The Pentagon has just announced the new DoD special envoy for Guantanamo closure: Paul Lewis. Secretary Hagel Announces Appointment to Key Defense Post Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel today announced th...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued its memorandum opinion in Hamad v. Gates, a challenge by a former Guantanamo detainee to his detention and treatment while in U.S. custody. It found that §22...

Courtesy of my office mate, Ross Tilchin, comes this Washington Post piece about a letter Adm. Bill McRaven, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, wrote to one Walker Greentree, a 6-year old boy w...

A veteran administration official emailed me just now in response to my piece last night on congressional Republicans and the shutdown: "Nice Piece (on the shutdown)," the official writes. "You are right...

As information continues to emerge  regarding the Baraawe raid, it is becoming increasingly clear that the operation was of a piece with, rather than a departure from, existing US policy.  According to N...

The New York Times is reporting that the U.S.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel released the following letter and memorandum over the weekend concerning the implementation of the Pay Our Military Act, which was passed in the hours before the shutdown.

Nine or so months ago, following  President Obama’s inaugural address assertion that a “decade of war is now ending,” which came on the heels of Jeh Johnson’s speech about the end of war against al Qaeda...

Over at Security States and The New Republic, I have another blog, entitled: "What Big Data Does, And Doesn't Know About Me."  It tells the story of how I went digging into the data holdings that one big...

Hilary Mantel is justly famous for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (Wolf Hall, Book 2