Today's Headlines and Commentary
I’ll do my best not to mention the “S-word” in my roundup today.
Yesterday, Bradley did indeed plead guilty to 10 of the charges leveled against him. The Guardian has the full text of his in-court statement.
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I’ll do my best not to mention the “S-word” in my roundup today.
Yesterday, Bradley did indeed plead guilty to 10 of the charges leveled against him. The Guardian has the full text of his in-court statement. The New York Times’ Charlie Savage likewise reports on his remarks, as do The Hill’s Jeremy Herb and the Washington Post’s Julie Tate and Ernesto Londono,
The New York Times' “Room for Debate” blog focuses on what counts as an “act of cyberwar.” Check it out. And here is The Hill's Jennifer Martinez on remarks by White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel, about possible retaliation against foreign cyberattackers. Meanwhile, FBI Director Robert Mueller went on the record in favor of a public-private partnership on cybersecurity.
Speaking of cybersecurity, the Senate Homeland Security Committee has scheduled a hearing for next week, on the cyber-flavored Executive Order which the President announced during the State of the Union. Witness list TBD.
And gee whiz, what a surprise to learn that Republicans might block President Obama’s nominee for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives: the Bureau's acting Director, B. Todd Jones. Sari Horwitz and Peter Finn of the Post report.
Despite the spin, John Brennan’s nomination as Director of the CIA likely won’t result in the same sort of partisan hijinks as SecDef Chuck Hagel’s did. Carlo Munoz of The Hill explains why.
NPR has this story on the struggle of Kenyan authorities to stop terrorists from moving capital through small business networks.
Five Somali men responsible for the attack on the USS Ashland have been convicted of piracy and will face a de facto life sentence, reports the AP.
At the New York Times, Somini Sengupta reports on the Customs and Border Protection agency’s use of unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol our borders.
And Senator Rand Paul, in an interview with National Journal, raised his concerns over the use of UAVs in targeted killings.
On his program last night, Stephen Colbert talked about two of his favorite counterterrorism subjects: Guantanamo (the “Radio Shack” of the War on Terror, as he put it) and the 9/11 military commission case. Seems he’s gotten wind of the accidental (or not-so) audio feed-cut of January 2013. For his part, Colbert does not understand why reporters and others must view proceedings from behind glass, or why a 40 second audio delay is necessary. Here's the video:
The Military Commissions' Chief Prosecutor, Brigadier General Mark Martins, strives to answer critics like Colbert. After all, he is, according to this ABA Journal Report (which quotes Bobby, Steve, and Jack), “The Man Who Would Save Guantanamo.”
For more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter and check out the Lawfare News Feed, 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.
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.
