Today's Headlines and Commentary
I missed this great article by Elisabeth Bumiller at the New York Times yesterday--a close look at the question of whether the COIN strategy can be counted as successful or not.
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I missed this great article by Elisabeth Bumiller at the New York Times yesterday--a close look at the question of whether the COIN strategy can be counted as successful or not. The debate is raging particularly loudly at West Point, and Bumiller interviews a number of faculty there for her story.
Lots of reaction to the New York Times story yesterday, at Lawfare and elsewhere. Micah Zenko and Emma Welch react over at Foreign Policy, Conor Friedersdorf at The Atlantic, David Frum writes at The Daily Beast. Also, watch PBS Newshour's Ray Suarez interview Scott Shane after he previews an upcoming Frontline report on Al Qaeda:
Watch How Obama Maintains His Secret 'Kill List' on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
The Obama administration is taking a lot of heat over its aggressive use of drone strikes following its announcement that Al Qaeda in Afghanistan's #2 was killed in an attack yesterday. Carlo Munoz at The Hill reports. The AP tells us that a Yemeni airstrike in the southern portion of the country has killed ten Al Qaeda-connected militants. We mentioned earlier that the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA locate Osama bin Laden has been sentenced to 33 years in prison. Rand Paul is having none of that, and so has introduced two pieces of legislation aimed at getting Dr. Afridi released: one would cut of all aid to Pakistan until he is freed and allowed to leave the country, and the other would give him American citizenship (his wife is an American citizen). Kevin Robillard at Politico reports. It's official: Flame, the computer virus that is believed to be the most destructive yet, has penetrated high-ranking Iranian officials' computers. Thomas Erdbrink at the New York Times reports on interviews with Iranian officials who are pointing the finger at Israel:The virus bears special encryption hallmarks that an Iranian cyberdefense official said have strong similarities to previous Israeli malware. “Its encryption has a special pattern which you only see coming from Israel,” said Kamran Napelian, an official with Iran’s Computer Emergency Response Team. “Unfortunately, they are very powerful in the field of I.T.”Ellen Nakashima also reported on the news from Iran at the Washington Post. Wondering what direction to take your career in to ensure job security? Alec Ross, the State Department's advisor for innovation, says "cybersecurity," according to this story by Mashable's Alexander Fitzpatrick. 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.
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