Today's Headlines and Commentary
The ACLU has filed a motion for public access to the 9/11 trial in Guantanamo, says Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald.
Lest you were wondering what Donald Rumsfeld thinks of the decision to kill Osama bin Laden, Greta Van Susteren took the time to interview him earlier this week:
You mentioned there was a tough decisi
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The ACLU has filed a motion for public access to the 9/11 trial in Guantanamo, says Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald.
Lest you were wondering what Donald Rumsfeld thinks of the decision to kill Osama bin Laden, Greta Van Susteren took the time to interview him earlier this week:
You mentioned there was a tough decision. I don't think it was a tough decision. We've seen a lot of instances where presidents over the years have -- have had to make decisions like that. I think after spending that amount of time, that number of years and that much money -- we increased the special operations forces by about 50 percent. We increased their budget. We increased their equipment. And they develop these skill sets and improve the intelligence capability of our country. And finally, when all that comes together, to not make that decision, it seemed to me, would just be dumbfounding. I can't imagine any president not making that decision. That's not to say it wasn't a huge accomplishment. It was.And Greg Miller at the Washington Post tells us what's in those recently-released documents from Osama bin Laden's compound, documents which he says demonstrate the divisions in the Al Qaeda leadership over how to oversee the sprawling and directionless organization.
Human Rights First's Daphne Eviatar has got an op-ed in Politico arguing that the Obama administration is not reading international law correctly in defining its drone policy.
David Ignatius' column today is also about drone policy, and he raises questions about that John Brennan's speech earlier this week--and quotes Ben along the way.
Peter Baker has this piece in the New York Times critiquing President Obama's speech Tuesday.
Pakistan is branding the doctor who helped the CIA track down Osama bin Laden as a traitor, and the military is using him as an example as it cracks down on humanitarian organizations whose employees are being recruited for the CIA. Declan Walsh at the Times has this story.
Former chief prosecutor of military commissions at Guantanamo Morris Davis has written this piece in Salon about the use of military commissions in advance of the alleged 9/11 plotters' arraignment this weekend. Money Quote:
In normal practice, cases are developed to conform to the court. Here, because of how we mistreated some of the detainees, we are trying to develop a court to conform to the cases. We are setting an example for the world, but not a good one.The Army is restructuring its training and deployment procedures to emulate Special Operations forces. Read Thom Shanker's piece at the Times on General Ray Odierno's plan. NPR reviews Peter Bergen's new book, Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad. 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 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.
