Today’s Headlines and Commentary
The Associated Press reported yesterday that Israel arrested six Jewish suspects on Sunday for the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian teenager who was burned alive last week. The horrific attack set off violent protests throughout the Arab sections of the country.
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The Associated Press reported yesterday that Israel arrested six Jewish suspects on Sunday for the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian teenager who was burned alive last week. The horrific attack set off violent protests throughout the Arab sections of the country. The AP is now reporting that three of the suspects have confessed. The Post reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a condolence call to the teen's father on Monday, after a weekend of violence. On Sunday, 25 rockets were fired into Israel; on Monday, Israel conducted airstrikes on central Gaza, killing seven Hamas members and two other people. Al Jazeera cites senior Hamas leaders who have vowed revenge, with Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accusing Israel of a "grave escalation" in violence.
The New York Times is reporting that Brig. Gen. Najim Abdullah Ali al-Sudani, head of the Iraqi Army's Sixth Division, was killed in a mortar attack west of Baghdad. A suicide bomber killed four police officers and three civilians in the largely Shiite area north of the Kadhimiya neighborhood of Baghdad, hours after the attack on General Sudani.
Al Jazeera America reports on what has been referred to as a "water war" being waged on Syrian civilians. The cause is the enormous drop in Lake Assad, the main source of water for about five million Syrians, since the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group took over the Euphrates Dam in al-Tabqa.
The preliminary results are in: election officials have declared former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani the winner of Afghanistan's presidential run-off, writes Reuters. The Times noted yesterday that a growing number of Western officials are calling for an audit of the ballots cast, in response to candidate Abdullah Abdullah's consistent complaints that the vote was rigged.
The Times contends that "an entirely different Ukrainian military" has appeared in the east to fight off pro-Russian rebels in the week since President Petro Poroshenko called off the cease-fire. The Associated Press reports that three bridges leading into the rebel-held city of Donetsk were blown up Monday, in an apparent attempt to slow down government forces. Apropos of the former Soviet Union: Eduard Shevardnadze, former Soviet foreign minister and President of Georgia, died today at age 86.
More than 20 villagers were gruesomely massacred on Kenya's coast on Saturday, the latest in a string of attacks initially attributed to al-Shabab but about which security experts are now confused. The Times has details.
Yesterday the Times Editorial Board highlighted a Stimson Center report issued by a bipartisan task force of military and intelligence veterans. The report includes eight recommendations, including a call for improved transparency in targeted drone strikes and "the development of appropriate international norms" for use of lethal force outside conventional battlefields.
Today promises opening statements in the trial of Azamat Tazhayakov, a former college student accused of taking evidence from alleged Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room---per Tsarnaev's instructions. The Wall Street Journal cites Chris Dearborn of Suffolk University Law School, who says losing the trial would be a "political nightmare" for federal prosecutors.
On to spy news.
The Times reports that German leaders, including Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, are demanding explanations from the United States in the wake of reports that a German intelligence service employee was also an American spy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated on Monday that if true, the reports of the double agent would make for "a clear contradiction" to the cooperation between the U.S. and Germany. Here's Reuters.
As Ben noted yesterday, on Saturday a big NSA story by Barton Gellman, Julie Tate and Ashkan Soltani appeared in the Post, the results of a four-month investigation into a cache of communications intercepted by NSA and provided in full by Snowden to the newspaper. The Post reviewed about 160,000 emails and instant-message conversations; the cache also included more than 5,000 private photos. The authors' story includes descriptions of classified internal communications, and says that when analysts "really want to target an account," they employ rationales that "sometimes stretch legal rules or well-known technical facts to the breaking point."
Political campaigns are a cyber-mischief breeding ground, with hackers looking to alter campaign sites, credit card scammers stealing donor credit card numbers and foreign intelligence services reportedly infiltrating campaign servers. So says Politico.
The BBC reports that Russia's lower house of parliament has passed a law that requires internet companies to store Russian citizens' personal data in-country--a move the Kremlin predictably claims is for data protection, but which is perceived as the government's attempt to access user data.
The Transportation Security Administration announced yesterday that passengers at some overseas airports will be asked to power on their electronic devices at security screening to prove they aren't secret explosive devices. CNN has more. Tech Crunch points out that this could mean you're out of luck if you've forgotten to charge your phone before flying.
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Jane Chong is former deputy managing editor of Lawfare. She served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and is a graduate of Yale Law School and Duke University.
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