Of all the unanswered questions raised by the death of Osama bin Laden, one of the most salient for the U.S. national security community is how the world’s most wanted man could have lived for so long just miles from Islamabad and “more or less hiding in plain sight,” as one senior intelligence official described it Monday. Read More

Tim Hetherington, a veteran war photographer who was nominated for an Oscar for his work directing and producing the film Restrepo, was killed during an attack on the Libyan city of Misurata. Chris Hondros, a photographer who worked for Getty Images, was also killed in the attack. Two other journalists were injured. Misurata, the country’s third-largest city, has been besieged by the forces of Muammar Qadhafi for several weeks. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented more than 80 attacks against the press since the civil war began in Libya, including four fatalities. Worldwide, 16 journalists have been killed so far this year, 25 percent of them while covering war zones, according to data compiled by CPJ. Last year, 44 journalists were killed, a quarter of them in war zones.

The U.S. intelligence community has long struggled with how to understand the world. In many instances, it comes down to budgeting: how to get the best results for the money—$80 billion last year—that the country allocates to the problem. University of Georgia political science professor Loch Johnson served on the staff of the 1995-96 Aspin-Brown Commission, which considered how the CIA and the other spy agencies should adjust to the new realities that followed the end of the Cold War. He recently spoke with U.S. News about his new book, The Threat on the Horizon: An Inside Account of America’s Search for Security After the Cold War. Excerpts: Read More