William P. Barr (former Attorney General), Jamie S. Gorelick (former Deputy AG), and Kenneth L. Wainstein (former Assistant AG for National Security) have this Times op-ed on the AP subpoena controversy. They write:
While neither we nor the critics know
As Jack posted yesterday—and as everyone is buzzing about—President Obama will give a major counterterrorism speech on Thursday at the National Defense University. The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Politico all report on the talk, and subjects … Read more »
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General released an interim report on the Department’s handling of “known or suspected” terrorists who have entered the government’s witness protection program. The report found, among other things, that information on some program participants had … Read more »
Let’s begin with the 100 pages of Benghazi emails released by the White House yesterday, as it went into full damage control mode. Reuters reports that the talking points on Benghazi were scrubbed of references to terrorist groups before Susan … Read more »
The Benghazi attacks get more polarizing by the minute: Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post reports that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has accused Republicans of leaking a falsified email to the media last week about the the talking … Read more »
On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing to discuss potential revisions to the 2001 AUMF. The Hill’s Jeremy Herb reports; here’s the hearing announcement. Jack is set to testify.
Chris Strohm of Bloomberg writes that … Read more »
Many thanks to Ritika for taking the Roundup wheel, so to speak, while I was out of the office for a few days.
David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth have this important piece in the New York Times on cybermatters. The … Read more »
Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times reports on a terrorism case unsealed in Manhattan last night. One Ahmed Abassi from Tunisia has been “accused of seeking to develop a terrorist network in the United States and of proposing to … Read more »
Let’s begin with yesterday’s Benghazi hearing. Gregory Hicks, former Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission in Libya, gave a first-hand account of the attack, and said that he was demoted for questioning the administration’s explanation of the events that unfolded … Read more »
No, we didn’t stop talking about Benghazi even after last year’s presidential election came and went. Even the cicadas will disappear again before we’re done talking about it. Today’s congressional hearing on the Benghazi attacks is generating a maelstrom of … Read more »
One Buford Rogers of Montevideo, Minnesota, has been arrested for plotting a terrorist attack. The gentleman was found with “Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms” and is affiliated with an anti-government group known as the Black Snake Militia. The … Read more »
Scott Shane of the New York Times discusses the devastating effects of online radicalization, and how difficult it can be to detect plots before the fact. The brothers Tsarnaev appear to have been motivated and instructed by Al Qaeda in … Read more »
Yesterday was a day we mostly forgot about: the second anniversary of the Osama bin Laden raid. Although much of the commentary centered around remarks from Adm. William McRaven, head of Special Operations Command, there has been some discussion of … Read more »
Dear Readers: You’re all stuck with me for the next week and a half while Raffaela takes a bit of a break.
Let’s begin with more news on those three comrades of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who were arrested in connection with … Read more »
Developing Boston news: three additional suspects have been taken into custody in connection with the case, according to this tweet released by the Boston Police. The reporting is scant thus far; we hope to have more later. UPDATE #1[12:47 … Read more »
Forty Navy medics arrived at GTMO on Monday as the GTMO hunger strike population exceeded 100 detainees. Carol Rosenberg reports at the Miami Herald.
The investigation into the Boston bombing continues: the FBI visited Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s in-laws, and collected… Read more »
MSNBC counts the total number of GTMO detainees participating in the hunger strike at 100. Reuters reporters David Ingram and Jane Sutton examine court consideration of prison hunger strikes in the past and find that judges typically find in favor … Read more »
Let’s begin with this New York Times editorial on the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The board argues that President George W. Bush’s “tough decisions” during his time in office have led this country to pay a steep price “for what … Read more »
Details in the investigation of the Boston bombings keep trickling out: Greg Miller of the Washington Post reports that the bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shootout with police last week, was on the CIA’s radar screen; … Read more »
The Boston attacks lead the news. The New York Times and the Washington Post report on the Tsarnaev brothers’ online activities and non-links to foreign terrorist cells, respectively. At the same time, Senate Intelligence Committee members voiced concern about … Read more »
The latest on the Boston bombings is that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property in a dramatic bedside hearing yesterday. Wells linked to the New York Times story earlier, … Read more »
There is a plethora of analysis, debate, and speculation about the capture of suspected Boston bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev. Drake Bennett at Bloomberg talks about the facial recognition technology that might have been used in the FBI’s search, and reminds us … Read more »
Here is the MIT student newspaper The Tech‘s report on last night incidents. Too much is in flux to summarize the developments in Boston, so I’m going to leave that to the Twitter list and news links that Alan … Read more »
The latest news on the Boston bombings: investigators have focused on two individuals who, according to video captured by a nearby security camera, appeared to carry black backpacks near the Marathon’s finish line. So reports the New York Times. … Read more »
Senator Robert Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, and President Obama were sent envelopes that tested positive for ricin—a known toxin. More tests will be conducted on the materials.Here are NPR and the New York Times on Senator Wicker’s envelope, and the … Read more »
You’ve all, I’m sure, heard more than you want to about yesterday’s terrorist attack at Boston marathon—given the paucity of real information available about it—so I’m not going to try to round up all the relevant news coverage. Let me … Read more »
Guantanamo detainees’ hunger strike took a violent turn over the weekend, with prison guards using force in order to subdue the detainees. There are many stories, including Peter Finn’s at the Washington Post, Charlie Savage’s at the New York … Read more »
Charlie Savage of the New York Times shares our disappointment that the Al Nashiri military commission hearings slated for next week have been postponed. So does Peter Finn of the Washington Post. Judge Pohl ordered the delay after defense counsel … Read more »
Let’s start with big news in the Bradley Manning case. The presiding military judge, Colonel Denise Lind, ruled that in order to convict Manning on Espionage Act charges, the prosecution must show that he had “reason to believe” that the … Read more »
At the Atlantic, the New York Times’ Mark Mazzetti discusses where he gets his news. Thanks for the shout-out to Lawfare, Mark! We read your work, too.
The White House released its 2014 budget request today. Spencer Ackerman points … Read more »
Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times has another feature adapted from his forthcoming book The Way of the Knife: The C.I.A., a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth. This one, like the last… Read more »
Let’s begin with the New York Times’s editorial board, which argues in this piece that shifting the U.S. drone program from the CIA to the Pentagon will only “be a marginal improvement,” and that “the proposed change would mean scant … Read more »
North Korea’s social media accounts were hacked yesterday by Anonymous, not that any of that country’s citizens would know about it. Here’s the BBC on all of that.
Marc Maiffret, Chief Technology Officer at enterprise security management company BeyondTrust, penned … Read more »
Bad news from Farah, Afghanistan, where a deadly insurgent attack killed at least 44 and wounded more than 100. Nine Taliban fighters dressed as Afghan soldiers stormed a government compound, and a firefight ensued that lasted nearly seven hours, according … Read more »
Seven years of negotiations yesterday came to a close, when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the Arms Trade Treaty (“ATT”). Colum Lynch of the Washington Post says the NRA will do its damnedest to stop the Senate from signing … Read more »
The number of hungry detainees at Guantanamo Bay has, unfortunately, grown to 39. Peter Finn and Julie Tate of the Washington Post have more about the situation and the detainees’ qualms that led to the food fight in the first … Read more »
Google’s come out with a brand-new product. All I can say is, “Wow. Why didn’t we think of that?”
You ought to read Peter Finn’s detailed Washington Post story about Ahmed Warsame’s interrogation, Mirandizing, and cooperation. Regarding the … Read more »
Nicole Perlroth and David Sanger have this New York Times report on recent cyberattacks against the private sector. The strikes main aim is not to disrupt companies’ activities or collect their trade secrets, but instead to destroy the victims’ capabilities … Read more »
Let’s begin with Guantanamo Bay: Eyder Peralta of NPR reports that the International Committee of the Red Cross has arrived at the prison to assess the situation as the number of detainees participating in the hunger strike has grown to … Read more »
Public Service Announcement: Change.org has a petition which asks Google to save Google Reader. It boasts over 145,000 signatures thus far. Just sayin’ —since, you know, Ritika and I depend on Google Reader, in bringing you each day’s dose of … Read more »
Charlie Savage of the New York Times reports on the hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay. The official number of hungry detainees as of yesterday morning stood at twenty eight.
Benjamin Weiser of the Times tells us that—under our very noses—Ahmed … Read more »
Big news from Afghanistan over the weekend—at least until the next time things fall apart: Just like that, after months of back and forth, Bagram is now in Afghan custody. Afghan officials have promised not to release the people the … Read more »
Big news that things are probably going to stay the same on the drone front—at least according to Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane of the New York Times, who write that the transition of the targeted killing program from the … Read more »
Another day, another leak: Greg Miller of the Washington Post tells of a secret, if year-old, report by the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. The report found that the intelligence community must change course because it has become, according to Miller, … Read more »
Afghan President Hamid Karzai won a small victory in his negotiations with the United States: U.S. Special Operations forces will pull out from Wardak province, where—according to Karzai—elite teams had tortured and killed civilians. (The U.S. denies the allegation). Here’s… Read more »
Today is the tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion. Tim Arango of the New York Times has the sad news that bomb blasts in Baghdad marked the occasion. Elsewhere in that same newspaper, Arango recounts Iraqi views about the … Read more »
Tomorrow is a significant day—the ten-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Here’s NPR’s All Things Considered’s story, including an interview with Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley.
Senator Lindsey Graham, one-third of the Three Amigos, says … Read more »
First up: U.S.-Afghanistan talks, as reported by Karen DeYoung and Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post. According to them, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has lambasted the United States’ refusal to transfer, to Afghan custody, certain detainees at Bagram prison. But … Read more »
First, a public service announcement: I join my fellow news followers, journalists, and blog junkies in exasperation over Google’s announcement that it is “retiring” Google Reader. My only hope is that you, Lawfare readers, don’t also suffer as a result … Read more »
No, don’t worry, we didn’t forget about you, dear readers. News and commentary just took a day off yesterday. We all need a mid-week vacation sometimes.
Let’s begin by sounding the alarm bell: Mark Mazzetti and David Sanger of the … Read more »
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
William P. Barr (former Attorney General), Jamie S. Gorelick (former Deputy AG), and Kenneth L. Wainstein (former Assistant AG for National Security) have this Times op-ed on the AP subpoena controversy. They write:
While neither we nor the critics know the circumstances behind the prosecutors’ decision to issue this subpoena, we do know from the government’s public disclosures that the prosecutors were right to investigate this leak
