Zero Fox Given

And other matters

Good Morning:

---

Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable

Holly Berkley Fletcher

and the estimable Mike Feinberg got together to talk about the ongoing purges of career intelligence officers. It’s bad, folks:

---

Yesterday On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Mary Ford

Israel’s Excessive Destruction in Gaza Violates International Law

Bailey Ulbricht and Allen S. Weiner argue that Israel’s official objective in its war with Hamas—wiping out the group’s military capabilities and removing them from power—is questionable, suggesting that the force necessary to carry this out in Gaza violates the principle of jus ad bellum proportionality. Ulbricht and Weiner emphasize that states allied with Israel have a responsibility to urge the Israeli government to end the war and halt any security cooperation that would enable Israel to continue using excessive force in Gaza.

Even though Israel’s strategic objective of eliminating Hamas’s military capabilities and removing it from political power can be viewed as legitimate, Israel’s use of force after Oct. 7, 2023, was still subject to the requirements of proportionality. In other words, Israel’s strategic objective could not be lawfully pursued if the intensity of the means required to carry out this objective would cause excessive damage and harm to civilians.

Charting a New European Approach to Security and Data Protection

Christian Wiese Svanberg suggests European Union member states respond to shifting security concerns in the region by adopting a more balanced and flexible “trust-but-verify” approach to data protection, privacy, and security policies.

The security challenges faced by the West are mounting and complex. They demand not just a shift of resources toward the scaling of military production capacity across Europe but also a shift in policy. EU policymakers, legislators, courts, and others who oversee the activities of national security authorities and law enforcement must adopt a new European approach of “trust-but-verify”: trust in authorities to protect Europe and in oversight bodies to verify that authorities act within their mandates.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, I sit down with Anna Bower, Roger Parloff, and James Pearce to discuss the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s warrant to search John Bolton’s home, a federal judge ruling that Alina Habba lacked legal authority to continue serving as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, and Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to Maryland.

Documents

Bower covered today’s status conference in Kilmar Abrego Garcia v. Noem et al., a lawsuit challenging Abrego-Garcia’s impending removal from the United States to Uganda.

---

Today’s #BeastOfTheDay, nominated by the estimable Roger Parloff, is Fuzzy:

The New York Times reports:

At 4:11 a.m., the guard called the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies arrived to find the bear behind the counter in the middle of a taste test.

The bear had slipped through the front door and gone straight for the ice cream, the authorities said. The ice cream parlor at Camp Richardson, about 60 miles south of Reno, Nev., offers 20 flavors and 13 toppings.

The bear, which the sheriff’s office nicknamed Fuzzy, sampled as many flavors as it could get its paws on, the authorities said.

Tubs lay overturned, ice cream half eaten, the authorities said. Paw prints stretched across the black-and-white floor like stick stamps.

The deputies startled the bear, which stopped eating but could not find the exit. They shouted and shined their lights. Finally, the animal lumbered through the front door and back into the dark, the authorities said. The deputies followed to shoo it away from nearby buildings and into the forest.

The shop itself suffered little damage. The bear “caused barely any property damage and there was barely any cleanup,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a post on Facebook, accompanied by images of the bear behind the counter.

Camp Richardson’s ice cream parlor is a favorite summer stop, often with a long line of vacationers extending out the door. After the bear’s visit, stools and napkin dispensers stood undisturbed. Only the ice cream was lost, every tub tossed before another summer day could begin.

“We’re pretty sure he didn’t wash his claws before he came in, so all the ice cream had to be replaced,” said William Boas, vice president of operations for ExplorUS, which operates the Camp Richardson Resort.

The parlor reopened later that day after employees finished a deep cleaning.

In honor of today’s Beast, remember to wash your claws before diving into your ice cream.