Independent Review

The deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya during a 2012 attack on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi told investigators he thought it was a terrorist strike from the beginning, according to interview excerpts released Sunday on CBS News's "Face the Nation. " "I thought it was a terrorist attack from the get-go. I think everybody in the mission thought it was a terrorist attack from the beginning," Gregory Hicks said in an interview with investigators shared with "Face the Nation.

WASHINGTON — The leaders of the panel that independently reviewed last year's deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, said Tuesday they were prepared to testify publicly before Congress to counter what they consider unfounded criticism of their work. In a letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering said he and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen would answer any questions lawmakers have. Rep....

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Thursday that a review of every grave in the national cemetery system found 15 sets of remains buried in the wrong spots and nearly 800 other problems. Most of those other issues were unmarked or mismarked graves. The department's announcement came shortly after its inspector general released a report critical of how the VA initially accounted for the final resting place of generations of veterans and their families. That report was prompted by the...

The deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya during a 2012 attack on a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi told investigators he thought it was a terrorist strike from the beginning, according to interview excerpts released Sunday on CBS News's "Face the Nation. " "I thought it was a terrorist attack from the get-go. I think everybody in the mission thought it was a terrorist attack from the beginning," Gregory Hicks said in an interview with investigators shared with "Face the Nation.

A proposal to give federal ­judges a direct role in the nation's drone campaign gained new momentum this week with a signal from senior lawmakers that they intend to consider creating a special court to oversee the selection of targets for lethal strikes. But the idea — cited by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), among others, as a way to impose new accountability on the drone program — faces significant legal and logistical hurdles, according to U.S. officials and legal experts.

A scientist who is one of the central figures in the controversy over hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit announced Tuesday that he is stepping down while the university investigates the incident. Climate skeptics have seized on several e-mails from Phil Jones, director of the university's Climatic Research Unit, to other researchers as evidence that prominent scientists have sought to silence their voice in the debate over global warming.

THURSDAY, Dec. 11 (HealthDay News) -- An anti-methamphetamine campaign that utilizes graphic images actually may not be very effective, a new study found. The Montana Meth Project (MMP), created in 2005, featured images that showed the extreme consequences of using meth "just once. " The perceived success of the program had resulted in its implementation in a number of other states. However, an independent review of the program suggests it's associated with a number of negative outcomes.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) yesterday broke a years-long public silence about the anthrax-mailing case to cast doubt on the FBI's assertion that a bioweapons researcher acted as the lone culprit in the deadly attacks. Leahy, one of two congressional addressees of poison-laced letters in the fall of 2001, did not offer reasons for his suspicions, which could heighten calls for an independent review of the evidence that authorities gathered against Bruce E. Ivins.

The Department of Homeland Security has initiated unspecified actions against personnel involved in the bungled online posting this spring of a government document that revealed airport screening secrets, Secretary Janet Napolitano told senators Wednesday. A contract employee was responsible for not properly redacting a 93-page Transportation Security Administration operating manual that was put on a government procurement Web site, allowing computer users to recover blacked-out information by copying and pasting it...

A $2 billion search for U.S. foreclosure errors was hampered by poor planning from the regulators who demanded it, according to a review by the Government Accountability Office. U.S. banking regulators provided insufficient guidance for the independent review of more than 4 million foreclosures by 14 mortgage servicers in 2009 and 2010, a draft of the report said. The review process, which was halted in January without providing compensation to any wronged borrowers, was...

A $2 billion search for U.S. foreclosure errors was hampered by poor planning from the regulators who demanded it, according to a review by the Government Accountability Office. U.S. banking regulators provided insufficient guidance for the independent review of more than 4 million foreclosures by 14 mortgage servicers in 2009 and 2010, a draft of the report said. The review process, which was halted in January without providing compensation to any wronged borrowers, was ordered in 2011 by the...

Two Montgomery County Council members called on the council Wednesday to hire its own independent expert to evaluate the county's plans for repair work on the troubled Silver Spring Transit Center. County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and his staff are developing repair plans for the $119 million bus-and-train hub based on a study he commissioned from KCE Structural Engineers. The firm announced last month that the building had weak concrete and inadequate supporting steel in...

A proposal to give federal ­judges a direct role in the nation's drone campaign gained new momentum this week with a signal from senior lawmakers that they intend to consider creating a special court to oversee the selection of targets for lethal strikes. But the idea — cited by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), among others, as a way to impose new accountability on the drone program — faces significant legal and logistical hurdles, according to U.S. officials and legal...

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Thursday that a review of every grave in the national cemetery system found 15 sets of remains buried in the wrong spots and nearly 800 other problems. Most of those other issues were unmarked or mismarked graves. The department's announcement came shortly after its inspector general released a report critical of how the VA initially accounted for the final resting place of generations of veterans and their families. That report was...

The White House has authorized an independent review of all loan guarantees made by the Energy Department to foster green technology amid fallout from the bankruptcy this year of Solyndra, the California company that received a $535 million loan through the program. White House officials said Friday that Chief of Staff William M. Daley ordered the review, which will evaluate the entire $35.9 billion loan portfolio made to support the private-sector development of...

The Department of Homeland Security has initiated unspecified actions against personnel involved in the bungled online posting this spring of a government document that revealed airport screening secrets, Secretary Janet Napolitano told senators Wednesday. A contract employee was responsible for not properly redacting a 93-page Transportation Security Administration operating manual that was put on a government procurement Web site, allowing computer users to recover blacked-out information by copying and pasting it...

LAST MONTH, the Obama administration informed a D.C. federal court that it opposes judicial review of the detentions of those held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. That means it is implicitly arguing that it can continue to hold people, some of whom were seized outside of Afghanistan, year after year, without charge or access to lawyers. This is unacceptable. The Bagram situation is not identical to that at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; last year, the Supreme Court ruled that detainees there are entitled to judicial review.

THERE'S NO better proof of the need for an independent review of the FBI's anthrax investigation than the words of Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Mr. Leahy was one of the intended recipients of anthrax-filled letters sent in 2001. Chairing a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday at which FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III testified, Mr. Leahy rejected the agency's assertion that government scientist Bruce E. Ivins acted alone in creating and dispensing the deadly spores that killed five people and sickened 17 others.

A scientist who is one of the central figures in the controversy over hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit announced Tuesday that he is stepping down while the university investigates the incident. Climate skeptics have seized on several e-mails from Phil Jones, director of the university's Climatic Research Unit, to other researchers as evidence that prominent scientists have sought to silence their voice in the debate over global warming.

Senior Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill voiced their dissatisfaction Tuesday with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s decision to appoint a special prosecutor to examine CIA interrogators' alleged abuse of terrorism suspects earlier this decade. Leading Republicans denounced the appointment of John H. Durham, a career prosecutor, saying it will hinder intelligence-gathering in the fight against terrorists, while top Democrats criticized the investigation as too limited.