Today’s Headlines and Commentary

Let’s begin with yesterday’s Benghazi hearing. Gregory Hicks, former Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission in Libya, gave a first-hand account of the attack, and said that he was demoted for questioning the administration’s explanation of the events that unfolded that night. The New York Times, the Hill, CNN, Spencer Ackerman of Danger Room, and the Washington Post have the details of the emotionally-and-politically charged session. And so begins the domino cascade: House Republicans have called for the release of a batch of emails that will reflect how the Obama administration responded in the aftermath of the attack. The Times has the story. The Wall Street Journal editorial board argues that yesterday’s hearing revealed “that senior Administration officials knew in September they had a politically potent debacle on their hands and did their best to delay and obfuscate any accounting. All of this warrants further investigation, and such oversight is part of Congress's job.” As Lawfare readers are already aware from reading Ben’s thoughts, Steve’s questions for Ben, and Ben’s answers, ex-State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh gave a speech at the Oxford Union that, among other things, was highly critical of the Obama administration’s lack of transparency surrounding the drone program. Ben has more here, and here.  For the news media-inclined, let me also present Scott Shane of the Times, Josh Gerstein of Politico, and Conor Friedersdorf of the Atlantic. The investigation into the Boston bombings continues.  Focus has shifted to what the late Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two Tsarnaev brothers, was doing during his visit to Russia last year---and who he may have connected with. Ellen Barry of the Times reports. David Schanzer, Director of the Triangle Center of Terrorism and Homeland Security, has this op-ed in the Huffington Post about the evolution of American detention policy and the many complications that hamper reform. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has capped the number of U.S. bases in Afghanistan at nine, according to Agence France Presse. Benjamin Weiser of the Times writes about Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani’s appeal to overturn his life sentence on grounds that his detention violated his right to a speedy trial; Matt’s thoughts on the matter are here. The Associated Press says that lawyers for Buford Rogers, an anti-government anarchist type who was arrested in an FBI raid last Friday, claimed that “[t]here has been a great deal of information and misinformation that has been released [about Rogers], and it should never have happened, and it should stop.” For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter and check out the Lawfare News Feed, visit the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law’s Security Law Brief,  Syracuse’s Institute for National Security & Counterterrorism’s newsroll, and Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Brief and Cyber Brief. Email Raffaela Wakeman and Ritika Singh noteworthy articles to include, visit the Lawfare Events Calendar for upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings at the Lawfare Job Board.