Today's Headlines and Commentary

The Blog of Legal Times tells us that the Department of Justice has "filed court papers Wednesday in a public records suit in Washington asking U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to keep the photos [showing Osama bin Laden's dead body] out of the public domain" for fear that they could "incite violence against the United States." Judicial Watch, a government watchdog nonprofit, sued in May 2011 to have the photos released. Speaking of Osama bin Laden, the New York Times reports that rockets were fired on the Pakistani military acedemy near bin Laden's ex-hideout in Abbottabad. The BBC also has the story. The DoD budget blueprint that aims to "cut half a trillion dollars from its spending over the next five years" is getting a lot of press attention. You can get your fill, for starters, with this Times article, this article from Wired magazine's Danger Room, this Washington Post op-ed by Frederick W. Kagan on the mistakes of Obama's military strategy, and this Los Angeles Times piece. But if you want more, you're going to have to find it yourself. In terrorism trials news, a Maryland man by the name of Antonio Martinez (who described himself on Facebook as "just a yung brotha from the wrong side of the tracks who embraced Islam") has pled guilty to plotting to blow up a military recruiting station. He faces 25 years in prison, according to the Baltimore Sun. Twenty-five years seems to be the "in" sentence for people who plead out after trying to take out military facilities but who fail to hurt anyone. Yonathan Melaku, the shooter who targeted the Pentagon and other military sites, also pled and faces 25 years in prison, says the San Francisco Chronicle. The Associated Press reports that the legal fallout from the horrific Haditha killings isn't over, after all: Iraq is threatening to "take legal action to ensure justice for the families of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians killed in a U.S. raid in Haditha." The Boston Globe has more. France has agreed to support U.S. efforts in Afghanistan for two more decades despite the deaths of four French soldiers last week, says the Post. David Rhode, a journalist who was kidnapped by the Afghan Taliban and held in Waziristan, has this piece for Reuters about drones. And no vegetarian who is concerned about biosecurity should miss today's Moment of Zen: 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.