►After a drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American linked to al Qaeda, a question of the legitimacy of killing an American was raised. Is it legal to kill an American overseas [1] without presenting evidence of wrongdoing? CIA general counsel Stephen Preston says it is. Speaking at an American Bar Association national security conference, Preston said “citizenship does not confer immunity on one who takes up arms against his own country.” Jeh Johnson, DoD general counsel agreed saying that if a person is declared an enemy combatant and a U.S. citizen, the prior takes precedence saying “Courts are not equipped to make those types of decisions which very often are based moment-by-moment on an intelligence picture that constantly evolves,” Reuters reported.

►The Canadian Human Rights Commission is urging the Canadian government to pass a law making security organizations monitor their human rights performance [2] and make the data publicly available. “Canada's national security organizations say they don't use racial or ethnic profiling, but Karen Mosher, the secretary general of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, says it's hard to verify those claims,” CBC News reported “Public confidence requires demonstrable proof," acting chief commissioner David Langtry said in a statement.

►Stand-alone stores have higher shrink rates than stores located in strip malls. Loss prevention budgets have slightly increased. And criminal background checks are becoming a primary countermeasure in retail security. In a column for Loss Prevention, Richard C. Hollinger, administrator of the 2010 National Retail Security Survey [3] discusses the survey's final results.

►In a column for Forbes, Torbjorn Ward, CEO of Aptilo Networks, says SIM authentication [4] is the first step to making WiFi networks more secure for the growing number of WiFi enabled smartphones. ♦ On Sunday, 45,000 residents of Koblenz, Germany will be evacuated while explosive ordnance disposal troops disarm a 4,000 pound World War II-era bomb [5]  that was recently uncovered. ♦ And a story from the New York Times examines the recent findings of PTSD in military working dogs [6].