Today's Headlines and Commentary

Public Service Announcement: Change.org has a petition which asks Google to save Google Reader.  It boasts over 145,000 signatures thus far. Just sayin' ---since, you know, Ritika and I depend on Google Reader, in bringing you each day's dose of national security law news. After a brief absence, David Petraeus is back in the public sphere.  On Tuesday, he gave a long-planned speech at the University of California's annual dinner for ROTC. Here's the AP story. North Korea has turned off its "military hotline" to South Korea. How quickly will this situation spin out of control? Here's Cho Sang-Hun of the New York Times on the rhetoric on both sides of the DMZ.  Dashiell Bennett of the Atlantic Wire isn't too optimistic about the situation. Lots of court news: first, Abu Qatada, a.k.a. Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, won a U.K. court appeal.  The Islamic preacher had challenged his extradition from Britain to Jordan; the victory permits him, for now, to avoid prosecution in the latter country. Here's Alan Cowell of the Times. Even though he turned himself in, and even though his nickname is "The Terminator," Congo rebel commander Bosco Ntaganda nevertheless entered a plea of not guilty to war crimes charges. Marlise Simons of the Times has more on yesterday's hearing at the International Criminal Court. On Monday, a Chinese citizen was sentenced to almost 6 years in prison, having  stolen secret data developed by a defense contractor for the U.S. military. Peter Finn of the Washington Post has details about the defendant, who pilfered (among other things) data relating to a "disk resonator gyroscope"---a gizmo which apparently permits drones and other platforms to shoot their targets without help from satellites. The confirmation process certainly wasn't the last challenge to confront DCIA John Brennan.  The latest? Deciding whether to permanently appoint, as head of the CIA's clandestine service, a woman who happened to play a leadership role in the CIA's detention and interrogation programs after 9/11.  (That individual is currently the clandestine service's interim leader.)  According to the Washington Post's Greg Miller and Julie Tate, she also signed off on the destruction of certain interrogation videotapes. I'm fairly certain this factoid has been in the news for a while---but it nevertheless surprised many reporters to learn that SecDHS Janet Napolitano doesn't use email. Here's The Hill on that. SEAL Team Six seems to have a problem: breach of nondisclosure agreements. Carlo Munoz reports that one member of the group---who took part in the bin Laden raid---was fired for talkin' secret shop in public.  And it turns out the sacked fellow also was not, despite contrary claims, the "Shooter"---that is, the Team Six-er who killed the hated al-Qaeda's leader.  C'mon boys: Loose Lips Sink Ships. The UK has created a cyber "fusion cell," combining its intelligence services and private sector experts in a single location.  The idea is to better respond to the "astonishing" level of cyber attacks that the country faces currently. Here's the International Herald Tribune and Computer Weekly on the new approach. The Huffington Post's Scott Charney takes note of increased attention, now paid worldwide, to cybersecurity issues. Over in Virginia, Governor McDonnell wants to amend a drone moratorium that passed the state's General Assembly and now awaits his signature.  Read the Richmond Times-Dispatch report on that. Senator Mark Udall of Colorado is working on legislation regarding domestic drones and privacy. Here's the Huffington Post with the story. Want more brackets, but fewer basketballs? Popular Science has its own version of a March Madness bracket: a battle to the death between aerial drones and land robots. And finally a bit of made-up-but-funny: Duffel Blog reports on the latest and hottest trends---sartorial as well as strategic---in Afghan insurgency (h/t WL). 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.