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Three NATO troops and at least seven other people were killed in coordinated suicide bombings in Afghanistan today.Read the Washington Post story here, and Carlo Munoz's story at The Hill, and read Matthew Rosenberg and Alissa Rubin's latest at the New York Times on emerging details indicating that the minibus that was bombed on Tuesday might have been the wrong target.
Senator Dick Lugar, who lost his seat in a primary this spring, and who has been one of Congress' leaders on the reduction in global WMD stockpiles, is pushing the U.S. and Russia to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons stockpile before it's too late. David Herszenhorn at the Times writes on his remarks.
Blackwater will pay a $7.5 million fine to settle DOJ charges of arms-sales violations. Reuters has the story here and the AP's story is here, as does Josh Gerstein at Politico. More news from the African nation of Mali: Burkina Faso's foreign minister headed to Mali to try to avert war and meet with the warlord who oversees Ansar Dine (aka, Al Qaeda in Mali). Adam Nossiter at the New York Times reports. CNN's Supreme Court Producer Bill Mears writes on the Security Clearance blog on the DOJ's filing that Wells posted yesterday. The Acting Administrator of the FAA addressed the drone industry in Vegas yesterday, and indicated that the FAA will be able to meet Congress' September 2015 deadline regarding rules for drone use in domestic airspace. W.J. Hennigan at the LA Times reports. Raytheon has developed and tested a 13.5 pound smart bomb to be deployed from drones. W.J. Hennigan also writes on this news from the defense firm. The Hashemite Kingdom's King Abdullah was interviewed by Charlie Rose, and said that second-term presidents are better suited to deal with Middle East peace. Kevin Cirilli at Politico shares the King's interview and reports on the story. As Bobby noted, the 9th Circuit has overturned a lower court damages award to a Muslim organization that claimed it was illegally surveilled during the Bush administration because Congress didn't explicitly waive sovereign immunity. Josh Gerstein at Politico writes on the decision. The 9th Circuit also ruled in U.S. v. Pineda-Moreno that the Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Jones cannot be applied retroactively. Carlo Munoz at The Hill reports on the decision. 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.
