Today's Headlines and Commentary
Congressional reporters may have been left with nothing to write about last night, but we sure have plenty to read about today in the world of national security, the war on terror, and cybersecurity.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence met Thursday evening in "secret" to consider renewing the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which authorized President George W. Bush's warrant less wiretapping program. Wired's Spencer Ackerman reports.
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Congressional reporters may have been left with nothing to write about last night, but we sure have plenty to read about today in the world of national security, the war on terror, and cybersecurity.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence met Thursday evening in "secret" to consider renewing the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which authorized President George W. Bush's warrant less wiretapping program. Wired's Spencer Ackerman reports. Ackerman also links to a letter written to the Committee in June by Robert Litt, the DNI's general counsel, regarding the renewal of the law (which expires in 2012), calling it "critically important."
Linda Greenhouse's column in the Times focuses on last week's horrifying mass murder in Norway, and draws upon the U.S. experience in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. She focuses particularly on the impact the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 on habeas corpus practice in "garden-variety" cases.
Clifford May writes in the National Review on Jay Bahadur's new book, called The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World.
Josh Gerstein over at Politico covers former DNI Dennis Blair's interview at the Aspen Security Forum, which is causing a bit of a to-do.
Save the date: By September 26, the Pentagon and CIA must disclose their legal bases for not disclosing photos and video of the raid that killed bin Laden. Gerstein covers this story at Politico as well.
The Economist weighs in on the debate over the ethics of using drones in warfare.
Yesterday, I reported on the letter sent from national security officials to Republican senators defending the decision to try Warsame in a civilian court, but hadn't been able to track down a copy. The letter is available here.
For more news and analysis links, see Today’s Terrorism News over at the CenterLine.
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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.
