Tracking the Threats Within

Ever since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI has been image-conscious. To this day, the bureau’s hallways are dotted with movie posters showing square-jawed G-men. Robert Mueller, who took over the FBI seven days before 9/11 — perhaps the worst day in the agency’s history — has a face that could easily be on one of those posters. But his urgent mission has been to adapt the sclerotic agency of gangbusting feds for the age of the multiplatform threat matrix.

(Read “FBI Broke Privacy Laws, Says Justice Department Probe.”)

Contributing editor-at-large Barton Gellman spent four months reporting his exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Mueller’s FBI. Bart’s story poses difficult questions about balancing law enforcement and domestic intelligence: How do you protect safety and privacy in an era of expanded threats? Bart’s story sheds light on these vital issues.

When you send one of the world’s best photographers to one of the world’s most dangerous places, you’re certain to get amazing images. But Jim Nachtwey, a veteran of three decades’ worth of conflicts, also possesses the rare ability to find unexpected stories in a war zone. On assignment for TIME in Afghanistan, he went off the beaten track in Kabul and found a story seldom told or seen: the plight of Afghan drug addicts. We think of that country as the world’s top exporter of opium, but its society pays a heavy price. Nearly a million Afghans are thought to be addicts, but they have rarely gotten attention. Until Jim Nachtwey’s camera found them.

Watch “Photographing the Birds of Hope: An Army Medevac Unit in Afghanistan.”.

See TIME’s Pictures of the Week.