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Last night's breaking news that the Obama administration has held a terrorist suspect on a U.S. Navy ship for two months kept Ben, Rick and Bobby (and probably anyone else covering the war on terror) pretty busy. The news broke when the administration announced it had filed charges against the detainee, a Somali named Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame. The LA Times' coverage is available here, and you can read Keith Johnson of the Wall Street Journal's report here. Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt's New York Times article is here, and the Washington Post's report is here. The BBC covered the story as well.
Senator Mitch McConnell is not letting up in his efforts to relocate two terrorist suspects being held by federal authorities in Kentucky to Guantanamo, as this press release and attached letter to Attorney General Eric Holder confirms. He cites Charles Schumer's reproach of the DOJ's decision to try KSM in civilian courts, Zacarias Moussaoui's nearly decade-long trial, the challenge of arguing a case based on sensitive intelligence, and the administration's acknowledgment that it can hold enemy combatants indefinitely. An op-ed in the Louisiana Courier-Journal by Mason Clutter of the Constitution Project argues against the Senator's claims.
The AP (via ABC News) profiled [video] the CIA analyst dedicated to tracking down bin Laden.
The Washington Post reported over the holiday weekend on the worldwide effort to catch up to the U.S. in drone development.
A drone strike in Helmand province has killed four Afghan civilians and injured two others, reports the Guardian's Nick Hopkins.
Politico's Seung Min Kim reported that Harry Reid canceled a vote on the Libya resolution, giving in to Republicans who refuse to talk about anything besides the federal debt this week. Lawfare readers may recall that Reid canceled the Senate's Fourth of July holiday in order to work on a compromise on the debt ceiling.
Brookings nonresident Senior Fellow John Villasenor has written this piece regarding the homeland security threat posed by cyberattacks and drone strikes.
For more news and analysis links, see Today’s Terrorism News over at the CenterLine.
Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT.
Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.
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