Ritika Singh is a research assistant at the Brookings Institution where she focuses on law and national security issues. She graduated with majors in International Affairs and Government from Skidmore College in May 2011, and wrote her thesis on Russia’s energy agenda in Europe and its strategic implications for America.
Let’s begin with Senate news. Our favorite group of people has voted to end debate on Chuck Hagel’s nomination, reports Sara Murray at the Wall Street Journal. The majority vote for Secretary of Defense is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. … Read more »
Let’s begin with the flare-up that happened in Afghanistan over the weekend. President Hamid Karzai ordered U.S. Special Operations Forces to immediately halt operations in Wardak province—and leave in two weeks—after local residents complained that troops “have unlawfully detained, tortured … Read more »
Two explosions in Hyderabad, India have killed sixteen people—including five students—and injured more than 100. The blasts were “long-planned” according to intelligence officials, and Indian Mujahideen is the group suspected to be responsible for the attack. The New York Times… Read more »
I want to highlight these upcoming events at Brookings of potential interest to our readers in the D.C. area:
Is there a Widening Sunni-Shia Schism?
February 22, 2013, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM EST, Saul/Zilkha Rooms
An upswing in sectarian
Lots going on after the long weekend.
Let’s begin with the big, bad Chinese. The New York Times reports that, based on this report from computer security firm Mandiant, “an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and … Read more »
Voice of America Urdu produces a weekly webcast called “Access Point with Ayesha Tanzeem,” which, this week, focused on U.S. drone policy and the legality of targeted killing in light of President Obama’s (very brief) remarks on transparency in his … Read more »
A tale of two confirmations:
Karen DeYoung and Greg Miller of the Washington Post start us off with more on John Brennan’s confirmation vote, which has been delayed for two weeks as Congress dials up the pressure on the Obama … Read more »
There’s much out there, naturally, on the President’s State of the Union address—but we got to have a little excitement of our own in the national security world, as Raffaela laid out last night. Here are the Washington Post and … Read more »
Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy—with whom we are piloting our little analytic experiment—has an important and timely report out entitled The State of Global Jihad Online: A Qualitative, Quantitative, and Cross-Lingual Analysis. … Read more »
It’s just one breaking story after another these days for us national security law folk! Kind of reminds us why we even bother.
The White House will provide congressional intelligence committees with the OLC memo justifying the killing of U.S. … Read more »
#ReplaceSongTitleWithDrone is going bananas. Here are some of my personal favorites:
I’ve got 99 drones, but a surveillance drone ain’t one
#ReplaceSongTitleWithDrone
#ReplaceSongTitleWithDrone Killing Me Unconstitutionally
While the brouhaha over the White Paper rages, Sarah Goodyear writes in The Atlantic Cities about a novel concept from one Asher J. Kohn which might, in the near future, moot the whole discussion:
“Architecture against drones is not just
Let’s begin with an update on Israel. After last week’s airstrike on Syria, which, according to this New York Times report, “appears to have damaged the country’s main research center for work on biological and chemical weapons,” Reuters tells us… Read more »
Let’s begin with some of the coverage of Senator Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearing yesterday. Spencer Ackerman of Wired’s Danger Room blog discusses Hagel’s performance, as do David Sanger of the New York Times and the Associated Press. Josh Gerstein … Read more »
The American Enterprise Institute held an event yesterday entitled “Watching ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ with the CIA: Separating fact from fiction.” According to the event description, the discussion centered around some of the following questions:
Just how accurate is Bigelow’s depiction
Trouble continues in Mali. French-led forces have seized the Timbuktu airport from militants, and although it is really cool that there actually is a Timbuktu, it is decidedly not cool that fighting continues there. According to CNN.com’s Andrea de Georgio, … Read more »
Brookings is hosting Gen. Stanley McChrystal today from 10:00 am EST-11:30 am EST. Here is the link to the live webcast. For those who cannot tune in, we will be posting the full video and the full audio as an … Read more »
This should pique the interest of our local readers:
Killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and His Legacy: A Discussion with General Stanley A. McChrystal
Monday, January 28, 2012, 10:00 — 11:30 am
The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW,
Let’s begin with the latest and greatest national security threat facing the American homeland: North Korea. Pyongyang has said that its rockets are targeting “the arch-enemy of the Korean people,” the United States, according to the New York Times and … Read more »
We’re back after inauguration weekend. The President has been sworn in for a second time. The vice president ditto. Neither the chief justice nor the President messed up their lines this time. And if you were holding your breath for … Read more »
The day’s top news story is that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb militants have taken at least seven U.S. citizens hostage, in a takeover of Alergia’s In Amenas gas field. SecDef Leon Panetta has called the incident a “terrorist … Read more »
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of the country’s prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, over allegations that he took millions of dollars in kickbacks during the construction of two electricity plants. Here’s the order, along with stories from the … Read more »
Aaaaand . . . I’m back! Minus a few wisdom teeth—and with a lot more Thai food in my belly. But Raffaela’s partisans need not weep; she will alternate with me covering national security news and analysis during the week. … Read more »
The Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings held a fantastic event today entitled “Global Counterterrorism: A Progress Report” featuring Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department. Ambassador Benjamin discussed the state of … Read more »
It’s Friday, folks—but there’s a fair bit going on.
The biggest story of the day is the horrific school shooting in Newton, Connecticut, which has claimed the lives of 27 people, including 18 children. A 20-year old man is thought … Read more »
Let’s begin with Pfc. Bradley Manning, alleged Wikileaker and allegedly subjected to unacceptably harsh treatment. Josh Gerstein of Politico reports that Manning’s attorney has argued that his client’s treatment at Quantico was so bad that all charges against him should … Read more »
North Korea’s at it again: it’s launched a rocket, says the New York Times. So uncreative.
President Obama said yesterday that the United States will recognize Syrian opposition groups. Here are the New York Times, CNN, … Read more »
Turns out Carrie Mathison’s obsessive hunting of Abu Nazir in the TV series Homeland isn’t purely fiction—nor is David Estes’s treating Carrie badly. The Washington Post tells us about the the CIA woman behind the Osama bin Laden mission, who … Read more »
Ismail Khan of the New York Times (not to be confused with the Afghan warlord with the same name) reports that a senior Al Qaeda commander by the name of Abdel Rehman al-Hussainan was killed by a drone strike in … Read more »
Today is the 71st anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor—which is surely a national security event, if there ever was one. I just read FDR’s speech from the day, courtesy of Ben, which is quite powerful actually. It is … Read more »
Three events at Brookings are coming up in the near future that will be of interest to readers:
1. The Internationalization of Law
Ninth Annual Raymond Aron Lecture Featuring Professor Mireille Delmas-Marty and Justice Stephen Breyer
Tuesday, December 18, 2012, … Read more »
Let’s begin with some big news. SecDef Leon Panetta has announced that President Obama intends to nominate Gen. Lloyd Austin as the next commander of CENTCOM to replace General James Mattis.
From the Department of Bad Behavior: James Hitselberger, a … Read more »
Let’s begin with NDAA news: It passed the Senate yesterday 98-0, and, as our readers should know by now, it once again restricts the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo Bay and now prohibits the military detention of U.S. citizens—thanks to … Read more »
General Carter F. Ham, head of U.S. Africa Command, spoke at George Washington University yesterday, and detailed how Al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb is using Mali as a safe haven to recruit and train terrorists. General Ham described the … Read more »
Just in case you had a good weekend, Bruce Riedel of Brookings gives us the latest update on Al Qaeda’s emerging power bases in The Daily Beast:
Under siege by drones in Pakistan and Yemen, al Qaeda 3.0 has exploited
Sectarian violence in Iraq has claimed the lives of 33 people, mainly Shi’a, reports the BBC.
The excellently-named Tech Dirt reports that Facebook “likes” and “shares” are evidence of material support for terrorism in the case against four California gentlemen … Read more »
As I posted in my news roundup yesterday, a drone strike in South Waziristan killed two militants, according to the Express Tribune and Dawn. This seemed like an interesting real-time case study for media coverage of civilian casualty … Read more »
As Ben mentioned, there has been a landslide of coverage about this GAO report, released yesterday by Senator Dianne Feinstein, on housing Guantanamo detainees in the United States. Here are Spencer Ackerman of Wired’s Danger Room, the Associated … Read more »
Tal Kopan of Politico reports that a coalition of human rights and civil liberties organizations—including our friends at the ACLU, Amnesty International, CCR, and HRW—have sent this letter to President Obama “urging him to veto the FY2013 National Defense Authorization … Read more »
Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times reports on the breakup of the Senate’s “three amigos”—John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham—with Sen. Lieberman set to retire at the end of this Congress. Whether the rump group will be able … Read more »
Welcome back. Let’s begin our monster news roundup with drones. As Matt already noted, Scott Shane of the New York Times tells us about efforts to codify drone policy in the run-up to the election, when the Obama "administration … Read more »
Let’s begin with some good news that came down the pike just in time for Turkey Day: A cease fire has been declared in the Israel-Gaza conflict as of 2 pm EST, reports CNN. Michael Birnbaum and Ernesto Londoño of … Read more »
Big news on the Israel front. Peter Baker and Isabel Kershner of the New York Times report that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is on her way to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leaders in the West … Read more »
While we’re not talking about Gen. David Petraeus’s dalliances in Headlines and Commentary, we will start with his testimony on Capitol Hill on Friday. Spencer Ackerman of Wired’s Danger Room talks about how the general switched up his story, Gregory … Read more »
For all you LOAC nerds out there, let me begin today’s roundup with you. Charlie Dunlap of Duke University School of Law just alerted me to a new ICTY Appeals Chamber decision freeing General Ante Gotovina, the “most senior Croatian … Read more »
This is the latest piece in the interview series I have done over the last few months with terrorism and regional experts about non-legal issues of pertinence to Lawfare readers. For this episode, I interviewed American University professor and nonresident … Read more »
Reuters informs us that Ayman al-Zawahri has released a document describing Al Qaeda’s desire to establish an Islamic caliphate and instructing Muslims to live according to Sharia law.
Khalid Aldawsari, a Saudi national who came to Texas to study, has … Read more »
I am making a decision, here and now, not to include a single story about General Petraeus’s—or General Allen’s—love life in my roundups. All those who are interested in the saucy details are welcome to start their own blog about … Read more »
While we were busy fretting about which candidate was going to win the U.S. presidential election, Iran fired at one of our drones in the Persian Gulf last week. Barbara Starr of CNN’s Security Clearance blog reports on the incident, … Read more »
Noah Shachtman of Wired magazine’s Danger Room describes the criminal history of Mark Basseley Youssef, the delightful individual behind the “Innocence of Muslims” film that sparked protests across the Arab world—and tells us that Youssef was sentenced to a year … Read more »
Friday, May 24, 2013
Coverage of President Obama’s speech yesterday is plentiful: Here are Peter Baker of the New York Times, Karen DeYoung and Greg Miller of the Washington Post, and Mark Mazzetti of the Times with an analysis of the key points of the speech. Scott Wilson of the Post also provides a rundown of the speech, and cites Ben. The Associated Press reports on lifting the transfer ban on Yemeni detainees, and Colleen McCain Nelson, Adam Entous, and Julia E. Barnes… Read more »
