04 Feb Weekday News Wrap: Monday, February 4, 2013
04.02.13
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1 Comment
- Though he admits that evidence that came from enhanced interrogation techniques was used to find Osama Bin Laden, outgoing Secretary of Defense and former CIA chief who oversaw the Bin Laden operation, Leon Panetta, has said that Bin Laden could have been found without resorting to torture.
- The German Defense Ministry has confirmed Germany will acquire armed drones.
- The number three leader of Ansar al Dine in Northern Mali has been arrested near the Algerian border.
- The US and Iran seem to be serious about negotiations about Iran’s developing nuclear program.
- A leftist group has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack on the US Embassy in Ankara, calling the United States “the murderer of the peoples of the world.”
- France’s National Assembly approved an article that would redefine marriage as between two people, rather than one man and one woman, opening the path to same-sex marriage as well as same-sex adoption.
- The United Nations has urged Russian lawmakers to reject legislation banning promotion of homosexuality.
- Drone Wars UK has a piece entitled: Drones over Africa: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow outlining US UAV activity over the continent.
- Sri Lanka has revoked the visas of a delegation of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. The delegation wanted to examine the rule of law after the controversial impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake in January.
- Could Cyprus‘ financial plight open up possibilities to a reunification of the Greek and Turkish parts of the island? Reuters has an analysis of the increased EU leverage.
- Fidel Castro has appeared in public to vote in parliamentary elections.
- The US and South Korea are holding three days of naval exercises, intended to send a message to North Korea.
- The UK is hosting talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan to foster closer co-operation on the Afghan peace process.
Response…
Will Saletan on AEI’s CIA Interrogation Panel
By Benjamin Wittes
Sunday, February 3, 2013 at 8:00 AM
I missed this week AEI’s panel on Zero Dark Thirty and the reality of coercive interrogation at the CIA, though I have been meaning to watch the video. I also missed Will Saletan’s excellent article Wednesday on the panel in Slate, which distills with an admirable economy of words and virtually no rhetoric, the basic story of the interrogation program as told at the panel by the three former CIA panelists. For many Lawfare readers, as for me, this basic story is well known. For anyone, however, looking to understand from the Agency’s point of view what it was doing,