Outside the Beltway

The CIA unsuccessfully lobbied to put Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the eldest of the Boston Marathon bombers, on the counterterrorism watch list in 2011.

What Miranda does and does not cover and what consequences follow if police do not comply.

A sensational story, little solid information, and instant analysis are a bad combination

Yesterday was not a good day for the Cable “News” Network.

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.

We treat violence by lone individuals differently than organized violence. Race, religion, and national origin have nothing to do with that.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about what happened in Boston, so maybe it’s time to stop speculating.

The Manchin/Toomey proposal on background checks isn’t perfect, but it isn’t horrible either.

Mother Jones’s recording of a secret McConnell campaign strategy meeting is much less than meets the eye.

An American fighting with Syrian rebels faces life in prison for firing an RPG against a government we’re trying to oust.

Targeting terrorist leadership may be counterproductive.

All of us being watched, all the time, and that data being stored forever.

The final release of President Lyndon Johnson’s tape recordings reveals a bizarre plot.

A federal judge has ruled National Security Letters violate the First Amendment’s free speech guarantees.

The gambling mogul is self-reporting violations of the law against bribing foreign officials.

A 5-year-old Alabama boy is safe after authorities killed his kidnapper.

The ultimate impact of the Newtown tragedy on the nation’s gun laws is likely to be very limited.

Firearms are set to pass the automobile as the instrument for American deaths.

The Internet is a weird place.

George Zimmerman’s attorneys have filed a defamation lawsuit against NBC News.

Congress is trying to re-write a law that the Supreme Court found unconstitutional in June. Have they succeeded?

Has Petraeus provided the basic explanation for the administration’s immediate responses to Benghazi?

People continue to spread conspiracy theories explaining the “real reason” that David Petraeus’s extra-marital affair became public.

If nothing else, the Petraeus affair is teaching us a valuable lesson in just how extensive the Surveillance State has become.