President Obama laid out his plan for troop withdrawal in Afghanistan last night. more ›

Whistleblowing information clearinghouse Wikileaks began releasing over a quarter million documents on Sunday. The documents contain cables between the U.S. State Department and 274 other embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions across the globe dating as far back as 1966. The data dump is seven times larger than “The Iraq War Logs,” the last information release from Wikileaks. So far, the website has released a few hundred documents to the New York Times, the Guardian UK and other news organizations, who then removed names and other items that could put individuals at risk. more ›

Yemeni officials announced yesterday the arrests of a woman and her mother in connection with Friday's suspected bomb plot against Jewish synagogues and community centers in Chicago. The two women have not been identified, but a defense lawyer who was in contact with the family identified the 22-year-old woman as an engineering student. more ›

More details are slowly trickling out regarding the discovery of possible explosive materials discovered on cargo planes; at least two packages were earmarked for Chicago-area Jewish facilities. more ›

Americans have become increasingly used to incursions on our privacy via networked surveillance systems, corporate monitoring of internet activity, the warrantless wiretapping debacle and, of course, full body image scans in airports. On the heels of the announcement that body scanners will appear at 28 airports including Midway, it just so happens that despite assurances that the scans will not be stored (but instead deleted after screening), some agencies are doing just that. more ›

Revelations, criticism and some praise for leaked information clearinghouse website Wikileaks will likely continue all week. Over the weekend, the website released more than 90,000 classified military records on the Afghan war. The White House strongly condemned the move, calling it a threat to national security. In the same hand, however, members of the Obama Administration dismissed the actual content of the documents, saying there were “no new revelations.” more ›

President Obama addressed the nation last night on his plans for the War in Afghanistan, speaking from West Point. He began with a brief history lesson, running down the conflict's connection to the 9/11 attacks, and acknowledging the distracting effect that Iraq has had on prosecuting this war, before moving into the broad terms of how his administration will bring the war in Afghanistan "to a successful conclusion." He laid out three parts to his strategy, videlicet that the U.S. will pursue a military strategy intended to break the Taliban and strengthen Afghanistan over the next 18 months; that the U.S. will work with our allies, the UN, and Afghanis for a civilian strategy that allow the Afghani government to take advantage of improved security in the region; and embracing a broader role with Pakistan as a key partner in Afghanistan's future security. And, always a fan of multi-pronged rhetorical flourishes, Obama took on critiques of the war in three-part form as well, contending that it was not another Vietnam, that maintaining current troop levels will not work, and that open-ended commitments will not be tolerated by his administration. more ›

President-Elect Obama held a press conference in Chicago this morning to announce his nominations for members of his National Security team, saying, "Our destiny is shared with the world's. From our markets to our security, from our public health to our climate, we must act with the understanding that now more than ever we have a stake in what happens across the globe." His nominations are: more ›