Today's Headlines and Commentary

Ritika Singh
Monday, May 7, 2012, 3:16 PM
If Ben's and Wells's live-blogging of the 9/11 arraignment wasn't enough to satiate your undying hunger, here are a rash of news stories on the highlights of the trial: the New York Times here and here and

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If Ben's and Wells's live-blogging of the 9/11 arraignment wasn't enough to satiate your undying hunger, here are a rash of news stories on the highlights of the trial: the New York Times here and here and here, the Miami Herald here and here, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and the Wall Street Journal. Also, true obsessives can watch the press conferences before and after the arraignment here. Meanwhile, an American drone got a big fish by the name of Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso on Sunday. Al Quso was a gentleman on the FBI's Most Wanted List for his connection to the USS Cole bombing, and was a senior figure in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula. The Associated Press has the story. I also took the liberty of looking up the rest of the lovely bunch on that list--see their shining faces here. Let's blacklist the Haqqani Network! Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence want the Obama administration to officially add the Haqqani network to the list of foreign terrorist organizations, reports the Hill's Defcon Hill. And the Washington Times has more on the two lawmakers' remarks, which includes the claim that the Taliban is getting stronger. West Point's Combating Terrorism Center released several of Osama bin Laden's personal documents late last week, reports Spencer Ackerman on Wired's Danger Room blog. ABC News also has the story. Check out the translated documents here. The Combating Terrorism Center released this fascinating report analyzing seventeen documents captured during the raid. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal informs us that 18-year old Mohammad Hassan Khalid has pleaded guilty to "to conspiring online with a woman known as "Jihad Jane'' to. . . carry out attacks in Europe." Khalid was supposed to attend Johns Hopkins University on a full scolarship, but he will instead face up to 15 years in prison, says the AP--which seems like a bad trade for him. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Friday, "[s]eventy-seven percent [of Americans] said they wanted all U.S. combat troops--excluding trainers and special forces--to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2012. Nearly the same amount, 73 percent, said they did not want the United States to establish any permanent military bases in Afghanistan." Secretary of State Clinton and the Pakistanis got into a little spat over Hafiz Saeed, mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. According to the Hindustan Times Clinton said:
We're well aware that there has not yet been the steps taken by the Pakistani government to do what both India and the US have repeatedly requested them [to] do. . . . And we're going to keep pushing that point. So it's a way of raising the visibility and pointing out to those who are associated with (Saeed) that there is a cost for that.
To which, Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan responded:
Our position on Hafiz Saeed is clear. We have independent and active courts. If anyone has proof against him, they should share it with us so that the courts can examine it.
From the Frenemy Press: The Express Tribune  reports that "[f]oreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Monday that if the United States has any solid intelligence information on the presence of al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri in Pakistan, it should be shared so that the country can look into the matter accordingly." That's likely! And don't worry. It's not all bad in Yemen. The country has a new Freedom of Information law--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 Cyber Brief. Email us noteworthy articles we may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com and  singh.lawfare@gmail.com.

Ritika Singh was a project coordinator at the Brookings Institution where she focused on national security law and policy. She graduated with majors in International Affairs and Government from Skidmore College in 2011, and wrote her thesis on Russia’s energy agenda in Europe and its strategic implications for America.

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