Jeffrey Bartholet

An interview with Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement.

How Somalia's legendary 'Mad Mullah' prefigured the rise of Osama bin Laden—and the 'forever war' between Islam and the West.

Many of Obama's top advisers, like an increasing number of Americans, have learned and lived abroad.

How a group of mystery 'keyholders' secretly protected Afghanistan's crown jewels—and where they can be seen now.

The world is consuming more food than it produces.

An ex-CIA spymaster critiques America's war on Al Qaeda.

The candidate's chief economics adviser balances the books.

Whose side is Joe Lieberman on?

Will Clinton's Martin Luther King comment cost her black support in the South Carolina primary? A veteran of the civil rights movement weighs in.

A former political operative explains how they're done.

Explorers, journalists and adventurers going to Africa have long relied on local guides for advice and protection. Richard Burton, the intrepid Victorian-era explorer, employed a man he dubbed "the End of Time" when he made his way across the wastes of Somaliland in 1854.

The ice cap is thinning at a scary rate. What can be done?

How high can the price of a barrel of crude go?

The government's top watchdog warns of a coming catastrophe.

Turkey's ambassador warns that patience is running short. The military option is open.

A Christian political leader on the threat of a third party.

Once a child soldier, Emmanuel Jal is now an African hip-hop artist. A journey from war and starvation to the five-star comforts of fame.

The White House trumpets success in the drug war, even as it prepares a big new aid program. Is it real, or is it politics?

A defender of the auto industry proposes a carbon tax that will cause everyone pain. Is the country ready for shared sacrifice to combat global warming?

Iraq's ambassador to the United States backs the Petraeus plan, calls for Iran to 'stop interfering' in his country's affairs—and expects a continued American presence there for a long time to come.

Rita Katz surfs jihadi websites for indications of terrorist activity. Her take on the latest Osama bin Laden video—and the machinery that produced it.

Gregory Kutz and his colleagues wanted to order enough radioactive material to make a dirty bomb. So they set up bogus companies and applied for separate licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state of Maryland.

Famines generally follow a grim script: first the rains fail, then aid agencies issue dire warnings, and finally the United Nations scrambles to raise money and send food aid as journalists write stories of horror and tragedy.

Turmoil in Iraq gets most of the headlines these days. But in Afghanistan, where the Bush administration began its war on terror in October 2001, the trend lines are not good, either.

He can deal out death through his black-clad followers and roil the government any time he chooses. Why Moqtada al-Sadr may end up deciding America's fate in Iraq.

Political pressure and sober intelligence analysis don't mix well. Paul R. Pillar, who served as the CIA's National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, took that as a clear lesson from the Iraq war.

Mogadishu is a place most Americans would rather forget. During the 1990s, the "Black Hawk Down" debacle symbolized the dangers of dabbling in far-off lands we don't understand.

My friend Yahya was asleep at home with his wife when several heavily armed vehicles rolled to a stop outside his house around 2 a.m. last Monday. It was raining in Mogadishu, and the patter of droplets obscured the sounds of the night.

James Nachtwey has been described--by a fellow photographer--as the Angel of Death. If you see Nachtwey in a ravaged land, and people are not dying in front of his lens, they soon will be.

Zohur Ahmed Dar had no reason to fear when he went to his neighborhood mosque one night late last year. But after an evening of prayer and ritual to celebrate the day the prophet Mohammed received revelations from God, Dar never made it back home.Riding his motor scooter through the dark streets of Srinagar--the summer capital of the disputed, Indian-ruled region of Kashmir--Dar was attacked by "unidentified gunmen" wearing masks.