Today’s Headlines and Commentary
At midnight, the federal government is scheduled to turn into a pumpkin for the first time in 17 years. Government shutdown may be "a show which typically ends with a last-minute deal," but legislators aren't looking terribly optimistic about the healthcare funding impasse right now.
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At midnight, the federal government is scheduled to turn into a pumpkin for the first time in 17 years. Government shutdown may be "a show which typically ends with a last-minute deal," but legislators aren't looking terribly optimistic about the healthcare funding impasse right now. David Lawder and Richard Cowan of Reuters note that the House unanimously approved a bill to ensure U.S. soldiers still get paid no matter what happens. Such an "astoundingly irresponsible" shutdown could force 400,000 civilian defense workers to take unpaid leave, however, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reminded lawmakers on Saturday. Here is Al Jazeera on his remarks.
Over at Foreign Policy, Todd Harrison breaks down some of the different approaches the Pentagon could take to the hard budget decisions ahead and suggests that insofar as fiscal constraints force necessary reform, they "should be viewed as more of an opportunity than a burden." James Fallows of the Atlantic argues that the so-called gridlock is really a dissatisfied minority holding the majority hostage and that the President has to stick with his "'no negotiations with terrorists' hard line."
Dennis Fisher of Threat Post describes NSA efforts to change the surveillance narrative currently playing in the media. That narrative is remaining well fed, however: on Saturday, the New York Times published new Snowden-leaked documents detailing NSA's use of contact-chaining procedures to query its metadata database since 2010. The buzz seems to lie in the fact that, as James Risen and Laura Poitras explain, the NSA has been using sophisticated software to diagram some Americans' social connections.
But maybe NSA should take its PR problems with a grain of salt. According to the latest Reason-Rupe poll, Americans actually trust NSA and IRS more than they do Facebook and Google when it comes to privacy protection.
Jeffrey Rosen of the New Republic calls attention to a volume of 66 newly-declassified legal opinions issued by the Office of Legal Counsel between 1934 and 1976. What do the opinions suggest about lawfare and leakers? Writes Rosen, "The OLC has done more than approve the expansion of the president’s war powers. It has also supplied the legal rationale for cracking down on those who’ve brought state secrets to light."
On to world developments.
A U.S. drone strike today killed at least three suspected militants in North Waziristan, says the Express Tribune and Voice of America. And Dawn reports that a U.S. drone strike killed six and injured three at a Pakistani compound on Sunday near the Afghan border. A least 41 people were killed and 100 people injured when a 485-pound car bomb exploded in a historic market in Peshawar on Sunday, marking the week's third major attack on a Pakistani city. Here is the Washington Post; here is CNN. Dawn writes that rocket attacks by militants have interfered with relief efforts being made in the wake of Saturday's earthquake; Bloomberg's Khurrum Anis has more on the death toll in Balochistan province, which has suffered two major quakes in the last week.
A 2012 Kenyan government intelligence report speculated that al-Shabab militants were planning an attack on Westgate, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Economist writes that the Westgate attack has become a "transformational moment" for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who was elected in March while under indictment by the International Criminal Court for ethnic clashes that killed 1,300 Kenyans five years ago but is now being recast as a national unifier.
After President Obama's historic Friday call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in New York yesterday for a four-day visit during which he is expected to push back against Rouhani's newly-crystallizing image as a peace-seeking moderate. Two takes from the Times of Israel and the Guardian. The last thing Netanyahu should be worrying about is President Obama's selling out Israel to cut a deal with Iran, writes Aaron David Miller of the Post.
Netanyahu's visit coincides with Israel’s announcement that it has detained Iranian-Belgian businessman Ali Mansouri for allegedly spying on Israel and collecting intelligence on terrorism targets on behalf of Iran’s Quds Force. Here is William Booth of the Washington Post.
Also in the Post, Ernesto Londoño profiles the American University in Afghanistan, a remarkable campus designed by the United States to educate tomorrow's progressive leaders but whose future hangs in the balance as U.S. troops prepare to pull out of the country next year.
Another command transfer that is stoking fears: South Korea remains reluctant to take operational command of the country's U.S.-South Korean forces as scheduled by December 2015, an issue that resurfaced Sunday when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Seoul for three-day talks. Craig Whitlock of the Post explains South Korean fears that a lesser U.S. role in the DMZ could embolden North Korea.
Even China is less than comfortable in light of emerging evidence that Kim Jong-Un may have resumed producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. Jane Perlez of the New York Times reports that China has issued a surprising 236-page list of precisely-detailed chemicals and equipment that it has banned for export to North Korea.
For the Homeland fanatics out there: over at the New Republic, former CIA officer Robert Baer weighs in on the differences between the show and---well, real life. "The show is in a strange position because Carrie is the heroine and so we like her and we root for her, but she’s also completely insane, and [the rightfully-outraged members of Congress] should want to put her out of commission."
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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.
