Outside the Beltway

We can draw a rather direct line from the Iraq war to the rise of ISIS.

France’s President blames ISIS, vows response, as death toll from Paris terror attacks stands at at least 127.

Reports of at least up to sixty dead, a hostage situation, and attacks at multiple locations in Paris.

President Obama is set to sign a military spending bill that effectively guarantees that his 2008 campaign promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will go unfulfilled.

The investigation continues, but the consensus seems to be growing that Metrojet 9268 was taken out by a bomb.

American intelligence officials are saying that a Russian passenger jet that went down over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula was most likely brought down by a bomb.

President Obama came to office inheriting the legacy of one unnecessary war, and another that had faded from memory. He will leave office with Iraq and Syria in crisis, Europe uneasy, Yemen and Libya unstable breeding grounds for terrorism, and China doing whatever it is they’re doing.

After an eleven hour day on Capitol Hill, it was Hillary Clinton 1 House Benghazi Committee 0.

As the House Select Benghazi Committee continues to question Hillary Clinton, a new poll finds that the vast majority of Americans view its work as political rather than part of an objective investigation.

What will likely be the apex of the House Select Committee’s investigation of the Benghazi attack begins and ends today with the testimony of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The U.S. and Russia have reached a much-needed deal to avoid inadvertent confrontations over the skies of Syria.

Another Republican Congressman has said that the Select Committee investigating the Benghazi attack is primarily concerned with scoring political points against Hillary Clinton.

The man who will likely be the next Speaker of the House accidentally acknowledged the real motivation behind the Select Committee investigating, yet again, the Benghazi attack.

A Texas 9th Grader named Ahmed Mohammed was arrested because school officials and police refused to believe that the clock he built wasn’t a bomb.

Tragedy in Tennessee.

The Administration announced changes to the way the government handles hostage situations, but it really doesn’t amount to much.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appeared in public for what is likely the last time in his life, apologized for the crimes he committed, and was unsurprisingly sentenced to death by a Federal Judge.

The debate is ultimately academic.

A word that has come in recent years to be used to refer chiefly to Muslim fanatics obviously applies to a man who murdered nine people because they’re black.

A well-founded fear of ISIS seems to be drawing many of the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia closer to Moscow.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

A Federal Appeals Court In Washington has ruled that the military tribunal convictions of one group of Guantanamo Bay detainees was unconstitutional.

The American people don’t believe that liberty should be sacrificed in the name of security, but their leaders largely don’t care.

An Air Force general is bragging about a targeting technique being used against ISIS.

Many provisions of the Patriot Act lapsed at midnight, but apparently the world hasn’t ended.

The Senate returns tomorrow to try to pass an extension of the PATRIOT Act before it expires, but it may not be able to do so.

The first batch of email from Hillary Clinton regarding the 2012 attack in Benghazi have been released, and they don’t reveal anything we didn’t already know.

Who knew terrorists had an H.R. Department?

Lindsey Graham says that, if elected president, he would summarily kill anyone thinking about joining ISIS.

Final justice, but far from the end of the road.

Fresh off an election victory, British Prime Minister David Cameron is set to propose a series of new measures to crackdown on extremism that raise serious civil liberties concerns.

Seymour Hersh is out with a conspiracy theory about the death of Osama bin Laden that just doesn’t make sense.

Not surprisingly, the House Committee re-investigating the Benghazi attack seems more concerned with scoring political points than fact-finding.

Pot, meet kettle.

An attack on al Qaeda outposts in January resulted in the death of two hostages, but also resulted in the death of two high value al Qaeda targets.

Not surprisingly, the Select Committee established by House Republicans to investigate something that has already been investigated multiple times, will be in operation well into the Presidential Election season.

Another step forward for U.S.-Cuban relations.

An unsurprising outcome as we approach the second anniversary of the bombing at the Boston Marathon.

In a twist fitting for an M Night Shyamalan movie, there is growing evidence that there was malfeasance by the co-pilot that resulted in a deliberate crash of Germanwings flight 9525.

The gang calling itself the Islamic State has destroyed another historical site.

Iraqi army and Iranian army in joint offensive to retake Tikrit.

The Atlantic has a fascinating cover story by Graeme Wood titled “What ISIS Really Wants.”

ISIS apparently now has a foothold in Libya, and is making inroads in Yemen.

Yet another attack on religious freedom in Europe.

Daniel Larison is far less ambivalent about our war on ISIL than me.

Their editor and nine colleagues dead, their offices destroyed, the newspaper is not missing a beat.

Some are criticizing the President for not going to Paris for yesterday’s rally.