battleground is on the way to outstripping the 1980s Afghan war against the Soviets as a training ground for Islamic militants." The Journal tells us that the Obama administration is allowing the Syrian opposition to open a formal diplomatic mission in the U.S. Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post has more. Days after Secretary of State John Kerry attempted to broker high-level talks to stop the fighting in South Sudan, heavy violence has erupted in Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity State. With thousands dead, millions displaced and a looming famine, neither the country’s president, Salva Kiir, nor the rebel leader, former vice president Riek Machar, seems committed to a ceasefire. The New York Times has the story. Yemeni security forces continue to press their offensive into the Al Qeada-controlled south. BBC reports that the Yemeni defense ministry announced yesterday that forces have killed 36 militants in the course of recent operations. Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal says that some of the militants are from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Russia, and Somalia. Kimberly Dozier has an exclusive story in the Daily Beast about the CIA's now-dwindling role in Afghanistan. She reports that U.S. commanders are afraid that the Taliban and Al Qaeda will fill the vacuum left by the departing forces, and that Afghan forces cannot replace CIA-trained paramilitary forces. It ain't over: Hot on the heels of Rep. Duncan Hunter's proposal to amend the AUMF to target those responsible for the Benghazi attacks, House Republicans announced a special committee to investigate Benghazi. The committee will be led by Rep. Trey Gowdy. Democrats are considering boycotting the committee. The Post editorial board discusses the Obama administration’s “actual failings in Libya,” which, it argues, have little to do with Benghazi. Politico updates us on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on interrogations. With the report currently under declassification review, some senators seem nervous that the CIA is deliberately slowing things down, but most seem ready to wait a little longer. In Guantanamo news, the Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court ruling against Mukhtar Yahia Naji al-Warafi, a Yemeni citizen who has been held for 12 years and claims to have simply been a Taliban medic. The Miami Herald has the story. In more Congress news, The Hill has an overview of the battle over NSA reform that is playing out in the House this week between the Judiciary and Intelligence committees. The former is marking up the USA Freedom Act by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, while the latter is doing the same with the FISA Transparency and Modernization Act by Chairman Mike Rogers and ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger. Over at the Times’ Bits blog, Steve Lohr analyzes the recently released PCAST report---one of two major privacy reports put out last week---and explains why the privacy market is slanted against the individual consumer, creating all sorts of “market failures.” And for those interested in how the court might rule in the recently heard Riley and Wurie cases, Orin continues laying out some theoretical possibilities at Volokh Conspiracy. Senator Rand Paul isn’t satisfied with the Obama administration’s transparency on its drone-strikes policy. He’s demanding that the Senate hold up the judicial nomination of David Barron until the Administration releases memos that Barron helped write authorizing the targeted killings of American citizen as enemy combatants on foreign soil. According to CBS News, Paul seems to be working alongside the ACLU on this one. Michael Price and Amos Toh of NYU's Brennan Center for Justice have an op-ed in the Huffington Post on the issues that arose in the pair of privacy cases argued in the Supreme Court last week. The two favor requiring a warrant for cell phone searches. The Times’ Charlie Savage has a fascinating look at the “Midwest Depot,” a secret CIA weapons storage facility from where untraceable weapons have been distributed to fighters from the Bay of Pigs to Afghanistan. The article was inspired by the careful research of a retired C.I.A. analyst, Allen Thomson. Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.