Rational Security: The “Damn Danville!” Edition
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 August 2023
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Rational Security, Quinta and Scott were joined by Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett to break down the week’s big national security news stories, including:
- “Home to Roost.” A judge in the military commission trying Abdul Raheem al-Nashiri, a suspect in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, has ruled that his confession is inadmissible on the grounds that it was tainted by his prior torture and interrogation at the hands of U.S. officials, even though the confession itself was extracted from a non-coercive “clean team.” What does this mean for the future of the Nashiri trial? And of the military commissions as a whole?
- “Disqualification, Qualified.” A pair of leading conservative constitutional scholars has reignited the discussion surrounding Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, arguing that it is self-executing and excludes former President Trump from the presidency. How persuasive are their arguments? And what impact will they actually have on the 2024 election?
- “A Distinctive Musk.” The New Yorker has run a profile of Elon Musk, focusing in substantial part on the complicated but central role he and his company SpaceX have come to play in Ukrainian military efforts, despite his frequent flirtations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What should we make of Musk’s important role in national security affairs? And are there better ways for the U.S. government to approach it?
For object lessons, Quinta shared a profile of the weirdest Jan. 6 co-conspirator to date. Scott endorsed the new true spy thriller podcast series, “Spy Valley.” And Natalie shouted out her most recent favorite delicious treat, Nightingale ice cream sandwiches.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair, that's patreon.com slash |
| 0:16.8 | LawFair. Also check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:36.2 | I'm Geo Kukutakis, intern at LawFair with an episode of rational security for August 27th, |
| 0:42.7 | 2023. For today's episode, the team at LawFair decided to cross post this week's episode of rational |
| 0:49.8 | security, a podcast hosted by Scott R. Anderson, Quinta Jurassic, and Alan Rosenstein, in which they |
| 0:56.4 | cover the week's big national security news stories. Today's episode is entitled The Dan Danville |
| 1:03.1 | Edition. This week, Anderson and Jurassic sat down with LawFair executive editor Natalie Orbit, |
| 1:10.3 | to discuss a military commission judges ruling to exclude Abdul Rahim al-Nasheri's confession |
| 1:16.3 | on the grounds that it was tainted by prior torture. The argument by a pair of leading conservative |
| 1:21.5 | constitutional scholars, that section three of the 14th amendment, excludes former president Donald |
| 1:27.4 | Trump from the presidency, Elon Musk and SpaceX's roles in the Ukrainian military effort, and more. |
| 1:34.5 | This is rational security. |
| 1:40.6 | Quinta, you are serving as your own microphone arm today that looks exhausting. Do you think you |
| 1:44.9 | have the physical stamina to keep this up for the whole, let's be honest, 90 minutes that we record |
| 1:48.9 | these things? Yes, so I have been traveling, and I am currently in a location that does not have |
| 1:55.9 | a good podcasting setup, at least somewhere that doesn't make me look like I'm being taken hostage. |
| 2:02.8 | So I've propped myself up by a window so you guys can see that I have a view of the beautiful |
| 2:07.8 | outside, but that means that yes, I do have to hold my own microphone, but luckily I have a 35 |
| 2:14.6 | pound dog that doesn't like going up and down stairs, and that's really good for a building arm |
| 2:19.5 | strength. So I think I should be okay. See, I feel like this falls under the theme that I was |
... |
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