Posts by Spencer Ackerman

By March 24, the private security corporation formerly known as Blackwater — last seen in Afghanistan shooting civilians and stealing weapons intended for the Afghan police — may win a new Defense Department contract to train the Afghan police. And nearly no one in the government wants to own up to how it could happen.

Employees of the CIA-connected private security corporation Blackwater diverted hundreds of weapons, including more than 500 AK-47 assault rifles, from a U.S. weapons bunker in Afghanistan intended to equip Afghan policemen, according to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Analysts — those who have worked on al-Qaeda and on other threats — describe themselves as “drinking from a firehose” of information shared with the National Counterterrorism Center by the partner intelligence agencies.

Will increased security measures for flights from certain countries–mostly Muslim countries–be effective in combatting terrorist attacks?

Some security experts say the Obama administration is mischaracterizing the terrorist threat to get the public to back escalating the Afghanistan war.

For the first time in the war’s history, President Obama announced a date — July 2011 — when U.S. forces in Afghanistan will begin handing over security responsibilities to Afghan soldiers and policemen.

As President Obama and his advisers debate strategy for the Afghanistan war and its related crisis in Pakistan, a factor that so far has not intruded on their discussions is emerging: the antiwar movement is showing signs of strength.

As President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton near an announcement of a top State Department official to promote the United States’ image abroad, some wonder if the position will be viewed as a national-security or public-relations job.

Documents obtained by the Washington Independent reveal Iraqi linguists working for the U.S. military could be in peril under new disclosure rules fostered by the Status of Forces Agreement.

A just-published article in Foreign Affairs by Defense Secretary Robert Gates provides a snapshot of an emerging irregular-warfare-heavy Pentagon — and interagency process — in the Obama administration.

If confirmed as Secretary of Commerce, Gov. Bill Richardson would oversee the U.S. Commercial Service, the agency’s equivalent of the State Dept.’s foreign service.

According to interviews with longtime associates, Susan Rice, the woman who was just named to head the foreign-policy transition team for an Obama administration — and herself a likely candidate for deputy national security adviser or other top position — is a rigorous thinker and thorough pragmatist, impatient with ideology and incompetence.

During his July trip to Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama met with a man who represents both an opportunity and an obstacle to his presidency: Army Gen. David H. Petraeus. Petraeus, a hero to many Americans for his management of the war in Iraq, argued in a private briefing that military commanders should be given wide latitude in handing the future course of the war — though Obama was running for president on a platform calling for a withdrawal of combat troops in 16 months.

The rumor started to spread last week that if Sen. Barack Obama won the presidential election, Michele Flournoy would resign from the Center for a New American Security on Thursday following the election. Friday at the latest.

For the first time in Hamid Karzai’s meteoric ascent to the presidency of Aghanistan’s presidency, Afghans are beginning to express disillusionment with Karzai, who is a key U.S. alley. Corruption, instability and tough economic times are starting to turn even Karzai’s fellow Pashtuns against him.