Today's Headlines and Commentary

Today’s top story is that four Army soldiers based in Georgia allegedly formed an “anarchist militia group. . . that stockpiled assault weapons and plotted a range of anti-government attacks,” including the assassination of President Obama. Wells points out that, interestingly, state authorities are prosecuting these men, not the Army. The Associated Press reports, as do CNN and the Hill. Badruddin Haqqani, son of the founder of the Haqqani network and day-to-day commander of the group, is rumored to have been killed in a drone strike over the weekend. The Associated Press has the story, as does Reuters. Meanwhile, the Pakistani newspaper Express Tribune reports that the United States offered to “hand over the control of three Afghan provinces to the Haqqanis if they agreed to withdraw their support for the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan.” U.S. officials immediately rejected the claim, and the American embassy in Islamabad quickly followed suit, according to the Pakistani newspaper Daily Times. According to the Associated Press, John Walker Lindh testified yesterday at the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis on the prison rule banning him from praying with other Muslims. Lindh said, “There are no legitimate security risks by allowing us to pray in congregations. . . . It's absolutely absurd.” CNN’s Security Clearance blog informs us that three of the four Marines who urinated on the corpses of Taliban fighters last year have been disciplined. In addition, six Army soldiers who were responsible for burning Korans have also been disciplined. Basil Katz at Reuters writes about a “little-noticed provision” in the Iran sanctions bill that will make it easier for American victims of the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut to seek damages from the Central Bank of Iran for its supposed role in the attack. Speaking of Iran sanctions, Najmedin Meshkati of the University of Southern California and and Guive Mirfendereski of Brandeis University argue against them in this op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Fellow and Deputy Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program, has this op-ed in Foreign Policy describing Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s views on the war in Afghanistan. Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moureau of Newsweek have this lengthy story explaining the green-on-blue killings in Afghanistan. The Washington Post reports on Indonesia’s successful handling of jihadists in recent years—including the mobilization of clerics and religious leaders to stop radicals. Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald discusses the minimal effect Hurricane Issac had at Gitmo. Just in case you were worried, there will be Bingo tonight, and “[t]he open-air base cinema [has been] reopened as well.” The New York Times reports on the NYPD’s interest in Urdu and Bengali-speaking New Yorkers. And, in the spirit of the upcoming Lawfare Drone Smackdown (which Ben has been preparing oh-so-hard for) comes this story about what some drones will be able to do very soon---it’s your Moment of Futuristic 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.