Michael Isikoff

When the FBI questioned Vice President Dick Cheney about his knowledge of the CIA leak affair, the vice president proved to be an irascible and at times uncooperative witness: he repeatedly claimed memory loss on key questions, refused to answer others because they involved "privileged" conversations, and complained that he was "pressed for time." In the end, he rejected a standard bureau request that he not discuss his testimony with other witnesses in the case.These and other details of...

As we previously noted, our colleague Weston Kosova gave the Obama administration some much-needed grief on Friday for refusing a federal judge's recent order to turn over documents showing how big telecommunications firms lobbied to get immunity for their participation in President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.But that is actually only one of many examples of how Obama appointees are standing up for Bush-era secrecy.

The U.S. may be intensifying its Predator missile campaign against Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, as Declassified reported this morning.But a new Justice Department criminal case announced today raises a more fundamental question: are the missile strikes as effective as U.S. government officials would like to believe?

Three U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were killed on a U.S. military helicopter that crashed in western Afghanistan yesterday during a counternarcotics mission, according to two law-enforcement sources who asked not to be identified.

The Obama administration is developing plans to ship more than two dozen accused terrorists from Guantanamo to the United States so they can be placed on trial in four federal courts, according to two knowledgeable government officials, who asked not be be identified talking about the sensitive matter.    A Justice Department spokesman official emphasized there have been no final decisions about the fate of the detainees.

One of the Republican party's biggest fundraisers confirmed Friday that he plans to help bankroll Keep America Safe-the new political advocacy group started by Liz Cheney to attack President Obama's national security policies.

One of the Republican Party's biggest fundraisers confirmed Friday that he plans to help bankroll Keep America Safe, the new political advocacy group started by Liz Cheney to attack President Obama's national-security policies.

It's no coincidence that just as Dick Cheney began his speech Wednesday night slamming President Obama for "dithering" on Afghanistan, a link to his talk shot up on the Web site of a new political advocacy group—the one being run by his daughter, Liz Cheney.  The tie-in illustrates how the two Cheneys are working together to tear down Obama's standing on national-security issues—a goal they view as critical to vindicating the policies of the Bush-Cheney years.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced this morning a massive nationwide crackdown against members of a bizarre Mexican drug cartel that officials say operates like a "quasi-religious" cult.

U.S. intelligence officials are increasingly nervous that notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout may soon be released from a Thai jail due in part to a pressure campaign by the Russian government aimed at blocking his extradition to the U.S. to stand trial on weapons-trafficking charges.

After helping to elect Barack Obama, a group of the president's top campaign strategists moved quickly last spring to capitalize on their success as the new masters of the political universe: they flew off to Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, to sign a lucrative contract to advise Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on her race for that country's presidency.The arrangement between AKPD Media, the powerhouse political consulting firm founded by senior White House aide David Axelrod (who no longer works...

UPDATE, 8:30 PM: After getting complaints from Congress─and an inquiry from NEWSWEEK─the State Department backed away Thursday from awarding foreign-aid funds to two foundations headed by the children of Libyan dictator Muammar Kaddafi.

Attorney General Eric Holder got plenty of attention Wednesday for announcing a new policy that is supposed to "strengthen public confidence" when the Justice Department invokes "state secrets" to shut down lawsuits alleging wrongdoing by the CIA or other U.S. government agencies.

The U.S. government's policy of "normalizing" relations with Muammar Kaddafi─once touted as one of President Bush's major foreign-policy achievements and continued by President Obama─looked more embarrassing than ever on Wednesday when the erratic Libyan leader delivered a bizarre talk to the United Nations defending the Taliban and suggesting Israel was behind the assassination of President John F.

What happened to White House fact checkers? In today's Washington Post,President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, sought to portray the administration's current crop of conservative critics as the latest in a long line of reactionaries who have assailed Democratic presidents in the past. "Father Coughlin called Roosevelt a socialist, the John Birch Society was created in reaction to Kennedy, Clinton had [Richard Mellon] Scaife and others who went after him," Rahmbo is quoted as saying in...

Exclusive: According to court documents, the Fed chairman and his wife were swindled in 2008 by a skilled team of crooks.

The AG appoints an investigator, but prosecutions are anything but certain.

The move to normalize relations between the U.S. and Libya accelerates next month when Muammar Kaddafi makes his first-ever trip to America to address the U.N.

Newly revealed e-mails may show that Karl Rove and the Bush White House had a more active role in the 2006 U.S. attorney firings than previously disclosed.

The latest military bill in the House included over 1,000 of the spending provisions.

White House officials last week tried to downplay their decision to postpone by six months a key report on what to do with Guantánamo detainees when the facility is shut down.

Exclusive: why a key report on closing the facility has been delayed.

NEWSWEEK's disclosure that attorney General Eric Holder Jr. may appoint a prosecutor to investigate detainee abuse has revived tensions in the Obama administration about how to deal with Bush-era controversies.

Eric Holder's apparent movement toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate Bush-era interrogation techniques has raised quite a stir. NEWSWEEK's Michael Isikoff has some questions for the A.G.

As the political battle over the Obama administration's stimulus plan escalates, Earl Devaney, the veteran inspector general charged with monitoring spending, is moving to establish his independence.

Critics are troubled by an award to Chevron named after Richard Holbrooke, a high-ranking Obama official.

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies.

The war over Watergate never ends. The latest battle is over a decision by the Nixon Presidential Library to commemorate this week's 37th anniversary of the Watergate break-in by inviting an especially provocative speaker: John Dean, the former White House lawyer who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice after testifying about his boss's role in the cover-up.

Patrick Fitzgerald may be the most feared prosecutor in the country, but even as he's racked up headlines for big-name convictions (Scooter Libby) and indictments (Rod Blagojevich), the hard-charging U.S. attorney from Chicago has been waging a private crusade: trying to kill a book he believes maligns his reputation.

As part of their efforts to shut down the Guantánamo Bay detention center, Obama Administration officials were poised in late April to make a bold, stealthy move: they instructed the U.S. Marshals Service to prepare an aircraft and a Special Ops group to fly two Chinese Uighurs, and up to five more on subsequent flights, from Gitmo to northern Virginia for resettlement.