Well, N&S got this news in the form of a press release from the State Department, which could not help but toot its own horn. But ... in this case the department does seem to have something to brag about.

A Businessweek magazine survey ranked the State Department No. 5 in terms of best places to launch a career, and first among all US government agencies. It ranked behind only four premier accounting firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG) as the most desirable place to get going in the workforce.

So much for those sterotypes of fuddy-duddy diplomats, hidebound regulations and outdated communications systems.

Our colleagues over at ProPublica, the non-profit investigative journalism outfit, have secured what they say is a copy of Iran's five-page proposal for negotiations with the United States and other world powers.

Entitled, "Package of proposals by the Islamic Republic of Iran for Comprehensive and Constructive Negotiations," it can be found here. N&S can't yet vouch for the authenticity of the document.

Eight years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, Osama bin Laden has declining popularity among Muslims worldwide and the tactic of suicide bombings faces growing resistances as well, according to a new analysis from the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project.

Bin Laden's approval rating, if you want to call it that, sunk from 59% to 25% in Indonesia between 2003 and 2009, according to the Center's polling data. OBL saw similar drops in Pakistan (46% to 18%) and Jordan (56% to 28%). Large majorities in major Muslim countries such as Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan agree with the statement that suicide bombing and violence against civilians can never be justified.

The statistics jibe with growing anecdotal evidence we hear, both in the Islamic world and in Washington conference rooms, about the slipping support for al Qaida among broad swaths of Muslim populations -- the political center, as it were -- if not among radicalized groups themselves.

"The ideology driving al-Qaida is showing signs of wear and its popularity appears to be waning and more Muslim voices publicly challenge its tenets," the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, said in a speech today at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Still, he cautioned "we still face determined (terrorist) adversaries who seek to adapt in ways that present fresh challenges."

Even as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq rage on, it's nice to have a bit of good news as we prepare to honor the victims of 9/11 and their families.

So this week at the Pentagon, my focus has been on Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s 60-day assessment of the situation in Afghanistan. While every point of this process so far has been public, the assessment itself is now considered a confidential military assessment. Thus, my colleagues and I are searching for those who have read it to give you some sense of what’s in it.

From what I can tell, the document will be underwhelming as I don’t think it reveals much more than what the general has already said publicly.  The Afghan forces need more training; the mission needs more civilians; and the coalition needs to move its forces out of remote outposts and toward population centers. While the report does not state it explicitly, the general spells out a situation and a strategy that demands more troops.

Privately, advisors to McChrystal say the Pentagon asked for this assessment and the general agreed to do it, in part, to buy time. The assumption was the assessment would give the military time to tell the public the way ahead in Afghanistan, and it would give President Obama time to warm the American public to the idea of sending more troops.

As it turns out, the idea may have backfired.  Between the flailing economy, the raging health care debate and an Afghanistan that increasingly appears to both unmanageable and more violent for U.S. troops, the president may find it far more difficult to ask for more troops than had he proposed the idea 60 days ago. Indeed, our own poll found that 56 percent of Americans oppose the idea.  And yet, he can’t not send them either. Obama named McChrysal the commander earlier this summer because the military believes the former special forces commander is the best hope the United States has to salvage Afghanistan. So how can the President then not send the general what he believes he needs to win the war?  Moreover, Obama called this the just, necessary war, the war the Untied States must win to protect its security.

So 60 days after this exercise started, the President may find that he doesn’t have the political capital to send more troops nor does he have the political standing to not send more.

           VS.                            

The CIA late Monday said it would not turn over additional documents related to its detention and interrogation program sought by the American Civil Liberties Union, saying their release would harm national security.

Among the documents the ACLU had sought (and we here at N&S had very much hoped to see) was a still-classifed executive order by former President George W. Bush, dated September 17, 2001, authorizing the CIA to set up its secret interrogation and detention program for suspected terrorists. Others were records of the CIA Inspector General's investigation into abuses and other problems in the program. (A redacted copy of the IG's official report was released on August 24).

Those of us who have spent much of the last 10 days trolling through the thousands of pages of documents recently released by the administration have mixed feelings about the lack of a new document dump. (We are kidding).

The ACLU's press release, and a link to the government's argument for keeping the information classified, can be found here. 

The court battle will no doubt continue.