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• 9/11 Commission
  


• Another Terror Plot Foiled: 27 Since 9/11
  An arrest on Wednesday of Boston resident Tarek Mehanna brings the latest number of known terrorist plots foiled since 9/11 to 27. Following closely on the heals of three terrorist-related arrests last month, Mehanna's arrest is a stark reminder of the danger still posed by terrorists seeking to kill Americans in the name of extremism.


• Ary News: Iran Will Enrich Uranium Further if Talks Fail
  TEHRAN: Iran warned Saturday it will enrich uranium to a higher level needed to power a research reactor if talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and world powers fail to help Iran obtain the fuel from abroad.


• CENTCOM
  


• Council of Foreign Relations: Afghanistan's Troop Deficit Problem
  The size and scope of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan has stirred vigorous debate in Washington. As casualties mount and costs increase, some analysts are calling on President Barack Obama to scale back the U.S. commitment. But Kimberly Kagan, president of the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, says downsizing the U.S. force presence in Afghanistan would be a major mistake.


• Council on Foreign Relations: The Rise of Political Opposition in Japan
  The Democratic Party of Japan's (DPJ) landslide victory in August 2009 served as a watershed moment in the country's electoral politics. Japan, a parliamentary democracy, had been dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), governing by itself or in coalition with others for nearly all of the last half century. But falling popularity of the LDP, an economy in decline, and growing public dissatisfaction with politics, gave a historic opportunity to the opposition.


• Council on Foreign Relations: The Road Ahead for US-Iran Relations
  After thirty years of frosty relations, the United States and Iran appeared to make incremental progress during nuclear negotiations in Geneva on October 1. Marking the highest-level dialogue between Washington and Tehran in decades, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns sat down with Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and Iran agreed to open a recently disclosed facility near Qom for inspection.


• Department of Defense
  


• Department of Defense: Detainees
  The Department of Defense has a compilation of research regarding detainees. This webpage contains Policies, Reviews, Investigations, Articles, and Military Commission Reports about detainees and Guantanamo Bay.


• Department of Homeland Security
  


• Detention of the Enemy During Wartime
  


• Foundation for Defense of Democracies
  


• Four Percent for Freedom
  


• GITMO Research Page
  


• House Armed Services Committee
  


• House Committee on Homeland Security
  


• Institute for Study of War: A Comprehensive Strategy for Afghanistan: Afghanistan Force Requirements
  This reports objectives are to create conditions in Afghanistan to prevent the re?establishment of safe havens for al Qaeda and other trans?national terrorist groups and to establish sufficient stability to ensure that these conditions can be sustained over time with foreign financial assistance but with very limited foreign military presence.


• Institute for Study of War: Order of Battle: Coalition Combat Forces in Afghanistan
  This order of battle includes only the ground combat forces of the U.S. and NATO commands in Afghanistan – the units, down to battalion level, that operate in the field as ground-owning battle groups or, in some cases, advisory forces. Other formations, such as provincial reconstruction teams, most advisory units, and aviation, engineering, artillery, and logistical units, are excluded. “White” special operations forces are described in general terms only, while “black” special operations forces are excluded entirely, for obvious reasons.


• Iran Briefing Room
  


• Joint Task Force: Guantanamo
  JTF Guantanamo conducts safe, humane, legal and transparent care and custody of detained enemy combatants, including those convicted by military commission and those ordered released. The JTF conducts intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination for the protection of detainees and personnel working in JTF Guantanamo facilities and in support of the Global War on Terror.


• Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance
  


• Missile Defense Agency
  


• National Security Legislative Calendar
  Council for a Livable World circulates a weekly summary of key national security legislation before Congress. It's the best way to track the many-ring circus on Capitol Hill, both Senate and House.


• New York Post: Biden's missile-defense missteps
  Vice President Joe Biden's trip last week to Poland and the Czech Republic may have helped soothe rattled allies after Team Obama pitched overboard the W-era, anti-Iran missile shield that was to be deployed in both countries. But the new missile-defense plan he pitched has problems.


• Presidential Management Initiative
  PARTNERSHIP FOR PUBLIC SERVICE aims to provide a framework for federal workforce management and recommendations for an effective transition to the next presidential administration.


• Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty: What Are Options for Tougher Sanctions Against Iran?
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow that she did not ask the Kremlin to take any specific steps to pressure Iran over its disputed nuclear program.


• RAND Corporation: Publications by Angel Rabasa
  Dr. Angel M. Rabasa is a RAND Corporation Senior Policy Analyst. He is the lead author of The Muslim World After 9/11 (December 2004) and has just completed a project on the future of global terrorism: “Beyond Al Qaeda: Countering Terrorist and Other Non-Traditional Threats.” This page lists all of his published work with RAND.


• Right Web: United Against Nuclear Iran
  United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) claims to be “a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.” A program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization, UANI’s aims include informing “the public about the nature of the Iranian regime”; heightening “awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear-armed Iran poses to the region and the world”; persuading “the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people”; and promoting “efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political, and diplomatic measures.” [1]


• Senate Armed Services Committee
  


• Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  


• State Department
  


• The Heritage Foundation: 26 Foiled Terror Plots Show Success of Information Sharing
  Last week, the FBI, along with its state and local counterparts, announced arrests in three terror plots targeting several American cities. These foiled plots now make 26 publicly known terror plots that have been disrupted by law enforcement since September 11, 2001.


• The Heritage Foundation: 33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age
  33 Minutes is a thrilling, one-hour documentary that tells the story of the very real threat foreign enemies, like Iran and North Korea, pose to every one of us. The truth is brutal – no matter where on Earth from which a missile is launched, it would take 33 minutes or less to hit the U.S. target it was programmed to destroy. Despite the present and growing danger, our government has failed to deploy a comprehensive missile defense system capable of defending us against any attack. Featuring rare footage and in-depth interviews with leading experts in the field, 33 Minutes explains just how vulnerable every citizen really is and what they can do about it.


• The Heritage Foundation: A Flawed Approach to Arms Control: START Negotiations Will Not Serve U.S. Interests
  When President Obama announced on September 17 that he had decided to cancel a plan for putting missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland, he ignored repeated warnings from Members of Congress not to permit negotiations with Russia over strategic nuclear weapon reductions to also limit U.S. missile defense options. Now, he is sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Moscow to discuss arms control issues with the Russian government.


• The Heritage Foundation: A Policy Agenda for the U.S.-Russia Congressional Caucus
  Last week, Congress launched the bipartisan Congressional Russia Caucus, which is chaired by Congressmen Tom Price (R-GA) and Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH). The creation of the caucus could not be timelier, as the Obama Administration seems to have made unrequited concessions to Russia in missile defense, strategic arms talks, and the sale of Russian arms to Iran and Venezuela. Meanwhile, the U.S. said little regarding its violation of Ukrainian and Georgian sovereignty.


• The Heritage Foundation: Afghan Elections Offer Hope for the Future
  Yesterday's presidential elections in Afghanistan went relatively smoothly despite sporadic Taliban attacks aimed at disrupting the vote. There was no large-scale dramatic attack as many Afghan and U.S. officials feared. While voter turnout appears to have been respectable, it was lower than in the last election, especially in southern areas, where the Taliban is strongest and best-positioned to make good on their threats to kill or maim Afghans who dared to cast a vote.


• The Heritage Foundation: Afghanistan's war, election challenge Obama
  President Obama this week called the war in Afghanistan one of "necessity," not choice. It is, he proclaimed, the "central front in the war on terrorism ... where the Taliban is gaining strength. ..." He solemnly concluded, "This is a war that we have to win." All this is true. But keeping his promise to win the "good" war in Afghanistan won't be easy. The president will face many tests along the way. Starting now.


• The Heritage Foundation: America's New Japan Challenge
  The rumbling you heard across the Pacific Ocean over the weekend was Japan moving further from the United States -- and closer to China. Japan's left-of-center opposition party, which has long spouted anti-capitalist and anti-US rhetoric, won a landslide victory in Sunday's election.


• The Heritage Foundation: Another Terror Plot Foiled: 27 Since 9/11
  An arrest on Wednesday of Boston resident Tarek Mehanna brings the latest number of known terrorist plots foiled since 9/11 to 27. Following closely on the heals of three terrorist-related arrests last month, Mehanna's arrest is a stark reminder of the danger still posed by terrorists seeking to kill Americans in the name of extremism.


• The Heritage Foundation: Birthed In Blood, Somali Terror Group Goes Global
  In the summer of 2008, a battle raged about 300 miles south of Mogadishu. There, along the banks of the Jubba River, rival militias fought for control of a port city.


• The Heritage Foundation: Chemical Security: Separating Risk from Excessive Regulation
  This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will consider the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act. This legislation would reauthorize and expand the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), which were put in place under the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007. These standards have been used to regulate the security activities of chemical facilities.


• The Heritage Foundation: Chinese Foreign Investment: How Much and Where?
  Available data provide only a partial answer to the question of exactly how much China is spending overseas. We know that China's acquisition of overseas assets using accumulated foreign currency, though extremely large, is far from the largest in the world. US portfolio holdings overseas stood at USD 7.2 trillion at the end of 2007, having expanded by USD 1.2 trillion in 2007 alone.


• The Heritage Foundation: Dangerous Trajectories: Obama's Approach to Arms Control Misreads Russian Nuclear Strategy
  As the Obama Administration negotiates a range of arms control initiatives with Russia, U.S. policymakers need to critically examine Russia's views on nuclear weapons and doctrine. While successive U.S. Administrations have announced that Russia is no longer the enemy, Russia still considers the United States its "principal adversary," despite President Barack Obama's attempts to "reset" bilateral relations. U.S. national leadership and arms control negotiators need to understand Russia's nuclear doctrine and negotiating style as they are, not as the U.S. wants them to be.


• The Heritage Foundation: DPJ victory poses challenges for U.S. alliance
  Japan's opposition Democratic Party of Japan fulfilled predictions by winning a landslide victory over the moribund ruling party. The change in government is historic: It is only the second time in 50 years that the Liberal Democratic Party has been out of power. A disgruntled and angry electorate threw the LDP out of office for not only failing to fix Japan's long-standing economic problems but seeming incapable of offering any hope for future improvement.


• The Heritage Foundation: Drowning in Cash, Chinese Foreign Investment: Who, What and Why--Part 1 of 3
  China made headlines by becoming the largest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds at the end of September 2008, and it was already the largest foreign holder of other US public debt. In the last few years, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has invested over USD 100 billion in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. The current financial crisis further highlights the role of Chinese bond investment in the US economy and prompts questions about whether Chinese investment in equities or other assets would be helpful as well.


• The Heritage Foundation: Eight Years after 9/11: Analyzing Congress's Homeland Security Agenda
  Having returned from its summer recess, Congress will soon construct its legislative agenda for the rest of the year. Given that this week marks the eighth anniversary of 9/11, Congress should honor the memory of that tragedy by solidifying its homeland security agenda. That means taking the right steps to keep the nation safe, free, and prosperous.


• The Heritage Foundation: Endangering America And Our Allies: Obama's Missile Defense Plans Don't Add Up
  Appeasing Russia, Ignoring Our Allies: President Obama's decision to abandon plans for basing elements of the U.S. global missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic (the "third site") is entirely political, designed to appease Russia, but it will leave the U.S. more vulnerable to the threat of ballistic missile attack.


• The Heritage Foundation: Freezing Telecom Immunity Would Chill Counterterrorism Efforts
  On September 17, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), along with several other Senators, introduced the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts Act of 2009, which would remove immunity for telecommunications providers that have given federal law enforcement access to their systems under the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance program.


• The Heritage Foundation: How to Save the U.S.-Japan Alliance
  Countless official statements by the U.S. and Japan have highlighted the two countries' bilateral alliance as the linchpin or cornerstone of stability in Asia and indispensable to achieving the strategic objectives of both countries. Although true, such assertions are faulty on two counts: (1) they overlook the parallel criticality of the U.S.-South Korean alliance, and (2) they presume the existing paradigm with Tokyo will continue to meet U.S. security needs.


• The Heritage Foundation: Iran: The Rising Threat
  When Undersecretary of State William Burns meets with Iranian officials today in Geneva, the clock will start ticking on the Obama Administration's strategy regarding Iran. Despite last week's damning revelations about Iran's clandestine construction of a second uranium enrichment facility and Tehran's continued duplicity on the nuclear issue, the Obama Administration remains wedded to engaging Iran, which has broken numerous attempts at engagement in the past.


• The Heritage Foundation: Iran's Nuclear Threat: The Day After
  The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has pursued policies hostile to the United States since its founding in 1979, is now on the brink of attaining a nuclear weapons capability. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair testified before Congress on March 10 that "We assess Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons."


• The Heritage Foundation: Japan's Security Policy: Navigating the Troubled Waters Ahead
  The U.S. relationship with Japan has just become more complicated. The recent election victory of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has resulted in more resistance to a truly shared U.S.-Japanese mission. Refusing to provide troops to aid the coalition in Afghanistan, and generally uninterested in actively engaging in overseas security missions, the risk-averse DPJ is pulling back from its responsibilities in the U.S.-Japan alliance, as well as internationally. This leaves the U.S. in the position of responding to an ally who demands an equal role yet resists assuming equal responsibilities.


• The Heritage Foundation: Joe Biden's Fence-Mending Mission: Re-Open the Visa Waiver Program
  The vice presidency oftentimes entails a number of not-so-fun official duties, and fence-mending is one of them. This week Vice President Joseph Biden will be on an official trip to three important European allies of the United States, each of which in some way needs reassurance from the U.S., having experienced an unfortunate cooling trend in bilateral relations. Biden should use the trip to put pressure on his colleagues in the Administration to open the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to America's Eastern European allies.


• The Heritage Foundation: Not a Good Start: The Future of Arms Control
  Bilateral Relations: President Obama has made overt efforts to "reset" bilateral relations with Russia--even while Russia continues to call the U.S. its "principal adversary." Moscow publicly applauds U.S. disarmament and arms control efforts while they continue a strong and abiding commitment to nuclear weapons.


• The Heritage Foundation: Patriot Act: A Chance to Commit to National Security
  On September 22-23, the House and Senate Judiciary Committees held hearings to examine reauthorization of key provisions of the Patriot Act, which helps law enforcement fight terrorism through more flexible surveillance and investigation methods and easier information sharing. Key provisions of the act will expire on December 31 if Congress does not reauthorize them.


• The Heritage Foundation: President Obama Must Not Surrender to Russia on Missile Defense
  Reports in the Polish media strongly suggest that the Obama Administration is about to abandon its plans for "third site" missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. Abandoning the third site would represent a huge turnaround in American strategic thinking on a global missile defense system and a massive betrayal of two key U.S. allies in Eastern and Central Europe. Such a move would also significantly weaken America's ability to combat the growing threat posed by Iran's ballistic missile program and would hand a major propaganda victory to Moscow.


• The Heritage Foundation: Progress in Iraq
  The debate over the war in Iraq has increasingly divided Americans. The purpose of this website is to help forge a national consensus on the continued need for patient American assistance to help the Iraqi people build a broad-based democratic government that will be an ally in the war against terrorism. This website is a clearinghouse for accessing information on U.S. Iraq policy from the publications, commentary, and events archive of The Heritage Foundation, as well as links to a wide variety of other sources of information on Iraq.


• The Heritage Foundation: Seven Things to Note on Iran
  What a shock: Iran has another undeclared nuclear facility that is likely supporting a nuclear weapons program!


• The Heritage Foundation: Shortsighted U.S. Policies on Afghanistan to Bring Long-Term Problems
  It is difficult to overstate the importance of the outcome of the current White House debate on Afghanistan to the future of vital U.S. national security interests. Early discussions have been characterized by wishful thinking about the U.S.'s ability to negotiate a political solution in the near term and confusion about the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. A shortsighted view of the long-entrenched problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan risks plunging the region into deeper instability, thus reversing recent gains against al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.


• The Heritage Foundation: Son of START
  Early in his tenure, President Barack Obama outlined a broad nonproliferation agenda in a Prague speech. Obama told the assembled ears, and the world: "The Cold War has disappeared, but thousands of those [nuclear] weapons have not. In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up."


• The Heritage Foundation: START Follow-On Treaty Could Interfere with Conventional Strike Systems
  The Obama Administration is currently rushing to establish a treaty to succeed the expiring Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Early indications are that this neaw agreement will limit U.S. options to field conventionally armed missiles -- something Congress warned the Administration not to do.


• The Heritage Foundation: Starting arms talks all over
  President Obama has started planning a new round of nuclear arms negotiations with the Russians. He apparently hopes to rid the world of nuclear weapons. This indeed could be an opportune time to rethink arms control. And who doesn't want a world safe from nuclear Armageddon?


• The Heritage Foundation: Success in Afghanistan Requires Firm Presidential Leadership, Not Half-Measures
  President Obama soon must make one of his most important national security decisions: how to proceed in Afghanistan, a crucial theater in the war against al-Qaeda. This week the President received an assessment of the war from General Stanley McChrystal, his recently appointed commander in Afghanistan.


• The Heritage Foundation: Taiwan's Economy Needs More Than Cooperation with China
  Perhaps the most prominent reaction to progress in trade and investment talks between China and Taiwan is that the dialogue is long overdue. From Taiwan's perspective, such an assessment turns out to be exactly right--cross-straits economic liberalization is overdue. In pure economic terms, it would have been far better for Taiwan if liberalization had occurred 15 or so years ago. Possible gains from cross-straits economic liberalization are just not what they used to be.


• The Heritage Foundation: Ten Things about China and Climate Change
  Many global environmental debates are chiefly about China. In the past, it has been acid rain made in the PRC but falling elsewhere. Eventually, the conversation will shift to water shortages and diversion that have already displaced millions and may eventually threaten conflict with some of China's neighbors. As the international community lurches toward the Copenhagen climate change conference, the main topic is carbon emissions and climate change. Again, the debate will center on the PRC.


• The Heritage Foundation: Terrorist Watch: 23 Plots Foiled Since 9/11
  Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 23 terrorist plots against the United States have been foiled. This report updates a November 2007 report from the Heritage Foundation that described 19 plots that had been foiled to date since 9/11. Less than two years later, the U.S. has foiled four more plots aimed at Americans. While some trials have ended in mistrial and charges against some suspects were dropped, significantly more individuals have been convicted and sentenced for their crimes.


• The Heritage Foundation: The ICC Investigation in Afghanistan Vindicates U.S. Policy Toward the ICC
  Last week, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) stated that investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan may result in the prosecution of U.S. policymakers or servicemen. The potential prosecution of U.S. persons by the court over incidents that the U.S. deems lawful is one of the prime reasons why the Bush Administration did not seek U.S. ratification of the treaty creating the court, rejected ICC claims of authority over U.S. persons, and sought to negotiate agreements with countries to protect U.S. persons from being arrested and turned over to the ICC.


• The Heritage Foundation: The Pakistan-Britain Terror Connection: Lessons and Warnings for the United States
  There is a terror connection between Pakistan and Great Britain. Many of the planned or successful Islamist attacks in Britain have been linked directly or indirectly to Pakistan. British authorities have acknowledged that the al-Qaeda network based in Pakistan poses the greatest terrorist threat to Britain. This threat includes both terrorist attacks and the financial and ideological networks that support and inspire attacks.


• The Heritage Foundation: The War in Afghanistan: Why Britain, America, and NATO Must Fight to Win
  It is an unavoidable fact that we are in Afghanistan out of necessity, not choice. Were we to lose and be forced out of Afghanistan against our will, it would be a shot in the arm for every jihadist globally; would send out the signal that we did not have the moral fortitude to see through what we believe to be a national security emergency; and would suggest that NATO, in its first great challenge since the end of the Cold War, did not have what it takes to see a difficult challenge through.


• The Heritage Foundation: Time for Tougher Sanctions on Iran's Terrorist Regime
  There is growing bipartisan momentum in Congress to impose further sanctions on Iran. This long-overdue action, which would strengthen U.S. diplomatic leverage over Tehran, should be welcomed by the Obama Administration and integrated into its dual-track strategy for Iran.


• The Heritage Foundation: Too much at stake to abandon Afghanistan
  There's certainly a lot of hand-wringing these days on both the left and right over the war in Afghanistan. Among Americans, support for the fight is slipping, almost eight years after U.S. forces entered the country.


• The Heritage Foundation: TSA Nominee Erroll Southers's Stand on Collective Bargaining Needs Clarity
  President Obama has nominated Erroll Southers to serve as Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which employs the airline security screeners charged with preventing terrorists from boarding American airplanes. As the head of the TSA, Southers would decide whether the organization collectively bargains over security procedures. Collective bargaining--currently forbidden for the TSA--would put American lives at risk by preventing the TSA from responding rapidly to new intelligence and by replacing merit promotions with seniority schedules.


• The Heritage Foundation: Two Plus Two Equals Five: The Obama Administration's Missile Defense Plans Do Not Add Up
  Last week, President Obama announced that the U.S. would end the "third site" missile defense program to field interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic. Obama declared he will instead pursue a new "phased, adaptive approach" to provide protection for U.S. territory and allies in Europe. The Administration argues this changed approach, which focuses on making use of sea-based and Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) technology, is better suited to the new threat environment and more capable, flexible, and cost-effective.


• The Heritage Foundation: U.S.-China Space Cooperation: More Costs Than Benefits
  With the delivery of the full report from the U.S. Human Space Flight Review Committee (commonly referred to as the Augustine Report), the potential for a substantial, multi-year gap in U.S. manned spaceflight capability has drawn increased attention. In light of this problem, the idea has been raised in some quarters, including in the report, that the United States should expand its cooperation with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and leverage Chinese space capabilities. Such cooperation has far more potential cost than benefit.


• The Heritage Foundation: What is Next on Iran?
  The opposition movement that spontaneously rose up against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has lost momentum in the aftermath of the regime's crackdown on popular protests over the disputed results of the presidential election. Faced with intensifying violence from the regime's security forces, the opposition has been forced to abandon mass rallies and is preparing for a protracted campaign of civil disobedience.


• The Heritage Foundation: White House Fact Sheet on Missile Defense Raises More Questions Than It Answers
  On September 17, President Obama announced that the United States would not honor its commitment to field missile defense interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic.[1] At the same time, he announced that the U.S. would pursue a new "phased, adaptive approach" for missile defense to provide protection to U.S. territory and America's friends and allies in Europe.


• The Huffington Post: Obama Versus Obama on the Patriot Act
  Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to reauthorize three expiring provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act. While the bill they passed strengthened civil liberties in several small ways, the Committee failed to make any meaningful improvements to the Patriot provisions that are most prone to abuse. Disturbingly, Obama Administration officials played a significant behind the scene role in opposing stronger civil liberties protections, directly contradicting


• The Washington Post: Clinton urges support for U.S.-Russian arms-control treaty
  With a congressional battle looming, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday defended the administration's broad arms-control agenda and said that reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles would be a critical first step in preventing the spread of the deadly weapons to other countries.


• The Washington Post: McChrystal: More Forces or 'Mission Failure': Top U.S. Commander For Afghan War Calls Next 12 Months Decisive
  The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post


• The Washington Post: Partial Patriot Act Extension Is Approved by Senate Panel
  The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday that would renew portions of the USA Patriot Act in an effort to address administration concerns about protecting terrorism investigations.


• The Washington Post: U.S. is reaching out to East Asia's powerful nations
  Ever since taking office, President Obama has signaled that the United States wants to improve relations with the powerhouse nations of East Asia, and he'll put his personal imprint on that when he travels to the region for the first time next week.


• The White House
  


• Wartime Detention