Despite Hasan’s reported contacts with an al-Qaeda-connected cleric in Yemen, the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division and FBI will handle the probe.

If President Obama orders an additional 30,000 to 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, he will be deploying practically every available U.S. Army brigade to war, leaving few units in reserve in case of an unforeseen emergency and further stressing a force that has seen repeated combat deployments since 2002.

Although the government has said that warrantless wiretapping under the Terrorist Surveillance Program has stopped, the Obama administration has not said that warrantless wiretapping isn’t ongoing under some other program.

President Obama tapped Rajiv Shah, a 36-year old undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture and medical doctor with extensive experience in food security and public heath, to head the agency.

The latest in a string of lawsuits challenging harsh interrogation techniques could fare better than similar cases.

The officers’ involvement signals the debate has moved past a rigid choice between expansive counterinsurgency missions and narrowly tailored efforts to find and kill terrorists.

“Political isolation is something the Iranians are very much concerned about,” said Thomas Pickering, who served as undersecretary of state in the Clinton administration, arguing that continued diplomacy gave the U.S. the leverage of presenting Iran with a united coalition.

A draft report proposes fundamental changes to military-civilian relationships during complex wars.

Obama seeks to cultivate ties with groups within the American Jewish and Arab-American communities to support a two-state solution.

Sen. John Kerry urged President Obama to endorse a campaign targeted at the Pashtun areas of south and eastern Afghanistan, provided that the U.S. could also boost civilian governance and development projects to consolidated military success.