Today's Headlines and Commentary
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Anwar al-Awlaki, an influential member of al Qaeda who was one of the most wanted members of any terrorist organization, has been killed in an airstrike in northern Yemen, as Sudarsan Raghavan at the Washington Post reports, as does a trio of reporters at the New York Times, the AP, Josh Gerstein and Tim Mak at the Politico, Al Jazeera, CBS News, CNN, and NPR's coverage in a live blog. Rep. Pete King said (courtesy of Tim Mak at the Politico) this was an "extraordinary victory" (is that praise we hear coming from a Republican member of Congress for a Democratic president?).
As Bobby posted Wednesday, Rezwan Ferdaus from outside the Boston area, has been arrested for plotting to blow up the Pentagon and Capitol. Read the New York Times coverage, the Boston Globe's article, and the Washington Post's report. Read the complaint affidavit and indictment as well.
The Pentagon is readying for the military trial of Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, who is charged with the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000. Charley Keyes is covering the story at CNN, as is Peter Finn at the Post and the LA Times' Carol J. Williams.
U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks have disclosed that a former detainee in Bagram prison was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia but still held at the detention center for 18 months. Amber Hildebrandt and Jeannie Stiglic at CBC News report on the investigation.
More drones news: Boeing and MIT have been testing an iPhone app which would control miniature drones. Elizabeth Montalbano of InformationWeek reports, as does the LA Times. And Noah Shachtman at Wired's Danger Room blog writes about researchers at Progeny Systems Corporation who are developing algorithms to construct 3-D models of a person's face. Clay Dillow at Popular Science also reports on this research. The result would be to integrate this into drones to track suspected terrorists and other foes constantly.
Mark Thompson at TIME's Battleland blog writes on another area of national security concern, which has recently been overshadowed by Afghanistan and Iraq: the drug cartels that are escaping Mexican law enforcement by flooding Texas' border counties. He cites a report authored by retired general Barry McCaffrey and retired Army major general Robert Scales.
Courtesy of Dennis Yusko at the Albany Times Union, read this profile of the new Deputy Commander of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, Brigadier General Dennis Yusko.
NPR reviews "You Don't Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo," the film that includes footage of Omar Khadr's interrogation.
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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.
