FBI says finding source of intelligence leaks hurt by scant referral-agency data

The FBI says it's easy to complain about leaks but hard to find the leakers.

Gen. McChrystal is dismissed as top U.S. commander in Afghanistan

President Obama dismissed Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal on Wednesday after concluding that his military chief in Afghanistan had badly damaged the chain of command and could no longer work effectively with the civilian leadership at a crucial moment in the war.

McChrystal's lack of political skills led to downfall

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who was sacked Wednesday by President Obama for comments denigrating his civilian bosses, will be recalled inside the military as an intense, highly effective soldier and an object lesson in the need to honor civilian control of the military.

McChrystal episode reveals limits to Obama's vaunted message discipline

Nasty back-biting among senior advisers, playing out on the front pages of national newspapers. Second-guessing and dissension in the ranks, some of it aimed at the leadership. Fundamental disagreements about strategy.

Weakening, possible firing of McChrystal compounds sense of peril in Afghanistan

The firestorm sparked by the general responsible for creating and implementing President Obama's Afghanistan strategy has further set back U.S. prospects in a war that was already on shaky ground.

Obama has free rein to act on McChrystal, but system is still complex

The Constitution spells it out clearly: Civilians are in control of the military, with one in particular deemed the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States when called into the actual Service of the United States."

Government devotes more brainpower and money to cybersecurity

Cybersecurity, fast becoming Washington's growth industry of choice, appears to be in line for a multibillion-dollar injection of federal research dollars, according to a senior intelligence official.

6 arrested in shooting of exiled former Rwandan army commander in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG -- South African police have arrested six people in connection with the attempted killing of a former Rwandan army commander who went into exile this year after falling out with Paul Kagame, Rwanda's president.

Warren Brown reviews the 2011 Infiniti QX56

The automobile industry is amoral in accommodation. It goes where invited and stays as long as it is profitable to do so.

BP agrees to $20 billion fund for gulf oil spill claims

The much-anticipated showdown Wednesday at the White House between President Obama and top BP executives turned into no-nonsense business meeting in which the oil giant agreed to pay $20 billion into an escrow account to cover claims associated with the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Lawmakers hear different take on year-end review of Afghanistan war effort

Senior defense and military officials Wednesday played down the importance of an end-of-year review that President Obama has described as crucial to assessing whether his Afghanistan war strategy is working, saying that it would have little bearing on decisions about troop withdrawals scheduled to begin in July 2011.

Fine Print: Words of concern about the DNI job, from the nominee

Want a clear-eyed view of the internal turf battles generated by the 2005 establishment of the Director of National Intelligence and his office?