Years of tracking the world's most-wanted terrorist culminated Sunday afternoon, when a CIA-led Navy SEALs squadron of just a few dozen men stormed Usama bin Laden's compound and killed him.

President Obama announced the results of the top-secret operation late Sunday night, calling it the most significant blow to Al Qaeda to date. Within hours, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed more than 3,000 people was buried at sea...

President Obama plans to name CIA Director Leon Panetta as the next secretary of defense, Fox News confirms. As part of a broad reshuffling of his defense and intelligence teams, the president is also expected to pick Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in charge in Afghanistan, to take Panetta's place at the helm of the CIA.

The changes are part of a series of top nominations expected to be announced as early as Wednesday.

Officials say Obama is expected to announce that Lt. Gen. John Allen would replace Petraeus as Afghanistan commander, and that diplomat Ryan Crocker will be the next U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan. A senior defense official also told Fox News the president will "almost certainly" tap Gen. James Cartwright to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Cartwright is currently vice chairman...

(CNSNews.com) – General Michael Hayden, who was director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President George W. Bush and for a brief time under President Barack Obama, said that when it comes to sharing intelligence with members of Congress, the Obama administration acted much like the Bush administration. Both showed reluctance to pass sensitive information on to Congress.

Speaking at a forum on intelligence reform in Washington Tuesday, Hayden said he had similiar experiences when the issue of briefing Congress on an intelligence matter came up in the Bush White House and the Obama White House.

“I was President Obama’s DCIA (Director of the Central Intelligence Agency) for three weeks,” Hayden said.

Iran is poised to begin producing nuclear weapons after its uranium program expansion in 2009, even though it has had problems with thousands of its centrifuges, according to a newly released CIA report.

"Iran continues to develop a range of capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so," the annual report to Congress states.

A U.S. official involved in countering weapons proliferation said the Iranians are "keeping the door open to the possibility of building a nuclear weapon"....

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta on Monday supported the agency's interrogation methods on accused terrorists following the Sept. 11 attacks, as more documents on the issue are being made public.

"This much is clear: The CIA obtained intelligence from high-value detainees when inside information on al Qaeda was in short supply," Mr. Panetta said in a memo to employees. "The use of enhanced interrogation techniques, begun when our country was responding to the horrors of September 11th, ended in January."

The memo is the second in four months in which Mr. Penetta has tried to reassure the agency's estimated 20,000 employees amid controversy about water-boarding and other advanced interrogation techniques...