Today's Headlines and Commentary

In an NPR interview, President Obama promised that the United States will “take action … at a time and place of our own choosing” in response to Russian attempts to influence the presidential election through systematic hacking and leaking of Democratic Party information. “Some of it may be explicit and publicized,” he said, “some of it may not be.” In response, the Kremlin’s spokesman announced that the U.S. government should either “stop talking about [the cyberattack] or finally produce some evidence.” The New York Times has more.

How would deterrence work? The Times reviews the difficulties faced by the administration in calibrating an appropriate response to the cyberattacks. Russia’s use of freelance private hackers to carry out government-sponsored operations has further complicated the usual diplomatic calculus.

NBC reports that the Obama administration decided against publicly responding earlier to Russian meddling both out of concern that any action taken before the election would be perceived as partisan and the belief that Hillary Clinton was likely to win the presidency. President-elect Donald Trump recently took to Twitter to ask why the White House “only complain[ed] [about the hacking and leaking] after Hillary lost,” though the administration warned the Kremlin not to target election systems a week prior to the election and President Obama spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the issue at the G20 summit in September.

Russian attacks on the Republican National Committee’s computer systems were “less aggressive and much less persistent” than efforts to hack the Democratic National Committee, The Wall Street Journal writes. Though hackers used the same techniques on the RNC that they did on the DNC, the attempts were lackluster in comparison and eventually failed.

Evacuations in Aleppo have ground to a halt after over 8,000 people were ferried out of the city’s rebel-held east. Once again, the breakdown of the evacuation deal may focus on a dispute over Iranian insistence that pro-government fighters be evacuated from two Shiite villages besieged by rebel fighters in northwest Syria: rebel sources claim that the government has halted the evacuation from Aleppo in order to force rebels to allow safe passage from the villages and cease shelling in the area. The government has accused rebels in Aleppo of smuggling weapons and firing on evacuation convoys. Meanwhile, World Health Organization volunteers in the city said they did not know why the evacuation process was being stopped. The Times and Reuters have more.

Turkey will provide shelter for evacuees from Aleppo in refugee camps within Syria and will allow wounded and sick refugees to travel to hospitals inside Turkey, Reuters writes. But the Turkish government said that it is “not realistic” for the country to accept all evacuees within Turkey itself.

At a rally yesterday in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump appeared to advocate the creation of safe zones within Syria “so that people can have a chance”, the Times reports. He stated that the United States would work with Persian Gulf nations to fund and create the safe zones. Experts have said that the proposal would commit the country to a complex military and diplomatic operation that could place the United States in conflict with the Russian forces operating in the region.

As the battle for Mosul drags on, ISIS fighters have increased their counterattacks against Iraqi forces in the city’s east. Reuters tells us that at its current pace, the battle will likely continue into next year, longer than Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had originally suggested.

Donald Trump has selected David Friedman, a New York bankruptcy lawyer, as his ambassador to Israel, The Washington Post writes. Friedman has previously expressed hardline views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, voicing support for Israeli annexation of sections of the West Bank and calling Jewish supporters of a two-state solution “worse than kapos.” In a statement following the announcement of his appointment, Friedman appeared to back the Trump campaign’s call for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a major diplomatic shift.

As opposition builds among congressional Republicans toward the potential appointment of Bush administration official John Bolton as deputy secretary of state, Trump may be considering Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass in Bolton’s place, Politico writes. Haass’s realist political views and connections to establishment Republicans would be a sharp contrast to Bolton’s controversial hawkishness and bomb-throwing approach.

German police are investigating the case of a 12-year-old “radicalized” boy who twice attempted to detonate explosives in a town in western Germany last month under instruction of an unknown ISIS supporter. No charges will be brought against the boy, Reuters tells us.

China has seized a U.S. drone deployed by an oceanographic survey ship in international waters in the South China Sea. The United States has formally protested China's action and has requested the drone's return, Reuters writes. The incident will do little to calm growing concerns over increased Chinese aggression in the disputed South China Sea.

Following reports of Chinese military buildup in the disputed Spratly Islands, the Philippine government has announced its intention not to protest the construction. Under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines has recently pivoted toward Beijing in an effort not to further raise tensions in the South China Sea.

Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a former Guantanamo detainee who had gone on a hunger strike to protest his resettlement to Uruguay, is now en route to be resettled in South Africa, the Miami Herald writes. The Herald also reports on yesterday’s pretrial hearing in the USS Cole case.

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Benjamin Wittes posted Rational Security, the “RexSec” Edition.

Jennifer Daskal considered international spillover effects of encryption in the latest Aegis Series Paper.

Zac Copeland examined the question of whether Chinese state-owned enterprises should be able to take control of companies that affect U.S. national security interests, which seems likely to come up under the Trump administration.

Federica Saini Fasanotti argued that international meetings aren’t sufficient to save Libya from chaos.

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