Suspected Gunman Killed at Tennessee Movie Theater | IAEA says it can't give Congress its nuke document with Iran
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After years of scandal, LA jails get federal oversight, sweeping reforms
Los Angeles Times Capping years of scandal, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has agreed to federal oversight and to sweeping reforms aimed at ending deputy abuse of inmates as well as improving chronically poor treatment for mentally ill inmates. The ... and more » |
WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite harsh criticism from GOP senators, the head of the U.N's International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday that he cannot give Congress a copy of the organization's nuclear inspection document with Iran.
Republicans have criticized the Obama administration, saying Congress has not been given access to the ...
Despite harsh criticism from GOP senators, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday that he cannot give Congress a copy of the organization's nuclear inspection document with Iran.
Earlier today, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit handed down its quite important decision in United States v. Graham.
The gist of the two-judge majority opinion (penned by Senior Circuit Judge Andre Davis) is to hold, first, that accessing cell site data without a warrant violated the defendants' Fourth Amendment rights; but, second, that the violation did not require suppression, because it resulted from law enforcement's good faith reliance on procedures set forth by the Stored Communications Act.
The majority's ruling adds to a circuit split on the Fourth Amendment issue: It tracks a decision of the Third Circuit, but conflicts directly with judgments issued by the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits—the latter of which took up the question en banc and found no constitutional violation.
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Today's Headlines and Commentaryby Staley Smith, Quinta Jurecic
With about a week or so to go until the halfway point of the congressional review period, President Obama is intensifying his campaign to rally support for the nuclear deal with Iran. In a speech at American University today, Obama defended the international accord. According to the New York Times, the President used "the speech to frame Congress’s choice as the most consequential foreign policy decision since the vote to go to war in Iraq," saying the deal’s opponents are the same people who supported that military conflict.
The AP notes that the backdrop for Obama's speech links the nuclear accord to a long tradition of American diplomacy, particularly with adversaries. He spoke at the same university where President John F. Kennedy made a famous call for Cold War diplomacy and nuclear disarmament.
Obama warned American Jewish leaders that it was likely Israel would be attacked if the nuclear deal was blocked and military action ensued, Reuters explains. Meanwhile, in a separate appeal to American Jews, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a fierce opponent of the nuclear agreement, “pushed back in a webcast on Tuesday against the Obama administration's argumentthat the agreement was the only way to avoid eventual war with Iran.”
In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, John Kerry warned of the dangers of “screwing” Ayatollah Khamenei. A congressional rejection of the deal could “prove the Ayatollah’s suspicion, and there’s no way he’s ever coming back. He will not come back to negotiate. Out of dignity, out of a suspicion that you can’t trust America. America is not going to negotiate in good faith. It didn’t negotiate in good faith now, would be his point.” He went on to say that the nuclear deal is “as pro-Israel as it gets.”
While Americans continue to fight over the nuclear deal, EU government ministers and business leaders in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere “are racing to open up a new era of diplomatic, trade, investment and possible future military cooperation with Tehran,” the Guardian reveals.
Burgess Everett of Politico depicts Obama’s pursuit of Senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) as an example of how far the president is willing to go for a legacy-defining nuclear pact. Unlike most Republicans, Flake is undecided on the nuclear pact and his support would “bless the agreement with a measure of bipartisanship.”
Details are emerging about an internal split within the Taliban. Tayeb Agha, the commander of the insurgents’ official diplomatic delegation in Qatar, publicly resigned on Monday. The Times informsus that “some senior Taliban figures have accused the new leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, of keeping Mullah Omar’s death a secret for nearly two years, until its confirmation last week, in order to tighten his own grip over the movement.”
The Anadolu News Agency reports that U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan have killed at least 66 Taliban and ISIS fighters. No civilians were killed in the strikes according to Afghan officials. Yesterday, two prominent Taliban leaders were killed in another U.S. drone strike in a southern province of Afghanistan. Separately, the Afghan government claims “to have killed 88 militants across the country over the past 24 hours.”
According to a United Nations report released earlier today, civilian deaths and injuries from the Afghan conflict remain at “record high levels” during the first half of this year, causing 1,592 civilian deaths and leaving 3,329 injured between January and June. Though the Taliban is responsible for most of the deaths, the report also indicates a concerning 60% increase in deaths caused by pro-government forces.
Al Nusra Front militants have captured another five U.S.-trained Syrian rebel fighters, bringing the total member of U.S.-backed rebels kidnapped by Nusra fighters to thirteen. For those keeping track, this means that roughly a fourth of the rebels who have completed the U.S. training program (54 in total) are now in the unfriendly custody of the Nusra Front.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the U.S.-led coalition will soon begin using Turkish airfields to launch a “comprehensive battle” against ISIS. The Syrian government has demanded that the anti-ISIS efforts within Syria be coordinated with the regime in Damascus---lest the coalition forces be guilty of a breach of Syrian sovereignty.
The United Kingdom will bring charges against the radical U.K. cleric Anjem Choudary for “inviting support” for ISIS, the BBC tells us. Charges are also being brought against Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, who was arrested alongside Choudary last year on suspicion of ISIS membership.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Yemen’s Houthis may be running out of money. Though the Houthis have effectively taken over Yemen’s government in recent months, the anti-Houthi Saudi coalition has blocked Houthi forces from selling Yemen’s most important export: oil. In the absence of revenue, Houthi military successes may not be enough to keep the movement afloat.
Israel has detained a suspected Jewish extremist for unspecified “involvement in violent activities and recent terror attacks,” the Guardian writes. Mordechai Meyer is the first Israeli to be held under administrative detention, a measure which allows an individual to be detained without trial for an extensive period of time and which the Israeli government has historically used only against Palestinian suspects. Yesterday, Israeli authorities also arrested the radical activist Meir Ettinger for his suspected involvement in the recent arson of a Palestinian house in the West Bank, though Ettinger is not being held under administrative detention.
U.K. authorities investigating the recent attack on a Tunisian beach resort have linked the attack to a shooting at a Tunisian museum in March. The museum shooting, like the attack at the resort, also largely targeted foreign tourists. The Guardian has the story.
In Egypt, younger members of the Muslim Brotherhood are unhappy with the organization’s nonviolent direction. The Times reports that, though the Brotherhood has renounced violence for over four decades, its younger cohort is becoming increasingly drawn toward violence in response to the government’s anti-Brotherhood crackdown. The story quotes one young member as writing to an older member, “What you’re describing isn’t called ‘peacefulness,’ it’s called, ‘shame and humiliation.’”
Boko Haram militants conducted a raid last night along the Nigeria-Cameroon border, killing eight people and kidnapping about 100. Reuters tells us that the village targeted in the attack was the location of a series of Boko Haram suicide bombings last month.
Deutsche Welle indicates that NATO will soon cut down on its air patrols over the Baltic states---though the remaining patrols will still be double the number that took place before the crisis in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Brian Whitmore of Radio Free Europe writes at the Atlantic that the Ukrainian peace process may be nearing a “deadlock,” with Russia increasingly unable to reach its goal of a “hyper-federalized Ukraine” and unwilling to accept anything else---that is, except a further escalation of the conflict.
Politico reports that Kosovo has agreed to participate in a war crimes tribunal over unaddressed atrocities committed during the Kosovar war with Serbia roughly two decades ago. Former members of the Kosovar Liberation Army will be tried for war crimes.
Attending a forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Secretary of State John Kerry requested that China cease its “problematic actions” in the South China Sea. Though Secretary Kerry reported a “good talk” with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the two appear to have reached no conclusion over China’s controversial island-building program. The Times writes that the ASEAN forum has been “marked by concern” over Chinese activities in the area. According to Minister Wang, however, China’s maritime building projects have already been halted.
War on the Rocks’ Robert Haddick argues that the Obama administration must soon decide whether or not to view China as an “adversary,” while Defense One notes that military-to-military relations have been increasing between the U.S. and China even as cyberattacks and tensions over the South China Sea ramp up.
The Hill tells us that Senator Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) efforts to speed the passing of a cybersecurity bill have failed in the face of Democratic opposition. Senate Democrats resoundingly rejected Senator McConnell’s offer to waive procedural requirements in moving the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) to the Senate floor. Disagreement over CISA’s privacy implications has left the legislation stalled.
Also at Defense One, Brandon Valeriano and Ryan C. Maness consider why governments tend to avoid responding to cyberattack. The U.S. Government’s lack of response to the OPM data breach, they write, may be representative of an emergent norm of state behavior.
According to the Washington Post, the FBI will examine the security setup of Hillary Clinton’s personal email account. The Bureau has become concerned that “classified or sensitive information” was present in some emails and that the server may have been vulnerable to security breaches.
The Post also has an extensive examination of the Obama administration’s foreign policy decision-making process. Complaints abound over the size and micromanagement of the more-or-less 375 member National Security Council, which is often repetitive and inefficient on key issues. The unwieldy NSC, which has expanded dramatically since the days of Jimmy Carter’s 25-member Council, has become “widely seen as the place where policy becomes immobilized by indecision.”
Parting shot: “Want to smuggle drugs into prison? Buy a drone.” That’s the headline of this Foreign Policy piece, which really says it all.
ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare
Aaron Zelin posted the Jihadology podcast. This week: an interview with Jacob Zenn about Boko Haram.
Ashley Deeks alerted us to a new piece of hers available on SSRN, considering how “checks and balances from abroad” can constrain the U.S. president in the national security arena.
Paul helpfully provided a guest post from Nicholas Weaver, who argues that the iPhone may not be quite as secure as the FBI seems to think.
Quinta considered the now-familiar implications of ISIS’s looming conflict with the Taliban on the Obama administration’s use of the 2001 AUMF to fight ISIS.
Wells let us know that the IANA Stewardship Transition Group has released its proposal to transfer the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority away from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us onTwitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.
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CNN International |
Chinese cyber espionage group caught hacking defense, industrial base
CNN International "I liken them a bit to a drunk burglar," FBI Director James Comey said of China's hacking groups in a "60 Minutes" interview. "They're kicking in the front door, knocking over the vase, while they're walking out with your television set. They're just ... and more » |
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French President Francois Hollande's office said Wednesday he had reached an agreement with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on compensation for failing to deliver two Mistral warships over the Ukraine crisis.
Russia formally staked its claim Tuesday to a large portion of the Arctic Ocean that includes the North Pole, even planting a flag on the floor of the ocean below the area to exercise its control.
The New York Times reported:
If the United Nations committee that arbitrates sea boundaries accepts Russia’s claim, the waters will be subject to Moscow’s oversight on economic matters, including fishing and oil and gas drilling, though Russia will not have full sovereignty. Under a 1982 United Nations convention, the Law of the Sea, a nation may claim an exclusive economic zone over the continental shelf abutting its shores. If the shelf extends far out to sea, so can the boundaries of the zone. The claim Russia lodged on Tuesday contends that the shelf extends far north of the Eurasian land mass, out under the planet’s northern ice cap.
While the United Nations dismissed a similar claim issued by Russia over a decade ago, citing lack of scientific evidence, the current claim is accompanied by data collected by Russian research vessels.
Famed Russian arctic explorer Artur N. Chilingarov even traveled to the floor of the ocean just below the North Pole in a small submarine to remove a soil sample and plant a titanium Russian flag on the sea floor.
The Russian Foreign Ministry posted a statement to its website regarding the issue, boasting of the “broad range of scientific data” Russia has accumulated to justify its claim.
“To base its claim, Russia in this region used a broad range of scientific data collected over many years of Arctic exploration,” read the statement. “Submitting the claim to the commission is an important step in formulating Russia’s right to the Arctic Shelf in accordance with the United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea.”
The government institution insisted that, if accepted, the claim would expand the size of Russia’s land and sea territory to approximately 463,000 square miles. Russia is currently the largest country in the world when measured by area.
Denmark also formally submitted its own claim to the North Pole area last year, but the Russian Foreign Ministry argued that Russia’s claim should be assessed first because the country had issued its original claim in 2002.
Russia has not only been asserting its authority over sea territory; the country has also proved aggressive in the sky. NATO fighter jets policing over eastern Europe as part of the Baltic air policing mission intercepted 22 Russian aircraft over a week’s time at the end of July. Two of the instances represented the largest intercepts over eastern Europe in the last year and a half.
In recent weeks, two high-ranking Pentagon generals tapped by President Obama to hold top posts at the Department of Defense have named Russia as the most significant existential threat to the United States.
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A senior Iranian official on Wednesday warned of an impending “third world war” that will be sparked by terrorists, according to regional reports.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of Iran’s powerful Expediency Council, warned in comments that the “outbreak of World War III” is coming in the near future, according to a report by Iran’s Fars News Agency.
“The threat of the outbreak of the third world war by the terrorists is serious,” Rafsanjani was quoted as saying in a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who was in Tehran this week for a meeting with Iranian officials.
Rafsanjani blamed the United States and NATO for fostering the conditions that will lead to World War III.
“The U.S. and the NATO had invaded Afghanistan to uproot terrorism and narcotics, but we saw that terrorism expanded in the form of the ISIL, Boko Haram and Al-Nusra Front to remote parts of the world from Al-Qaeda and Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he was quoted as saying.
Rafsanjani went on to demand that the United States and other Western countries “stop their support for the terrorist groups” in the region.
Iran and the United States are on opposite sides of multiple ethnic wars in the region, including in Syria and Yemen. However, the United States and Iran have found themselves allies in the war to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq.
Italy’s Gentiloni welcomed Rafsanjani’s comments, according to Fars.
“In my meetings with Iranian and Italian officials I will mention this and I hope that your proposal will be a starting point in inflicting a historical defeat on the terrorists in different human societies,” he was quoted as saying.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also has warned of the threat posed by terrorism, though he has not directly acknowledged Iran’s role in fostering much of it.
“Terrorism and insecurity is an epidemic disease which doesn’t belong to a special region, and efforts should be made to encounter extremism and violence to prevent its spread and we shouldn’t allow any innocent person, regardless of his/her nationality and religion, to become a victim of the terrorist groups,” Rouhani was quoted as saying following his own meeting with Gentiloni.
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Senator Cornyn Introduces Mental Health And Safe Communities Act
Daily Caller WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) will introduce legislation designed to enhance the ability of local communities to identify and treat potentially dangerous, mentally-ill individuals. The Mental Health and Safe Communities Act will ... and more » |
Melissa Fleming, from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, says it is worrying to hear that as many as 600 or 700 people were packed on board a boat that capsized 15 miles off the coast of Libya on Wednesday . Fleming says the migrants probably ‘panicked’ when they saw a rescue vessel, moved to the side and capsized the boat. Some 400 migrants were rescued, and 25 bodies recovered after a fishing boat carrying an estimated 600 capsized north of Libya on Wednesday, an Italian Coast Guard official said.
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Nicolas Sarkozy's "bling-bling" past comes back to haunt him over claims he paid a small fortune for a holiday in Corsica with his wife Carla and their child Giulia in a luxury beachfront domain whose "shepherds dwellings" can reach £24,000 per week in August
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Expert: Homeless man was turning away when shot by New Mexico police now charged with murder
The prosecutor was forced to retire after it was revealed that he had been investigating two journalists who wrote about plans to increase digital surveillance.
 New York Daily News |
Police report person with gun at Nashville theater
Reuters Police in Nashville, Tennessee, responded on Wednesday to a report of a person with a gun at a movie theater, spokeswoman April Weatherly said. Nashville television station WSMV quoted fire officials as saying that shots were fired at the Carmike 8 ... Police: Suspect Dead After Report of Gunshots at TheaterABC News Police Respond to Report of Gunman at Theater in Antioch, Tennessee, Suspect DeadNBCNews.com Suspect dead in shooting at Antioch, Tenn. movie theater: Nashville policeNew York Daily News Sky News -The Tennessean -WKRN.com all 23 news articles » |
France and Russia have agreed to terminate a contract to supply the Russian navy with two warships whose delivery had been put on hold amid the conflict in Ukraine.
President Obama made about as sound a case as could be made on Wednesday for Congressional approval of the nuclear deal with Iran. It was a nice stroke to borrow both the venue and the logic of John F. Kennedy’s 1962 speech at American University; JFK’s argument for “a practical and obtainable peace” and putting faith in the “gradual evolution in human institutions” land right in the wheelhouse of Obama’s argument for cementing the pact, the alternative to which really is war.
But the Cold War comparison was also immensely flattering to Iran, which is, to the Soviet Union roughly what Costa Rica is to the United States. Iran, known as Persia for most of its 2,500 years, can rightly claim an extraordinary role in world history, as a seat of empire, a fount of learning and wellspring of the greatest aesthetic and intellectual achievements of Islam’s glory years. It may even have been the source of monotheism, if as some sources say Zoroaster predated Abraham.
But in the 36 years the mullahs have been in power, Iran has been reduced to the status of gadfly. It makes almost nothing except trouble. Its economy is dominated by the state, which is widely understood as corrupt, and produces a gross domestic product less than half the size of neighboring Turkey, which has almost exactly the same number of people and none of Iran’s oil and gas.
The Islamic Revolution brought education to much more of the population, but unfortunately, not nearly enough work; 150,000 college graduates leave the country every year. The country leads the world in two categories: opium addiction, and traffic fatalities, the latter a seldom-cited but excellentmarker for the government’s level of competence, or its most basic regard for its citizens.
The painful truth is that Tehran’s singular achievement has been getting the goat of the world’s only superpower, albeit by accident — those students weren’t supposed to take over the U.S. Embassy, but when Ayatullah Khomeini saw the Americans’ reaction, he decided to ride the bronc. His successors are riding it still. Obama paid them a great compliment in comparing them to the godless Soviets who, as their empire crumbled, Khomeini urged in a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev to take up the study of Islam. The bomb sure didn’t save them, a lesson the mullahs would do well to consider themselves.
Obama accuses Iran deal opponents of luring Congress toward Middle East warby Dan Roberts and Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington
In a speech on Wednesday, the president warned against heeding the ‘drumbeat of war’, saying the Iran deal’s dissenters also argued for war in Iraq
Barack Obama turned his opposition to the Iraq war into a trump card against critics of the Iran nuclear deal on Wednesday, in a speech that accused “armchair” warmongers in Washington of luring Congress toward another military conflict in the Middle East.
As US lawmakers prepare for a potentially-crippling vote of disapproval, his verbal assault not just onarguments against the deal, but on the credibility of the hawks making them, marks a new chapter in what may prove the most intensive legislative battle of his presidency.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The latest on reports of shots fired at a movie theater in Antioch, a suburb southeast of Nashville, Tennessee (all times local):...
The Kremlin says France has paid compensation for a canceled contract for the delivery of two Mistral-class warships to Russia.
Police: Suspect wielding hatchet, gun dead after exchanging gunfire with SWAT team at theater
Police confirmed a suspect had died.
A suspected gunman is killed by police after a shooting at a cinema in suburban Nashville, Tennessee.
Military Times |
Military issues to watch for in Thursday's GOP debate
Military Times Thursday's first presidential debate in Cleveland will offer Republican voters the first look at the 16 candidates vying to be the next commander in chief, but military issues will be fighting for time at the event as much as any of the hopefuls. So ... Donald Trump says first orders of business as President would be building up ...New York Daily News all 4,666 news articles » |
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The Army intends to open all but one field artillery military occupation specialty – 13F fire support specialist – to female soldiers, a move that would cover 21,000 previously male-only jobs, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
Defense One |
The Legal Problems with Cyber War Are Much Bigger Than You Think
Defense One No simple task, given that the UN rules were drawn up seven decades ago by countries seeking to end the scourge of traditional, kinetic warfare. Jurists still debate how self-defense applies incyberspace and U.S. officials admit building a consensus ... Cyberspace's Other Attribution ProblemCouncil on Foreign Relations (blog) all 2 news articles » |
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