Today's Headlines and Commentary
Josh Gerstein at the Politico reports that the White House is threatening a veto of the House's intelligence authorization act, which includes language requiring disclosure of information regarding detainees at Guantanamo, and Senate confirmation of the NSA's director.
The Pentagon raised security levels at military bases in anticipation of the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
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Josh Gerstein at the Politico reports that the White House is threatening a veto of the House's intelligence authorization act, which includes language requiring disclosure of information regarding detainees at Guantanamo, and Senate confirmation of the NSA's director.
The Pentagon raised security levels at military bases in anticipation of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Tim Mak at Politico has the story, as does Craig Whitlock at the Washington Post.
Dick Cheney said in an interview on Fox News (via Politico) that Obama has accepted most aspects of Bush's national security policy out of necessity.
Retired Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that the $400B of spending that the Pentagon might be required to eliminate will have a "catastrophic effect" on national security. Tim Mak at Politico also covers Gates' speech at the University of Texas in Denton.
Siobhan Gorman at the Wall Street Journal writes about the increasing use of drones in warfare.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, the head of Saudi Arabia's foreign intelligence agency until shortly before 9/11, argues that the death of Osama bin Laden should have marked the end of the war in Afghanistan. Craig Whitlock at the Post reports on the prince's remarks at CSIS.
Linda Greenhouse writes her column this week about the judicial legacy of 9/11-- linking Guantanamo litigation to, of all things, modern abortion jurisprudence.
The Council on Foreign Relations's Micah Zenko at The Atlantic argues that "the stark reality of the post-9/11 era is that the threshold for who and where the U.S. military and intelligence community can kill has been increasingly lowered, with no end in sight."
The ACLU's Hina Shamsi argues at the Guardian that the war on terror has only served to empower our enemies, as it "rides roughshod over the rule of law," while Vincent Warren, the Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, writes at CNN.com that 9/11 marks the beginning of the decline of our democracy.
The ACLU has also written a ten-year commemoration of 9/11. Mother Jones' Kevin Drum shares some excerpts from the report on the changes to our civil liberties since the attacks.
In the Post, Walter Pincus reviews Dick Cheney's memoir, noting that Cheney's report of events that Pincus also lived through "left out events or ignored facts that challenge, if not contradict, [Cheney's] conclusions."
Obama plans to keep 3,000-5,000 troops in Iraq beyond the end of this year. Greg Jaffe and Annie Gowen share the story at the Post.
The Council on Foreign Relations' Global Governance Monitor has just announced it has incorporated a new component into its online media guide on terrorism. Among other resources, CFR.org says that it features:
- A short film that explains the current challenges presented by terrorism and the urgency of improving global counterterrorism efforts
- A graphic timeline tracing the history of terrorism as well as counterterrorism initiatives, from 1881 through the present
- An issue brief summarizing the current status of the multilateral terrorism prevention and response regime (including gaps in the regime and related U.S. policy)
- A matrix cataloging all relevant international agreements, mechanisms, institutions, and initiatives related to terrorism, including their coverage, strengths, and shortcoming An interactive map detailing global flashpoints in the fight against terrorism as well as the main international agencies that manage these challenges
- A list of resources, including foundational texts, essential documents, recent articles, and relevant CFR scholars on the subject
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.
