Today’s Headlines and Commentary

U.S. Senators voted 83 to 14 to close debate on the USA Freedom Act today. The bill, already passed by the House, both authorizes and reforms the National Security Agency’s bulk telephony metadata collection program. According to the Washington Post, the cloture vote was a “crucial procedural hurdle.” Now, however, the Senate will take up amendments to the bill. If the Senate approves any amendment, the bill will have to be returned to the House, further delaying its passage. Here at Lawfare, Ben shared an internal Senate Republican staff memo on amendments that will be proposed.

The Wall Street Journal reports that fighting continues in northern Syria as the Islamic State pushes towards the Turkish border. The militant group is now thirty miles away from one of the largest border crossings between Syria and Turkey, and is just seven miles from the main route, along which aid and supplies travel from Turkey to various rebel forces.

According to the New York Times, U.S. and Turkish officials are exploring possibilities for joint operations that would expel Islamic State fighters from Turkey’s southern border.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry broke his right femur while biking in Switzerland. A military transport plane brought the 71-year-old Kerry back to the U.S. yesterday, and he remains under the care of Dr. Dennis Burke, a surgeon who previously performed a hip replacement for him on the same leg. According to the Post, “Kerry’s injury will most certainly interfere with his usually hectic travel schedule.” In particular, it is likely to impact ongoing nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group.

Meanwhile, the Times reports that over the past year and a half, Tehran’s nuclear stockpile has grown by about twenty percent. The news came Friday in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Experts have not yet determined how or why the increase occurred, though “one possibility is that Iran has run into technical problems that have kept it from converting some of its enriched uranium into fuel rods for reactors, which would make the material essentially unusable for weapons.” Another, more concerning, explanation is that the Islamic Republic is deliberately looking to expand its stockpiles, in the event that the ongoing nuclear negotiations fail. Regardless, the reported increasecreates problems as President Obama looks to sell the forthcoming deal to Congress and the American people.

The Post’s Walter Pincus discusses land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea, focusing not on China’s already well-documented efforts, but instead on the practices of Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

In fact, Beijing claims that the reclamation efforts of its neighbors are what motivates the “legitimate, justified, and reasonable” dredging of its holdings in the South China Sea. During a security conference in Singapore this weekend, Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo explained that his country has been patient, exercising “enormous restraint.” The Wall Street Journal explains that a “sense of righteousness” and “a long historical perspective” motivate Beijing’s current efforts in the South China Sea.

Popular Mechanics evaluates how U.S. and Russian weapons systems stack up in this next generation Cold War.

An American freelance journalist, captured last month by Houthi rebel forces in Yemen, was freed yesterday. According to the Post, Casey L. Coombs is now in Muscat, Oman. The status of the four other American hostages held by militants in Yemen remains unknown.

The Wall Street Journal informs us that a secret meeting last week between high level Obama administration officials and Houthi rebels actually helped facilitate Coombs’ release. During the meeting, which took place in the Omani capital, U.S. officials also pushed for a permanent ceasefire, leading to a political transition in Yemen.

Meanwhile, the Times reports on a video, released yesterday, of Isabelle Prime, a French consultant for the World Bank, who was abducted in February in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. According to theTimes, Al Qaeda affiliates, rather than Houthi rebels, are believed to be responsible for her capture. During the video, Prime appeals to both French President François Hollande and Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi for her release. Because of the references to the exiled Yemeni leader, the film appears to have been made in February or March. The French government has confirmed the authenticity of the footage.

Reuters shares a roundup of today’s violence in Yemen.

On Thursday, National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan will step down from her position, with plans to return to the foreign service. Politico reports that Meehan’s replacement has not yet been announced.

Yesterday, Shaun Donovan, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), sent a letter to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Appropriations Committee, expressing his “serious concerns” over sequestration “gimmicks” in the proposed budget for FY 2016. His letter is in reference to the House’s Defense Appropriations subcommittee, which recently passed its budget markup. That legislation, if approved, would under-fund the Pentagon’s base budget and instead pour money into the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account in order to cover routine activities. Donovan argues, “By paying for base budget costs using OCO funds, the Subcommittee bill fails to provide the stable, multi-year budget on which defense planning is based.” Defense News reports the story.

Parting shot: Over at his other blog home, Lawfare contributor Bruce Schneier shares two surveillance quizzes. “Just how Kafkaesque is the Court that Oversees NSA Spying?” and “Can You Tell the Difference Between Bush and Obama on the Patriot Act?”

ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare

Yishai Schwartz discussed IAEA access to Iranian military bases—a topic that has become a sticking point in P5+1 nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic.

Paul brought word of a Reuters report regarding a failed U.S. attempt to install a Stuxnet-like virus in the North Korean nuclear weapons system and examined the questions this incident raises.

Ben shared an internal Senate Republican staff memo describing proposed amendments to the USA Freedom Act.

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