Outside the Beltway

Two NeverTrump Republicans have had enough.

Against the advice of his top military advisers, President Trump has cleared three American soldiers of war crimes, sending a horrible signal to the world and to the troops in the field.

President Trump is reportedly planning to pardon several American servicemen convicted of war crimes, an action that would be an insult to everyone who has ever worn an American uniform.

Washington said farewell to John McCain today in a service that both remembered his spirit and his heroism, and stands as a sharp rebuke to what politics has been reduced to in America today.

Throughout the War On Terror, John McCain stood out as a strong moral voice against the use of torture against prisoners. For that he deserves the thanks of a grateful nation.

With a third Democrat crossing the aisle to support her, Gina Haspel now has the votes she needs to become the next C.I.A. Director.

Gina Haspel faced some tough questions from Democrats regarding her role in the C.I.A.’s post-9/11 torture programs, but she’s likely to be confirmed anyway.

With the start of her confirmation hearings just days away, Gina Haspel’s nomination to be C.I.A. Director is by no means secure.

ProPublica has retracted an explosive but erroneous report about the nominee to be the next CIA Director.

By all accounts, Gina Haspel is exceedingly well qualified to be the next C.I.A. Director, but she has a troubling past that the Senate will need to at least force her to answer questions about.

Next up: Pompeo

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is speaking out against several of President-Elect Trump’s proposed Cabinet nominees.

The sense of national ‘unity’ that existed in the wake of the September 11th attacks didn’t last for very long.

With Republicans in Trump-induced disarray, Libertarians are meeting to pick their nominee and the hope that 2016 could be the year their party finally gets the attention it has craved for four decades.

With time running out, the top three candidates for the Republican nomination picked up right where they left off last week.

Michael Hayden notes that many of Donald Trump’s foreign policy positions are illegal.

Marco Rubio was the man in the cross hairs in last night’s Republican debate.

In the wake of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on C.I.A. torture, some have suggested that eight years of Jack Bauer helped make torture more acceptable to the American public.

Vice-President Cheney’s amoral defense of torture has come to define how most conservatives view the issue, and that’s a problem.

What now?

A dark and regrettable time in American history is finally seeing the light of day.

The Obama Administration’s legal justification for war against ISIS is laughably flimsy.

The right decision, or the triumph of mob rule?

So, this happened.

A bipartisan commission of elder statesmen confirms what we’ve known for years.

A new report confirms that the United States did engage in torture in the wake of the September 11th attacks.

George Will declares solitary confinement tantamount to torture.

As is often the case with sex scandals, pretty much everything ever written about General David Petraeus takes on an ironic double meaning in hindsight.

Based on its recently passed platform, the Democratic Party has given up any pretense of putting civil liberties ahead of “national security.”

The president has come a long way from his days as a “liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war.”

The most disturbing part of Saturday’s debate came when most of the GOP candidates endorsed torture.

Huntsman will gain little if any traction and none of the frontrunners really helped or hurt themselves.

Marc Thiessen claims Khalid Sheikh Mohammad mocked the CIA interrogators who waterboarded him.

John McCain thoroughly dismantles the argument that Osama bin Laden’s capture vindicates the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

The defense of torture as an extreme measure for extraordinary circumstances has evolved.tortu

The debate over “enhanced interrogations” has been renewed by the bin Laden mission, but whether it “worked” or not isn’t the question.

It’s not hypocritical or racist to support an aggressive pursuit of terrorists while getting outraged over abuses of Americans’ liberties.

TSA boss John Pistole has offered to give Senators a pat-down search so that they understand the controversial new procedures.

Did the American media cover up torture by the Bush Administration?