Today’s Headlines and Commentary

Welcome back. If you are in Washington area, I hope you have been enjoying the glorious spring weather---and now with added evening light.

As Wells posted earlier, New York Times three amigos Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti, and Charlie Savage have this must-read piece about the Obama administration’s path to its decision to target Anwar al-Awlaki.

The Times ran an editorial over the weekend arguing for the immediate repeal of the AUMF. Here is Ben performing his usual public service and Ken with some thoughts. Still no sign of any corrections.

The Hill reports on Rep. Trey Gowdy’s (R-S.C.) blustering about the Obama administration’s decision to try Sulaiman Abu Ghaith in the SDNY. Bloomberg has an editorial arguing that “the administration made the right call in a tough situation, which has been needlessly complicated by elected officials of both parties.”

Meanwhile, lots of Afghanistan news: A suicide bombing killed at least ten people outside the Afghan Ministry of Defense in Kabul; a separate suicide bombing killed eight children and one policeman in front of an Afghan-American checkpoint in Khost. Both blasts coincided with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s first visit to the country, says the Times.

According to the BBC, two American soldiers and three Afghan police officers died in an insider attack today. The Times says that this attack follows one on Friday in which three men killed a civilian contractor and two Afghan soldiers.

The Times and CNN’s Security Clearance blog have the latest on the hiccups in transferring custody of Bagram prison to Afghan officials. Matt and Bobby have more.

In keeping with all of this bad news, President Karzai had many a harsh comment about America’s involvement in Afghanistan, asserting that the U.S. was colluding with the Taliban in order to justify its continued presence in the country---and that the Western media’s dismal reports about the state of the country after troops withdraw in 2014 was propaganda aimed at undermining Afghan confidence. Here are the Times, Associated Press, the Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

Ellen Nakashima reports on the rules of engagement in cyberspace---including the difficulties of defining our favorite word “imminence”---in this Post article. Matt’s comments are here.

Sam Dagher reports in the Journal that Syrian rebels led by Islamists “are trying to strengthen their control in northeastern and eastern Syria along the Iraqi border.”

A drone strike killed two suspected militants in North Waziristan, say Ismail Khan and Declan Walsh of the Times.

The U.K. home secretary argued in the that country’s Court of Appeals that the ban on deporting radical cleric Abu Qatada should be lifted. BBC.com has more.

Bill Keller discusses what might have happened had Pfc. Bradley Manning given his trove of classified documents to the New York Times instead of to WikiLeaks.

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