Today's Headlines and Commentary

In breaking news, the Washington Post's Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani kick us off with more Snowden leaked documents, which reveal that the NSA is gathering "5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world." This bulk collection and storage of cellphone locations allows the NSA to "look for unknown associates of known intelligence targets by tracking people whose movements intersect." In other news, the Post and the New York Times tell us about non-developments in the U.S.-Afghan bilateral security agreement. Secretary of State John Kerry is leaning on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to support provisions in the agreement that will allow U.S. forces to stay in the country after most troops withdraw in 2014; Karzai has expressed reticence at at some of the provisions and has even said he might not sign the agreement until next spring. The Post reports on an inquiry into a giant, expensive facility in southwestern Afghanistan built by the U.S. army---that some Marine commanders did not want and has never actually been used. The U.S. military has halted cargo shipments out of Afghanistan to Pakistan because of continuing protests over drone strikes. Barbara Starr of CNN has more, as does Reuters. Speaking of public opinion and drones, James Igoe Walsh of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has written a paper entitled "Precision Weapons, Civilian Casualties, and Support for the Use of Force" about the public's support for drone strikes compared to other types of use of force. The abstract reads:

Precision weapons such as drones have become increasingly important elements of the military strategies of the United States and other countries. How does the use of precision weapons influence public support for the use of force? The public is averse to casualties, mission failure, and collateral damage. I argue that that precision weapons increase the salience and importance of avoiding civilian harm. Individuals adopt their expectations about the outcomes of using these weapons, and have lower tolerance for attacks that result in civilian deaths. This proposition is consistent with the results to two survey experiments. In the first, the possibility of civilian casualties leads to larger declines in support for the use of force than do military casualties or mission failure. In the second, respondents primed with information about an attack with precision weapons exhibited less tolerance for civilian harm than those primed with other weapons systems, despite the fact that the outcomes described to all respondents were identical.

The AP reports that Northrop Grumman has begun the construction of five drones for NATO. There has been much ado about Gen. Raheel Sharif, Pakistan's new army chief. Bruce Riedel of Brookings has an op-ed in the Daily Beast about the man, arguing that he "is likely to continue the army’s policies on backing terror and building nukes." The New Yorker's Omar Waraich has a piece on outgoing army head, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, and the legacy he left behind. According to the Post, Hassan al-Laqees, a senior Hezbollah commander, was shot outside his home in Beirut yesterday. The group blamed Israel. Israel denied it. So it goes. As Jane noted on Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Mike Rogers said on CNN's State of the Union that Al Qaeda had not been weakened, and that Americans were "not safer" from terrorist attacks than 2011. The Times tells us about how the growth of jihadist groups in the Middle East has been fueled by the Syrian civil war. So does CNN. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned in a letter to the U.N. Security Council that the dangerous and volatile security situation in Syria meant that the safety of international inspectors responsible for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons was at risk. The Post has the details. India is stepping up to the plate, says the Times of India. The country has "decided to give $1 million to the trust of Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at The Hague for destruction of Syria's chemical weapons and related facilities, a move that will strengthen its case for inclusion in Geneva-II talks next month." Western powers have held talks with Islamist rebels in Syria in an attempt to thwart the influence of Al Qaeda, reports the Wall Street Journal. Liz Sly of the Post discusses the role of Iran in the midst of the Syrian civil war and yesterday's assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander. Meanwhile, the Guardian has published excerpts of the testy exchanges between its editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger, and Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee on the publication of the Snowden documents. Josh Gerstein of Politico informs us that restrictions on legal visits to alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been eased. Here is the court filing on the modifications to Tsarnaev's Special Administrative Measures; Wells and Zach also have an overview of the restrictions on Tsarnaev's counsel. And, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey is holding a town hall meeting on Facebook tomorrow. 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. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.