Today's Headlines and Commentary

Senator Daniel Inouye died yesterday. The former Chairman of the Senator Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee was 88. Here's an obituary in the Washington Post, a story at NPR, and a New York Times article about his life. In Cabinet Watch 2013, Karen DeYoung and Anne Gearan write that President Obama is expected to announce who will be his nominees for the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. Everyone assumed John Kerry and Chuck Hagel will get the nod, but your guess is as good as mine. Eric Schmitt and David Sanger report in the New York Times on the Pentagon's plan to send aid to Pakistan to cover costs for stationing 140,000 troops on its border with Afghanistan. The article notes the surprise proponent of sustained aid to Pakistan: a Senator from Massachusetts some are saying is the President's top pick for SecState. The International Criminal Court acquitted Congolese Mathieu Ngudjolo of charges for raping and murdering 200 people (including children). In case you're not keeping track, this is just the second verdict in 10 years for this court. The prosecutor has said that she plans to appeal the acquittals and seek Ngudjolo's continued custody at the Hague. Here's the AP story on the verdict. A polio eradication program in Pakistan, one of three countries where polio is still endemic, that began just yesterday has already been halted, thanks to a Taliban attack that killed five aid workers. Salman Masood of the New York Times writes. Late last week, Canada's Supreme Court upheld that country's anti-terrorism law in a number of cases. Here's the AP's story on the development. The Westboro Baptist Church is all over the news right now: first, it has announced its plans to picket at the funerals of the the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims. Class all the way. For those who prefer a high-tech response, Anonymous has made it public that it plans to "destroy" the fundamentalist Church. Here’s their video:

Here's a TIME story on Anonymous's announcement, as well as a piece in the Huffington Post. France believes that the UN Security Council will soon authorize the deployment of a multinational African military force to Mali, writes Scott Sayare of the New York Times. You all thought cybersecurity legislation was dead, didn't you? Outgoing Congressman Dan Lungren, whose chairmanship of the House Homeland Security Committee chairmanship goes now to Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, maintains that DHS is still the best place for authority over cybersecurity regulations despite his fellow GOPers concerns over more government regulation. Congressman McCaul plans to introduce a similar bill to Lungren's proposal come spring. Here's Jennifer Martinez of The Hill on all of that. 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, Syracuse’s Institute for National Security & Counterterrorism’s newsroll, and Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Brief and Cyber Brief. Email Raffaela Wakeman and Ritika Singh noteworthy articles to include, visit the Lawfare Events Calendar for upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings at the Lawfare Job Board.