Bush Adviser's Memo Cites Doubts About Iraqi Leader  —  A classified memorandum by President Bush's national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq and recommended that the United States …

Pelosi Passes on Hastings, Harman for House Intel Chair  —  House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided against naming either Reps. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, or Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), the panel's No. 2 Democrat …

Son also rises in testy Webb-Bush exchange  —  President Bush has pledged to work with the new Democratic majorities in Congress, but he has already gotten off on the wrong foot with Jim Webb, whose surprise victory over Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) tipped the Senate to the Democrats.

As Iraq Deteriorates, Iraqis Get More Blame  —  From troops on the ground to members of Congress, Americans increasingly blame the continuing violence and destruction in Iraq on the people most affected by it: the Iraqis.  —  Even Democrats who have criticized the Bush administration's conduct …

Judge strikes down Bush on terror groups  —  LOS ANGELES - A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutionally vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday.

Accept defeat by Taliban, Pakistan tells Nato  —  Senior Pakistani officials are urging Nato countries to accept the Taliban and work towards a new coalition government in Kabul that might exclude the Afghan president Hamid Karzai.  —  Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri …

SWAT Overkill: The Danger of a Paramilitary Police Force  —  In a guest editorial, law professor and instupundit.com blogger Glenn Reynolds argues that overagressive tactics and surplus military gear have turned some police units into a dangerous menace.  —  SOLDIERS AND POLICE are supposed to be different.

President Bush Discusses NATO Alliance During Visit to Latvia  —  PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all.  Labdien!  (Applause.)  Madam President, thank you for your kind words.  Thank you for your leadership, and thank you for your friendship.  Mr. Speaker; Mr. Prime Minister …

White House Wages War of Words Over 'Civil' Term  —  The carnage in Iraq is "sectarian violence," President Bush says.  It's a "struggle for freedom," the "central front in the war on terror."  It is not, no matter how much it may look like it, a civil war.  —  Forget the debate over what to do about the war in Iraq.

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Considers Moving Troops From al-Anbar Province to Baghdad  —  Major Strategic Shift Considered to Secure Iraqi Capital  —  ABC News has learned that Pentagon officials are considering a major strategic shift in Iraq, to move U.S. forces out of the dangerous Sunni-dominated …

JUDGE ORDERS TREASURY DEPARTMENT TO MAKE PAPER MONEY RECOGNIZABLE TO BLIND PEOPLE  —  WASHINGTON — American paper money represents an unfair impediment to the blind, and the Treasury Department must come up with new U.S. currency to help the visually impaired use cash, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on  —  Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.

Houston man admits trying to help Taliban  —  A second man, in U.S. illegally, faces similar conspiracy and weapons charges  —  One of two Houston men accused of training to fight with the Taliban pleaded guilty this afternoon in federal court.  —  Kobie Diallo Williams, 33 …