The British government is moving forward with a proposal to allow its intelligence agency, GCHQ, to monitor calls, emails, texts and online searches of everyone inside the U.K.'s borders. Robert Schifreen is an IT consultant in England, and argues that the GCHQ has been monitoring citizen's activities for quite some time, but passing a law such as the one proposed will make intercepted information admissible in court.

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is infamous for many atrocities. As one of the first African leaders to be tried for war crimes, Taylor was a notorious dictator who oversaw the murder of over one million people. He was also an active participant in the diamonds-for-guns trade, and at one point gifted Naomi Campbell a pouch of blood diamonds. Monday the Boston Globe revealed that during his rise as a ruthless despot, Taylor worked with U.S. spy agencies like the CIA and Pentagon since the early 1980s.

Though Republicans and Unionists share power in Northern Ireland, plenty of raw — albeit buried — political and sectarian divisions still remain. A large part of maintaining peace has been keeping the past in the past, which is why when former members of the IRA and loyalist paramilitary groups told their stories for an academic archive to be stored in the US, they were assured that their testimonies would remain secret until they died. On Monday however, a federal judge in Boston decided that some of the tapes and transcripts should be handed over to the police in Northern Ireland who are investigating the abduction and murder of Jean McConville by the IRA in 1972. 

A seven day pre-trial that closes Thursday will determine if Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, a suspect in leaking confidential military and diplomatic intelligence, faces a court-martial. Manning's defense lawyers claim that the Army's computer security was lacking and a faulty chain of command. Meanwhile, his prosecutors have brought 21 witnesses to the stand in the hopes of establishing traitorous intent.

In their new book, "Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against al-Qaeda," New York Times reporters Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker provide an inside look at what goes on behind the scenes of U.S. counter-intelligence, and how national security efforts against terrorism have evolved in the almost ten years since 9/11.

Pakistan arrested a number of the country's CIA operatives, who had helped the U.S. find and kill Osama bin Laden. After bin Laden's death, Pakistan's military has been mired in a crisis of confidence, and has distanced itself from working with U.S. intelligence in order to combat militant groups in Pakistan. The effect that this fallout with Pakistan may have on the drone program has many U.S. officials worried.

We all remember the now infamous speech that former Secretary of State Colin Powell gave to the UN on February 5, 2003. He made the case that the U.S. had enough intelligence to conclude that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he was a threat to countries in the region and to the U.S. Powell was making the case for going to war with Iraq. And part of his argument rested on the word of an Iraqi defector named Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi. Now al-Janabi has told The Guardian newspaper in London that he was lying and that he would do it again.

In November, a cruise ship left Fort Lauderdale, Florida and set sail for the Caribbean. The ship had cocktails, pool parties and cabaret performances. But the 2,000 people aboard weren't ordinary cruise passengers; they were spies, former spies and their admirers. Journalist and author Tom Mangold, was a passenger on the Spy Cruise, and made the BBC radio documentary “Ship of Spies” about the trip and the changing role of the CIA.

This morning, Washington Post reporter Dana Priest broke an exclusive story about the increased use of intelligence contractors. After years of research and information gathering, Priest found that billions of dollars are being wasted because of redundancies between the intelligence community and its contractors. And even though many top government officials know this is going on, little is being done to make operations more efficient or rein in spending.

Since September 11^th, the intelligence community has handed off many of its responsibilities to private contractors. The private intelligence industry has grown, and been paid billions by the government despite a culture of waste and mismanagement. Because the intelligence community and contractors now share many similar responsibilities, the line distinguishing the two is blurry.

Researchers at the University of Michigan looked at whether people really get wiser with age. We'll be talking about whether you think this holds true in your life and we want your input. Do you think you're wiser now than you were when you were young? And what is wisdom anyway?

Today marks seven years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. In 2005, two years after U.S. and allied forces entered Iraq a U.S. presidential commission said intelligence that Iraq had WMD's was "dead wrong." The report also cast doubts on the integrity of U.S. intelligence on Iran, North Korea, China and Russia. Seven years later, we're taking a look at how the intelligence community responded and asking what changes they've made in the wake of this massive failure.