Terrorism

The White House is appointing Clifford Sloan, a veteran Washington attorney and civil servant, as the State Department's new envoy focused on shuttering the Guantánamo Bay prison, according to administration officials.

“I've known and respected Cliff Sloan for nearly ten years. His intellect and skill as a negotiator is respected across party lines, and he's served presidents Republican and Democratic with equal skill," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

"I appreciate his willingness to take on this challenge. Cliff and I share the President's conviction that Guantanamo’s continued operation isn't in our security interests," he added.

Sloan served as an associate counsel to former President Clinton and as assistant to the solicitor general in the first Bush administration. He also worked as associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel investigating the Iran-Contra affair and clerked for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. More recently, he served as publisher of Slate magazine, legal counsel for The Washington Post's online operations, and as a partner at Skadden Arps.

Russians would likely have killed Tamerlan Tsarnaev if the U.S. had given them a heads-up about him returning to the country last year, according to Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).

Cohen told FBI Director Robert Mueller on Thursday that Russian intelligence officials suggested to him two weeks ago that the Boston bombings could have been prevented if the United States had notified them about the suspected bomber’s return to Dagestan, a region of the North Caucasus.

“The impression I got — this is a big leap — but they said that if they would have known, if you would have followed up and they would have known he was coming back to Dagestan, that possibly the Boston Marathon bombing would not have occurred,” said Cohen.

The Joint Chiefs chairman said the special-ops team's request to enter Benghazi was denied, but was not a stand-down order.

An issue of the al Qaeda online magazine "Inspire" was disrupted by a hacking attack carried out by United States intelligence operatives last month, according to a report in The Washington Post.

The hacked version of the English-language magazine appeared online on May 14 with garbled language on the second page, The Post said. The rest of the online magazine had blank pages and the edition was quickly pulled from the Web. 

"Silence has made these Islamic leaders across America potentially complicit" in terrorist acts, said Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.).

Afghanistan holds the dubious distinction of being the world's least peaceful nation 12 years after the U.S. invasion, according to an international index released Tuesday, beating out unstable Somalia and war-plagued Syria for the bottom spot.

This year's Global Peace Index report notes a 5 percent deterioration in global peace over the past six years. The worsening situation is driven in large part by an 8 percent increase in homicides last year, mostly in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa.

“The findings of this year’s Index support the prevailing trend of the last six years, namely: a continuing shift away from nations taking up arms against one another and towards more organized internal conflicts,” Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman of the Institute for Economics & Peace that conducts the survey, said in a statement. “A key factor associated with this is that the peace gap between countries under authoritarian regimes and the rest of the world is becoming larger.”

President Obama issued a directive calling for a target list of potential overseas targets, according to The Guardian.

The decision elevates the U.N. ambassador to the most powerful foreign relations role in the White House.

Sen. McCain tweeted that while he disagreed with the appointment, he would "make every effort to work" with Rice.

Lawmakers are defending the FBI amid new accusations that the law enforcement agency could have prevented the Boston Marathon bombing.