Today's Headlines and Commentary

Raffaela Wakeman
Thursday, January 26, 2012, 10:49 AM
Let's start with the Aghanistan news. There has been another suicide bombing in Helmand province, signifying the Taliban's continued unwillingness to negotiate with the United States and causing three death and at least 30 injuries. Sayed Salahuddin writes from Kabul for the Washington Post.

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

Let's start with the Aghanistan news. There has been another suicide bombing in Helmand province, signifying the Taliban's continued unwillingness to negotiate with the United States and causing three death and at least 30 injuries. Sayed Salahuddin writes from Kabul for the Washington Post. The AP tells us that Jack Idema--who was convicted of running a private jail in Afghanistan where he tortured terrorist suspects but was pardoned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai--has died of AIDs in Mexico. On the heels of her husband's being charged with leaking classified intelligence to the press, Heather Kiriakou has resigned from the CIA. Greg Miller at the Post has the story. Meanwhile, Josh Gerstein notes the New York Times's assertion that it did not provide information to the DOJ regarding the investigation into Kiriakou's alleged extracurricular activities. Slight confusion on the drone front as a consequence of defense budget cuts: the Wall Street Journal's trio Adam Entous, Julian Barn and Siobhan Gorman (caution: paywall) report that the DOD is going to increase its drone inventory by 30% over the coming years; by contrast,  CNN Pentagon Producer Larry Shaughnessy reports that 30 Global Hawk drones would be grounded and replaced by U2's. Look Ma, no hands! Or human pilots, for that matter. Over at the LA Times, W.J. Hennigan covers testing of the X-47B, the Navy's new drone, which will be flown autonomously by onboard computers. Yuck! Kashmir Hill writes at Forbes about the recent discovery by a drone and its amateur pilot of sketchy (and frankly, gross) practices  of a meat-packing plant in the Lone Star State. Papua New Guinea soldiers raided the country's military headquarters today, placing the head of the military under house arrest and seating a new commander in his place. Matt Siegel reports on the bloodless mutiny at the New York Times. Charles Hoskinson of the Politico writes about recent debates over arming medevacs, spurred by the severely delayed rescue of a wounded soldier as a consequence of a lack of an armed escort for the medevac helicopter. In what appears to be a continuation of the U.S. strategy of strengthing its Pacific presence, Philippine officials are working to negotiate an expansion of U.S. presence in the country. Floyd Whaley covers the negotiations in Washington for the Times. Mike Allen at the Politico says that  President Obama learned of the Navy SEALs' successful rescue of pirate hostages and unmatched heroics about two hours before his SOTU address. For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter, visit the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law’s Security Law Brief, Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Brief, and Fordham Law’s new Cyber Brief. Email us noteworthy articles we may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com and singh.lawfare@gmail.com.

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.

Subscribe to Lawfare