Georgetown Security Law Brief

Former Guantanamo detainee appeals life sentence

06/03/12: Reuters reports the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to have faced a civilian trial has appealed his life sentence on grounds he was denied his right to a speedy trial.  Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, 38, was tried and convicted in a Manhattan federal court in 2010 for participating in the 1998 al-Qaeda bomb attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.  Ghailani's appeal brief was filed with the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in January.  Ghaliani argues that despite the existence of federal terrorism charges against him in 1998, US authorities did not bring him to trial but instead detained and interrogated him in violation of his constitutional rights.

Egyptian prosecutor to appeal Mubarak verdicts

06/03/12: The Miami Herald reports Egypt's top prosecutor is appealing the verdicts in the trial of Egypt's ousted president and others which acquitted Hosni Mubarak and his two sons on corruption charges and clearing senior police officers of complicity in killing protesters.  Under Egyptian law, the prosecutor must appeal the entire verdict, which also included convictions and life sentences for Mubarak and his former security chief for failing to stop the killing of protesters in the uprising that ousted him last year.  The verdicts triggered a wave of street protests on Saturday. Tens of thousands took to the streets in Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt.  They chanted slogans against the generals who took over from Mubarak when the popular uprising forced him to step down fifteen months ago.

Suspect in Tokyo nerve gas attack reportedly arrested

06/03/12: The Telegraph reports one of the two remaining fugitive members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult behind the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway has been arrested.  Police officers found a woman believed to be Naoko Kikuchi, 40, a former Aum member who had been on the run for more than seventeen years, in the city of Sagamihara west of Tokyo, according to the NHK public broadcaster.  Kikuchi is believed to have been partially responsible for producing the sarin nerve gas used in the subway attack which killed thirteen people.  As well as those who died, thousands more were injured, some of them seriously and permanently by inhaling or coming into contact with the gas, which cripples the nervous system.

Terrorism-crime nexus a growing concern, Pentagon official says

06/03/12: The blog War on Terrorism reports a senior defense official yesterday called the convergence of crime, terrorism and insurgency and its threat to US national security a growing concern for the Defense Department, whose role in the fight is over two decades old and continues to evolve.  “The Department of Defense’s role in this effort goes back … to the 1980s,” said deputy assistant secretary of defense William F. Wechsler at a summit on irregular warfare.  Since that time, he added, the problems of transnational organized crime have changed radically, driven by globalization.  Criminal syndicates now operate on a worldwide scale with diversified commodities for trafficking and have changed from top-down hierarchies to network-based organizations.

Canada defends the use of drone attacks

06/03/12: The Miami Herald reports Canada defended the use of military drone attacks Sunday, saying technological advances have reduced the likelihood of civilian casualties.  Unmanned systems have proved their effectiveness in the decade-long US-led war in Afghanistan and also in NATO strikes in Libya last year, Canadian Defense Minister Peter Gordon MacKay said at an Asian security summit in Singapore.  "These eyes-on systems that can literally read a license plate from outer space have increased our ability to decrease civilian casualties,” MacKay said.  "We want to reduce if not eliminate collateral damage.”  US drone attacks in Pakistan are a key tactic in the campaign against al-Qaeda and its Taliban supporters.

Many see politics, not justice, in Mubarak verdict

06/03/12: NPR reports on the mixed reactions Egyptians are having to the life sentence imposed on former President Hosni Mubarak for his role in the deaths of protesters during the early days of that country’s revolution.  Civil rights lawyers have called for the judges to be fired for acquitting six security officers who were on trial with Mubarak and were also accused of playing a part in the deaths of the protesters.  Many Egyptians were also not pleased that Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were acquitted of corruption charges.  Crowds of protesters quickly poured into Tahrir Square to voice their displeasure.  And some analysts predict Saturday's outcome — particularly the acquittal of former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli and the security officials — could lead to Mubarak's sentence being overturned on appeal.

US drone targets in Yemen raise questions

06/03/12: The Washington Post reports the quickening pace of the US drone campaign in Yemen this year has raised new questions about who is being targeted and why.  A review of strikes there so far suggests that the Obama Administration has embraced a broader definition of what constitutes a terrorism threat that warrants a lethal response.  In more than twenty US airstrikes over a span of five months, three “high-value” terrorism targets have been killed, officials said.  A growing number of attacks have been aimed at lower-level figures who are suspected of having links to terrorism operatives but are seen mainly as leaders of factions focused on gaining territory in Yemen’s internal struggle.

Panetta: US open to military relations with Myanmar

06/03/12: The Washington Times reports Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told Asian leaders Saturday the US is open to improving military ties with Myanmar if the country continues to enact political and human rights reforms.  Panetta’s comments at a defense conference in Singapore reflected new efforts by the Obama Administration to ease penalties against the Asian nation, also known as Burma, as it moves to put in place democratic reforms.  Assuming Myanmar is able to make such changes and continue efforts to open up its political system, the Pentagon would be willing to have discussions about how the countries can improve their military relationship, Panetta said.

Report: Netanyahu to remove West Bank outpost

06/03/12: ABC News reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to remove a West Bank outpost ahead of a court deadline, and is mulling whether to demolish the buildings or relocate them.  An Israeli official said Saturday that Netanyahu said in a meeting that if Ulpana is destroyed its five apartment buildings will be built tenfold elsewhere.  Otherwise, the buildings will be moved to the nearby settlement of Beit El.  About thirty families live in Ulpana.  Israel's Supreme Court has ruled it was built illegally and ordered it dismantled by July.

The Stuxnet story and some interesting questions

06/03/12: Lawfare has this post from Paul Rosenzweig about questions arising from the revelation this week that the computer virus Stuxnet, which attacked Iranian nuclear facilities, was the work of the United States with cooperation from Israel.  The post discusses the substance of the story and what it tells us about cyber capabilities and about the state of the law relating to the cyber domain.

Clashes in Lebanon continue over Syria crisis

06/03/12: The New York Times reports sectarian tensions between supporters and opponents of the Syrian government reignited street fighting in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli on Saturday, with local news media reports saying at least seven people were killed and thirty were wounded.  The fighting in Lebanon has erupted sporadically since the uprising in Syria began fifteen months ago, with Tripoli a tinderbox because the same sects at odds in Syria live in adjacent neighborhoods in that port city.  Fear that the Syrian conflict will spill over the border has prompted all Lebanese political factions to adopt a policy of “disassociation” from the uprising.

Putin stands firm on Syria

06/02/12: BBC News reports Russian President Vladimir Putin has resisted diplomatic pressure from western nations to support tougher action against Syria's government.  Putin, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, called for more time to be given to the peace plan of envoy Kofi Annan.  The United States and United Kingdom have called on Moscow to strengthen its condemnation of the Syrian regime since last week's massacre in Houla, where 108 died.  In an emergency session on Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council condemned Syria over the Houla massacre and called for an investigation, but Russia voted against the US-backed resolution, arguing that it was "unbalanced".  Meanwhile, a US Government website published satellite images apparently showing a mass grave in the Houla area.

Key military defeats could end al-Shabab control in Somalia

06/02/12: The Miami Herald reports that with the recent loss of two key transit points, al-Qaeda's Somali affiliate, for the first time in years, is facing what military analysts say is the likely end of the group's once-powerful rule over much of Somalia.  The future of al-Shabab, as the al-Qaeda affiliate is known, is still difficult to predict, but military analysts say its hold on Kismayo, the port city through which its supplies move and from which it derives much of its financing, is threatened and that the fall of the other transit points has cut off key supply routes to its western and northern fronts.  The most recent blow came Thursday, when Kenyan and allied Somali forces captured the strategic crossroads of Afmadow, about sixty miles north of Kismayo.

Pentagon says Iran helping Assad, al-Qaeda fomenting Syria violence

06/02/12: The blog War on Terrorism reports a Defense Department spokesman said today that Iran is supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which continues to massacre the country’s population, and members of al-Qaeda are in the country for their own purposes.  “We remain deeply troubled and concerned by the ongoing violence in Syria and by the horrific acts of the Assad regime against its own people,” Navy Captain John Kirby told reporters at a Pentagon press briefing.  “And we certainly have seen reports and have reason to believe that Iran continues to assist the Assad regime in committing these acts of atrocities against the Syrian people,” he added.  Kirby said defense officials have seen but cannot confirm reports that Iran is using commercial airliners to move arms into Syria.

Egyptian court sentences Hosni Mubarak to life in prison

06/02/12: The New York Times reports an Egyptian judge on Saturday sentenced former President Hosni Mubarak to life in prison for the killing of unarmed demonstrators during the first six days of protests that ended his rule.  With the nation still awaiting the ratification of a new constitution, the election of a new president and the hand-over of power by its military rulers, the decision is Egypt’s most significant step yet toward establishing the principle that no leader is above the law.  Yet lawyers immediately warned that the verdict may not survive an appeal.  The judge acquitted several lower-ranking security officials of responsibility for the same deaths, raising questions about the chain of command.  He also dismissed corruption charges against Mubarak and his sons on technical grounds.

Federal appeals court rules against former Guantanamo prosecutor

06/02/12: JURIST reports the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Friday that Colonel Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, may not seek money damages from his former supervisor at the Library of Congress (LOC) for termination of his employment due to op-ed articles he wrote.  In 2009, Davis was fired by the LOC for writing articles in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal criticizing the Obama Administration for trying some terrorist suspects in military courts and some in civilian courts.  Davis alleged that his termination violated his rights under the First and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution.  Davis has been a longtime critic of the national security policies of Presidents Obama and George W. Bush.

Report: Obama ordered Stuxnet to continue after bug caused significant spread

06/02/12: Wired reports that despite an error in the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which caused the malware to spread wildly out of control and infect computers outside of Iran in 2010, President Barack Obama ordered US officials who were behind the attack to continue the operation, even as Stuxnet spread to machines in the United States and elsewhere and could have contained other unknown errors that might affect US machines.  An error in the code led it to spread to an engineer’s computer after it was hooked up to systems controlling the centrifuges at Iran’s uranium enrichment plant near Natanz.  When the engineer left the Natanz facility, he spread it to other machines, writes New York Times reporter David Sanger in a book that will be released next week.

9/11 defendants send mixed message on whether to split up Guantanamo trial

06/02/12: The Miami Herald reports Defense attorneys are split on whether to break up the joint capital trial of the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks.  Not all five legal teams had filed responses by Judge James L. Pohl’s May 31 deadline to advise him on whether he should split off the prosecution of alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from any of the other four accused 9/11 conspirators.  But James Connell III, the Pentagon-paid attorney for Mohammed’s nephew, Ammar al Baluchi, said Friday he urged the judge to try the nephew separately.  Pentagon prosecutors don’t want the judge to split up the complex terror prosecution.  They argue that it is “in the interests of justice” that all five should be tried together for the murders of 2,976 people on September 11, 2001.

DC Circuit criticizes State Department, sets deadline in dispute over Iranian group

06/02/12: The Blog of Legal Times reports the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit gave the US State Department four months to decide whether to continue to designate an Iranian dissident group as a foreign terrorist organization.  The DC Circuit said it will remove the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) from the list if the State Department fails to act in four months, posing a potential foreign relations headache for the government.  The appeals court strongly criticized the State Department for failing to heed an earlier court order directing the agency to reassess the listing of the Iranian group.  A US Justice Department spokesperson was not immediately reached for comment.  Lawyers for PMOI heralded the ruling.

TSA, EU announce air cargo security partnership

06/02/12: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the European Commission announced an unprecedented air cargo security partnership with the European Union and Switzerland today, paving the way for improved information sharing, stronger security, and more efficient transportation of cargo between the United States and the EU. Air cargo traffic between the EU and the US amounts to over a million tons a year travelling each way across the Atlantic, which is over 20% of all outbound air cargo from the EU.  "This agreement with the EU and Switzerland will ease the burden on industry and allow for the free movement of goods and commerce between our nations. It will also strengthen security by ensuring that we share information and work together towards our common interests," said TSA Administrator John S. Pistole.

Google to alert users to Chinese censorship

06/02/12: The New York Times reports Google has quietly upped the ante in a long-running dispute with the Chinese authorities over censorship, adding a software twist to its search page that warns users when they type a search term whose results are likely to be blocked in China.  The change is described as an improvement in the search experience for users in mainland China, who can be disconnected from Google without explanation when they try to open a Web page that was found using a censored search term.  But it also seems likely to irritate Chinese officials, who have already employed an array of techniques to punish the company since a clash over censorship led Google to move its servers to Hong Kong in January 2010.

US says Iran must show action by Moscow talks

06/01/12: The Denver Post reports the United States appeared to set a deadline Friday for Iran to ease world concern over its disputed nuclear program, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Islamic republic must act by this month's talks with world powers in Moscow.  Speaking in Norway's capital, Clinton said the US would continue down the path of negotiations alongside Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Nations.  They all are trying to force Tehran to halt enrichment of uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons.  The diplomatic activity is occurring against a backdrop of deepening US and Israeli concerns, with neither party willing to take the threat of military action against Iran off the table.

Commentary: Stuxnet, Flame, and fulfilling the dream of Sun Tzu

06/01/12: The Washington Post features this piece examining the use of computer viruses, a new weapon, as they might have been appreciated by the great ancient war strategist Sun Tzu.  It appears the line between “covert action” and “act of war” is blurring like at no time in history in one of the world’s most volatile regions.  The state-of-the-art in warfare may be changing, but the art of war is not.  Real-world spies and physical bombs have simply been replaced with pieces of malicious code that are activated and controlled thousands of miles away, leaving behind a lethal, digital payload that can be activated on-demand.

Libya to begin prosecution of senior Gadhafi officials

06/01/12: JURIST reports Libya will begin the prosecution of senior officials who served under former leader Moammar Gadhafi in June, Prosecutor-General Abdul Azizi al-Hassadi said Thursday.  The trials will begin with the prosecution of former spy chief Buzeid Dorda.  Al-Hassadi’s announcement comes after the Libyan government formally challenged the right of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, Moammar's son.  Libya argued that under Article 17 of the Rome Statute, the ICC does not have jurisdiction when "the case is being investigated or prosecuted by a State which has jurisdiction over it, unless the State is unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution."  Since the Libyan national judiciary is actively investigating Saif al-Islam, Libya asserted that the ICC does not have jurisdiction.

House Republicans add half-billion dollars to Pentagon budget

06/01/12: The Washington Times reports House Republicans have added more than a half-billion dollars to the defense budget, even as Pentagon officials are struggling to meet their target of cutting spending by $487 billion over the next decade.  Lawmakers who added the money say it is needed to restore what one Republican staffer called “phony” savings the Obama administration claims in its budget for modernizing and maintaining military facilities.  Critics claim the extra cash is a “slush fund” for potential pork-barrel projects in lawmakers’ districts.  Both the defense authorization bill recently passed by the House and the defense appropriations bill currently awaiting its turn on the floor contain the additional funding, described as being for “restoration and modernization of facilities.”

CIA probes publication review board over allegations of selective censorship

06/01/12: The Washington Post reports the CIA has begun an internal investigation into whether a process designed to screen books by former employees and protect national security secrets is being used in part to censor agency critics, US officials said.  The investigation coincides with the publication of a flurry of books from CIA veterans, and it is largely aimed at determining whether some redactions have been politically motivated.  The target of the probe is the agency’s Publications Review Board (PRB), which evaluates hundreds of submissions each year and is supposed to focus exclusively on whether publication of material would threaten national security interests.  Officials familiar with the inquiry said that it reflects growing concern in the intelligence community that the review process is biased toward agency loyalists, particularly those from the executive ranks.

US liaisons restored to outpost in Pakistan

06/01/12: The New York Times reports two American military officers have quietly returned as liaisons to a major Pakistani Army headquarters in Peshawar, the gateway to the country’s restive tribal areas, in a small step toward repairing the badly frayed relations between the United States and Pakistan.  The officers, whose job is to keep NATO and Pakistan informed about each other’s military missions, were forced to leave their posts at the headquarters last November after an American airstrike mistakenly killed twenty-four Pakistani soldiers.  The redeployment of the officers in recent days seems to have resulted from efforts in recent weeks between top American, Pakistani and Afghan military officers to improve border coordination and lessen the chance of deadly accidents like the November airstrike.

Somalia forces retake key town from al-Shabab

06/01/12: BBC News reports African Union and Somali government forces have captured the town of Afmadow, a strategic militant base in the south of the country.  Commanders say the Islamist al-Shabab group abandoned the town without a fight as their troops approached.  Afmadow is the second largest town in the south and only 71 miles from Kismayo, al-Shabab's headquarters.  Despite facing pressure on a number of military fronts, the al-Qaeda-affiliated group still controls much of the country.  "Hopefully the next target will be Kismayo and then we will proceed to other towns and cities," interim Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said.  "Surely but slowly we're getting our country back from al-Shabab.”

Obama ordered wave of cyberattacks against Iran

06/01/12: The New York Times reports that almost immediately upon taking office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons.  Obama decided to accelerate the attacks — begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games — even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran’s Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet.

Prosecutors defend GPS tracking despite ruling

06/01/12: The Wall Street Journal reports the US Government told the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Thursday that it still has the right to place Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices on cars without obtaining a search warrant, despite a January Supreme Court ruling that the warrantless installation of such a device violated the Constitution.  The government maintains "that a warrant is not needed for a GPS search, as the Court did not resolve that question," a Justice Department spokeswoman said.  The Government’s argument is that while the Court held in United States v. Jones that the use of a GPS is a “search” under the Fourth Amendment, they didn’t resolve whether using it without a warrant might not be an unreasonable search.

Pentagon says war funding will be affected by sequestration cuts

06/01/12: The Hill reports the Pentagon is saying that war funding will be hit by the $500 billion in automatic defense cuts through sequestration set to take effect January 2013; the Defense Department had previously said this area would be exempt from the cuts.  The inclusion of Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) in sequestration will give opponents of the automatic cuts another tool to argue for their reversal, particularly with the war in Afghanistan still ongoing.  Initially, the Pentagon said that OCO funds were not included in sequestration: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said OCO was “fully exempt from the sequester, so added costs for wartime operations would not be affected.”  Since then, however, the Pentagon has consulted with the Office of Management and Budget to determine whether the war funds are in fact included.

Satellite photos said to show Iran nuke coverup

06/01/12: The Miami Herald reports new commercial satellite images suggest that Iran has demolished two buildings at a military site where it is suspected of trying to erase evidence of a nuclear arms program.  The images were published Thursday by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, a nonproliferation think tank which provides consultancy services for US government agencies focused on nonproliferation and is considered an objective source of information on Iran's nuclear program.  The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, presented some of those spy satellite images on Wednesday to the agency's 35-member nation board, prompting Iran's chief IAEA delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh to dismiss allegations of a cleanup as "baseless."

UN: Sudan pulls troops from disputed Abyei region

06/01/12: CNN reports Sudan has withdrawn its soldiers from Abyei, a disputed border region also claimed by South Sudan, but has left police officers, according to the United Nations peacekeeping mission.  "The mission has confirmed the full withdrawal of the SAF from Abyei area yesterday," said Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York, referring to the Sudan Armed Forces. "Armed police forces are still in the area."  South Sudan's army spokesman, Philip Aguer, said he is "skeptical" that Sudan has truly pulled troops out.

In case you missed it ...

05/31/12: Important stories from this week:

Secret 'kill list' proves a test of Obama's principles and will

The Obama Administration has created a ‘kill list,’ supervised and approved directly by the President, determining suspected terrorists who will be targeted by US drone strikes or other attacks.

For White House, wary wait as Syria boils

In the wake of the massacre and atrocities in Houla, the White House ratcheted up diplomatic pressure on Syria and its defenders, but still hasn't come close to favoring military action.  Mitt Romney criticized President Obama's refusal to intervene.

Pakistani doctor guilty of militancy, not CIA links

The judgment against Dr. Shakil Afridi reveals he was actually imprisoned for working with a Pakistani militant group rather than for helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden.  The militant group has since denied any connection with Afridi.

Researchers discover massive new cyber-attack "Flame"

The newly uncovered virus has infected hundreds of computers in Iran, with some warning it may prove to be more devastating than the Stuxnet virus that destroyed some of Iran's nuclear centrifuges in 2010.  Flame, however, is aimed strictly at surveillance and accessing information.

Israel skeptical of new efforts on Iranian nuclear program

Israeli leaders voiced skepticism this week over any future talks with Iran over its controversial nuclear program.  They accused Tehran of stalling for time and said the West shouldn't allow Iran to enrich any uranium.

Top Egyptian presidential candidate doubts al-Qaeda role in 9/11

05/31/12: The Washington Times reports the longtime Muslim Brotherhood leader who may become Egypt’s next president has long cast doubt on al-Qaeda’s involvement in the September 11th terrorist attacks and even has called for a “scientific conference” to determine the real culprits.  “The US administration has never presented any evidences [sic] on the identity of those who committed that incident,” Mohamed Morsi is quoted as saying in a 2007 posting on the Brotherhood’s official English website.  Morsi last week won the most votes in the first round of Egypt’s presidential election and is favored to win a runoff next month against Ahmed Shafik.

Pakistani militant group denies link to doctor

05/31/12: The Miami Herald reports a Pakistani militant group has denied any links with the doctor who helped the US track down Osama bin Laden, threatening Thursday to kill him for working with the Americans.  The statement by Lashkar-e-Islam was the latest twist in the case of Dr. Shakil Afridi, whose plight has angered Washington and opened up another crack in relations with Islamabad.  Afridi ran a vaccination campaign on behalf of the CIA as a way of collecting blood samples from bin Laden's family in their house in northwest Pakistan.  Last week he was sentenced to 33 years in prison, angering many in the United States.  On Wednesday the court released its written verdict, which found Afridi guilty of assisting Lashkar-e-Islam, a brutal militant and criminal gang operating in Khyber tribal region, where Afridi worked.

Clinton: Russia contributing to potential Syria civil war

05/31/12: BBC News reports Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Russia's policy toward Syria will contribute to a potential civil war.  Clinton's comments came after Russia and China renewed opposition to tougher UN Security Council action.  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has repeated a warning that Syria could be moving towards "catastrophic" civil war, in the wake of the Houla massacre.  Rebel commanders are split on whether to abandon a ceasefire if Syrian forces do not withdraw to barracks.  Colonel Qassim Saadeddine in Homs said that if there was no government response by Friday lunchtime, the rebels would consider themselves "no longer bound" by the plan.  But rebel leader General Riyad Asaad later denied the deadline existed.  Secretary Clinton, speaking on a visit to Denmark, said the case for military intervention was growing stronger every day.

A "Do Not Kill" list

05/31/12: The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog reports someone incited by the New York Times’s reporting on President Obama’s kill list (see below), has started a petition drive for a “Do Not Kill” list.  If the petition reaches 25,000 signatures by the end of June, the Obama Administration will have to review it and issue a response.  As of this posting, the petition has 1,920 signatures.

Lawmakers consider extension of overseas surveillance powers

05/31/12: The Hill reports a House of Representatives panel on Thursday will consider renewing a law that gives officials broad leeway to conduct surveillance overseas when the target isn’t a US citizen.  The provision under Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has garnered concern from some Democrats, who worry the powers might be used to target American citizens and legal residents in the United States.  The FISA measure, which expires at the end of the year, grants US intelligence officials the power to monitor phone calls, e-mails, and other communications of suspected terrorists abroad once they obtain a court order.  The provision also allows officials to get blanket approval from the FISA court for surveillance outside of the United States without having to file individual applications for each person being monitored.

Israel skeptical of new diplomatic efforts on Iranian nuclear program

05/31/12: The Washington Post reports Israeli leaders are expressing deep skepticism about the chances for a diplomatic breakthrough with Iran and urging tougher international demands that after an inconclusive round of talks this month with world powers about its nuclear program.  Following months of advocating stricter sanctions against Iran, Israeli officials are now pushing for a halt to all its uranium enrichment activity, warning that further delays could put the Iranian nuclear program beyond the reach of an effective military strike.  The Israeli statements, ahead of another planned round of talks in Moscow in June, reflect concerns that the sense of urgency that pervaded earlier discussions on Iran has faded in recent months.  “We have no illusions about the talks,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday.

Australia: no sign from US of Assange indictment

05/31/12: NPR reports Australia has talked to the United States about the future of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Thursday that her government can't protect the Australian activist from other countries' justice systems.  Foreign Minister Bob Carr revealed on Thursday that he had discussed the concerns of Assange and his family with American officials.  Assange claims that the US has already secretly indicted him for divulging American secrets, and will act on the indictment if Sweden succeeds in extraditing him from Britain, but Carr told reporters "[t]he United States has said nothing to indicate they're planning an indictment.”  Australian authorities have cooperated with the United States in investigating WikiLeaks' conduct.  They have concluded that Assange has broken no Australian law.

Guantanamo hearings set during Ramadan, 9/11 anniversary

05/31/12: The Miami Herald reports a military judge overseeing the September 11 conspiracy trial at Guantanamo Bay has set the next hearing in the case for five days during Ramadan, and says the month when Muslim fast during the day is no excuse for a delay.  The judge, Army Colonel James L. Pohl, made note of the holy month in a scheduling order that grappled with the complexities of mounting the joint capital trial of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged accomplices at the naval station in southeast Cuba.  He set the hearing for August 8-12, a first ever war court session that would convene on both a Saturday and a Sunday.  Members of the five separate defense teams had reported conflicts for June and July.

Russian colonel convicted of spying for US

05/31/12: ABC News reports a Russian court has convicted a reserve colonel of spying on behalf of the United States and sentenced him to 12 years in prison, the country's intelligence agency said Thursday.  Vladimir Lazar would be sent to a high-security prison and stripped of his military rank, the FSB said in a statement.  Prosecutors alleged Lazar purchased a disk with more than 7,000 images of classified topographical maps of Russia from a collector in 2008 and smuggled it to neighboring Belarus where he gave it to an American agent.  The agency said the maps could be used for planning military operations against Russia.

For White House, a wary wait as Syria boils

05/31/12: The New York Times discusses the White House’s position on Syria, which remains opposed to military intervention.  While the government of President Bashar al-Assad has brutalized its citizens for more than a year, President Obama still shows no signs of intervening with force; press secretary Jay Carney said this would lead only to “chaos and carnage.”  With American troops only recently withdrawn from Iraq and still in Afghanistan, the president is loath to engage in a new military action, especially one with few advocates, even among human rights groups.  And yet with each passing incident, the scale of the crisis grows.

Syrian government to place blame for Houla massacre after "investigation"

05/31/12: CNN reports Syria’s UN ambassador said Wednesday that Damascus will soon complete its official investigation into last week's massacre in Houla.  Syrian officials have repeatedly denied government involvement in the massacre that left more than 100 people dead, about half of them children.  But Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office, said Tuesday that it's "clear" government forces were involved.  Most died as a result of "summary executions" by "armed men going into houses and killing men, women and children inside," Colville said, saying the Shabiha militia, a government militia group, appeared to be behind the executions.  Since the conflict began more than a year ago, President Bashar al-Assad's regime has blamed violence against civilians on "armed terrorist groups," a line the Syrian ambassador adhered to Wednesday.

Romney struggles to differentiate foreign policy from President Obama's

05/31/12: The LA Times describes Mitt Romney’s difficulty in attacking President Obama’s foreign policy but failing to articulate how his policy would be different.  Romney has roughed up Obama with a hawkish tone — at times bordering on belligerent – yet for all his criticisms of the President, it has been difficult to tell exactly what Romney would do differently.  He has argued that reelecting Obama will result in Iran having a nuclear weapon — without explaining how. He has charged that Obama should have taken "more assertive steps" to force out the repressive regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — but has said he is not "anxious to employ military action."  He accused Obama of tipping his hand to the Taliban by announcing a timeline for withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, but also accepts the 2014 timeline.

With Plan X, Pentagon seeks to spread US military might to cyberspace

05/31/12: The Washington Post reports the Pentagon is turning to the private sector, universities and even computer-game companies as part of an ambitious effort to develop technologies to improve its cyberwarfare capabilities, launch effective attacks and withstand the likely retaliation.  The previously unreported effort, which its authors have dubbed Plan X, marks a new phase in the nation’s fledgling military operations in cyberspace, which have focused more on protecting the Defense Department’s computer systems than on disrupting or destroying those of enemies.  Plan X is a project of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a Pentagon division that focuses on experimental efforts and has a key role in harnessing computing power to help the military wage war more effectively.

Pentagon leaders consider options for East Coast missile defense system

05/30/12: The Hill reports a top military commander said on Wednesday that Pentagon leaders are looking at options to bolster missile defense capabilities in the continental United States, including the establishment of a missile shield on the East Coast.  The creation of an East Coast missile shield was one of many issued being hashed out as part of the so-called "hedge strategy" being worked inside the Pentagon, according to Strategic Command chief General Bob Kehler.  The strategy, mandated by Congress, will help weigh the department's options on whether to expand the current, limited anti-missile capabilities already in place across the United States, Kehler said during a speech in Washington.

Republican foreign policy establishment slow to embrace Romney

05/30/12: The New York Times reports that many respected foreign policy thinkers within the Republican party have not supported (or given muted, unenthusiastic endorsements for) Mitt Romney’s presidential ambitions. Reluctance by this group to more quickly come forward for reflects unease over some of the Romney’s positions, including his hard line on Russia and opposition to a new missile treaty. Many believe Romney has taken approaches too confrontational or too hawkish, or worry that harsh campaign-trail statements could hurt later diplomatic efforts and may signal a return to neoconservative passions as the party seeks to take back the White House. Some longtime deans of the Republican establishment, such as two-time national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, believe the Republican Party as a whole has drifted rightward.

Israel gets the blame for "Flame" virus

05/30/12: The International Herald Tribune has this post discussing early speculation that Israel is behind the “Flame” virus just discovered to have infected Iranian computers.  The new virus was identified on Monday by Kaspersky Labs, a security research firm in Moscow.  An earlier virus, Stuxnet, was used to destroy centrifuges at an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010.  Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s vice premier, fuelled speculation of Israeli involvement on Tuesday when he said, “Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a serious threat would be likely to take different steps, including these, in order to hurt them.”  Israel is a country blessed with superior technology, he said.  “These achievements of ours open up all kinds of possibilities for us.”  As with Stuxnet, no government is likely to acknowledge responsibility.