A Terrorism Briefing from a Goldendoodle

Rational Security

The Lawfare Institute

Foreignpolicy, Nationalsecurity, News, Government, Politics, Middleeast

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2024

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Alan and Quinta were joined again by Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien and Lawfare Foreign Policy Editor Daniel Byman—also of Georgetown University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies— to talk over the week’s national security news, including:

“Terror in Moscow.” On Friday, March 22, a group of gunmen unleashed an attack on a concert hall outside Moscow that killed over 130 people, shooting into a crowd of concertgoers before setting the hall on fire. The Islamic State in Khorasan, the Afghanistan branch of ISIS known as ISIS-K, quickly claimed credit for the attack, and Russian authorities have arrested four suspects. The Kremlin, without evidence, has also continued to hint that Ukraine is somehow responsible. What does the attack tell us about ISIS-K, and what does it mean for the Russian government?
“April, Come She Will.” After a brief delay, Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan has been scheduled to begin on April 15—the first of Trump’s criminal cases to go to trial. Meanwhile, a New York appeals court threw Trump a lifeline, reducing his appeal bond in the civil fraud case against him from half a billion dollars to $175 million. Will ol’ Donny Trump be able to wriggle out of this jam once again?
“Come On, Aileen.” Judge Aileen Cannon is at it again down in Fort Pierce, Florida. As she presides over Trump’s classified documents case, motions are piling up on her desk without any sign of a ruling, and she issued a strange, convoluted order instructing both parties to “engage with” potential jury instructions reflecting unusual readings of the Presidential Records Act in relation to the Espionage Act. Just what is Judge Cannon doing? And how, if at all, can Jack Smith respond?

For object lessons, Alan endorsed the podcast “Next Year in Moscow,” on Russians living in exile who departed their country after the beginning of Putin’s war with Ukraine. Tyler sang the praises of Waxahatchee’s new album “Tigers Blood.” And Quinta recommended a reflection on Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So Tyler, tell us about your struggles getting a press pass. Why won't they just give you one, man?
0:05.0	I know the word Kafka-esque gets thrown around a lot, but I think it really fits in this case.
0:12.0	Yeah, I don't know if any listeners have read the New York court dispatches, but we have been
0:19.0	forced to go into the the line in which the public can attend these hearings instead of the press.
0:25.1	The Hui Palai.
0:26.3	Exactly.
0:27.3	And that's because we have not been able to obtain a press pass yet because of very gate keepy I would call it draconian I would also
0:36.9	call it requirements to obtain a New York City Press Pass which require six live
0:42.3	covered events in New York City in the five boroughs which
0:46.3	obviously raises a chicken and egg question how do you cover these events without a
0:49.7	press pass first and I think that that paradox was by design to close ranks of the
0:55.1	the New York City Press Corps. Are you serious you need a press pass to cover the
0:58.2	live events but you need to cover the live events to get a press pass? I mean I could go to these event A live event is anything with like, you know, police barricades, you know, court counts, but
1:08.6	Did Taylor Swift concert count?
1:11.1	Well, it's funny you say that because we had briefly wondered whether Tyler should attend,
1:16.5	would be Reagan, assassin, John Hinckley's concert, but it was cancelled.
1:21.5	Oh my God. Which, as you can imagine, I was...
1:24.0	I mean you weren't going to do that anyway.
1:25.0	Oh, I absolutely was.
1:27.0	I was like, you know, two birds, one stone.
1:28.0	I have to see his famous second act.
1:32.0	As you can imagine in Brooklyn, it was probably going to be pretty well attended.
	...

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