Today's Headlines and Commentary
Week three of the Shutdown. Former SecDef Leon Panetta criticized the Obama Administration's handling of furloughs of civilians at the Defense Department and within the intelligence community, as Carlo Munoz explains at The Hill.
Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai (nom de guerre: Abu Anas Al-Liby) arrived in New York yesterday. The reason?
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Week three of the Shutdown. Former SecDef Leon Panetta criticized the Obama Administration's handling of furloughs of civilians at the Defense Department and within the intelligence community, as Carlo Munoz explains at The Hill.
Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai (nom de guerre: Abu Anas Al-Liby) arrived in New York yesterday. The reason? A trio at the New York Times says his chronic health condition worsened during military detention aboard the U.S.S. San Antonio. Retired Navy Commander J.D. Gordon, formerly a DoD spokesman, penned a Fox News op-ed arguing that Al-Liby should be sent to Guantanamo:
Gitmo and military commissions have played a vital role in defending America as we remain at war. Just as we held Nazis as enemy combatants in 1943, we should continue holding Al Qaeda terrorists and affiliates in the same status.Belgium conducted a rather novel operation in order to capture an accused pirate, Mohamed Abdi Hassan (aka Afweyne): it lured him to the Brussels airport, with the ruse that movie producers wanted him to star in a film. Here are an NPR piece, a Wall Street Journal report, and a Times story. Carlo Munoz explains that a September 30 Al Qaeda attack in Yemen had targeted the U.S. command and control center for drone strikes. That news is in The Hill. A suicide bomber killed a provincial governor in Afghanistan today. The killing coincided with the beginning of Id al-Adha, one of the Muslim calendar's holiest days. Azam Ahmed reports in the Times. Ben and Paul reacted to the latest leak from the Snowden archives. Under a dramatic headline, the Washington Post shares the details of the NSA address book-collection program. The Post also leaked this presentation about challenges stemming from the over-collection of data. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein authored an important Wall Street Journal op-ed over the weekend, defending the NSA phone metadata program, and saying that her committee will soon be considering a bill to improve transparency in FISA activities:
The NSA call-records program is working and contributing to our safety. It is legal and it is subject to strict oversight and thorough judicial review. I believe we should increase the program's transparency and its privacy protections. Toward that end, the Senate Intelligence Committee will soon consider a bill to make improvements to these counterterrorism programs. The proposed legislation will, for example, require court review when the call records are queried, and mandate a series of limitations on how the records can be obtained, stored and used. But we must also learn the lesson of 9/11. If we end this vital program, we only make our nation more vulnerable to another devastating terrorist attack.On Monday, the DoJ submitted its response to EPIC's Supreme Court brief seeking review of the NSA phone metadata program. Brendan Sasso has details at The Hill. Michael Gordon and Thomas Erdbrink discuss Iran's proposal to reduce its nuclear program at the Times. Jay Solomon also reports at the Journal. A Nazi war criminal, Erich Priebke, who was sentenced to life in prison for organizing the execution of 335 civilians in Italy, has died. Elisabetta Povoledo writes in the Times. British police have four men suspected of terrorism in custody; the arrest caused a ruckus yesterday near the Tower of London, reports the AP. The Journal's Niharika Mandhana has this interesting report today: India's police filed a complaint against a U.S. based antipiracy company called AdvanFort. Apparently the firm's employees refused to produce paperwork proving that they were authorized to carry weapons on board a ship. (The police found over 30 guns and rifles.) Email the Lawfare Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Visit the Lawfare Events Calendar to learn about 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.
