Today's Headlines and Commentary
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Luckily for me, The Hill stayed up late to keep an eye on the NDAA debate--so I didn't have to. And while it debated the two competing detention amendments, it pushed off final votes on both until this morning.
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This is your last chance to make your opinions known about Lawfare Blog in our Reader Survey. Just do it. We've got 267 responses. Please help put us over 300.
Luckily for me, The Hill stayed up late to keep an eye on the NDAA debate--so I didn't have to. And while it debated the two competing detention amendments, it pushed off final votes on both until this morning. Pete Kasperowicz and Jeremy Herb summarize the battle on the floor last night at The Hill's Floor Action Blog. Congressmen Adam Smith and Justin Amash have this op-ed in Politico arguing for the adoption of their amendment. They conclude:
Americans’ constitutionally protected rights should not depend on presidential promises or who’s in charge. A free country is defined by the rule of law, not the government’s whim.
Here is Austin Wright's coverage of the debate at Politico. Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey was on Fox News to discuss the Smith-Amash amendment yesterday, and you can watch the video over at the House Armed Services Committee's website. Said Mukasey:
And Joe Parkinson and Adam Entous at the Journal report on Turkey's response to that newspaper's story on a U.S. drone the Turkish military used to attack civilian smugglers there.
Although clearly not a serious suggestion (we hope), Matthew Yglesias proposes targeting "tax turncoats" with drones.
NPR's Terry Gross interviewed The Nation's Jeremy Scahill on Yemen, drone strikes, and Anwar Al-Aulaqi on Fresh Air.
Ann Penketh has this piece at The Hill advocating for Congress to step into the fray in the debate over the use of drones.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be holding a hearing on the Law of the Sea Treaty, which the Senate failed to ratify five years ago. Senator Jim DeMint is 10 votes shy of the 1/3+1 Senators he needs to defeat it again, while Obama administration officials and leading Senate Democrats on the committee are pushing for ratification. Julian Pecquet has the story at The Hill.
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This would require that anyone brought into the United States would get Miranda warnings, no questioning at all for intelligence, no turning over to the military eventually, no designation as an unlawful enemy combatant. The proponents of this say they are protecting American citizens. It doesn't only apply to American citizens.Charlie Savage has this piece in the New York Times on the debate. President Obama isn't just looking for contributions for his own presidential campaign these days. He's also asking other NATO members to step up and help foot the $4.1 billion annual tab that is the Afghan army. So far he's got 20 nations signed on. Anne Gearan from the AP discusses the administration's plans to seek guarantees at the NATO summit in Chicago. Helene Cooper and Thom Shanker preview the U.S.'s new definition of "success" in Afghanistan. They say:
In fact, the phrase “Afghan good enough” has been making the rounds at the White House, State Department, the Pentagon and inside the many research organizations scattered around Washington. Gone is the much greater expectation that NATO will leave behind a cohesive central government with real influence beyond Kabul and a handful of other population centers. Gone is the assumption that Helmand Province, Kandahar and the rest of the heavily contested south — where the bulk of the 2010 influx of troops was sent — will remain entirely in the control of the central government once that area is transferred to Afghanistan’s fledgling national security forces.Andrew Liepman is stepping down from his position as the deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Greg Miller at the Post discusses Liepman's outlook moving forward. Julian Barnes at the Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration is contemplating being less silent on the role that drone strikes play in the U.S.'s counterterrorism efforts.
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.
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