Today's Headlines and Commentary

The Boston Bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, pleaded not guilty today. Here's the Boston Globe. Yesterday President Obama's FBI Director nominee James Comey testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  He acknowledged the power of metadata in counterterrorism, as Sari Horwitz tells us in the Washington Post. During an open meeting of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a former member of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and retired federal judge, James Robertson, spoke out about the secret court's processes. He advocates for an adversarial system in the intelligence court, explains Jennifer Martinez in The Hill. Despite the concerns that the Snowden fiasco would spoil U.S.-China cyber-talks, they may have gone alright, at least in Chinese state news agency Xinhua's view. Reuters reports on Xinhua's reports. And another NSA powerpoint slide has been leaked, courtesy of the Washington Post. This one also appeared in Sunday's Post story about Team Telecom and the Global Crossing Security Agreement. The restrictions on GTMO detainee communal living are being lifted somewhat as Ramadan begins, reports the AP. Apropos of the detention facility, former GTMO military commissions Chief Prosecutor Colonel Morris Davis testified as a defense witnesses during yesterday's hearings in the Bradley Manning trial. There's a Guardian piece on his testimony. Former National Security Advisor Tom Donilon is now a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Here are a story in The Hill, and the CFR announcement. A journalist turned spy during the Cold War, Austin Goodrich, has passed away. Here's the New York Times piece about his double life. Eric Schmitt reports in the New York Times on the U.S.-run drone surveillance in the African continent. Russia claims Syrian rebels are responsible for using sarin gas at Khan al-Assal, the BBC tells us. 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 blog, and Fordham Law’s Center on National Security’s Morning Briefand Cyber Brief. Email Raffaela Wakeman and Ritika Singh noteworthy articles to include, visit theLawfare Events Calendar for upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings at the Lawfare Job Board.