It started out as a crimefighting tool. But over the years, an FBI effort known as “geo-mapping” evolved into something more expansive — a method to track Muslim communities, without any suspicion of a crime being committed.

Last month, Danger Room revealed that the FBI was training its agents that religious Muslims tended to be “violent” and that Islamic charity is merely a “funding mechanism for combat.” In response, both the FBI and the Justice Department promised full reviews of their training materials. But the geo-mapping effort indicates that the FBI may have more than just a training...

An independent monitoring board convened by the worldwide polio-eradication initiative has delivered a report on the global effort that is striking for its brutally frank and even frustrated tone.

Among its findings, just in its first few pages: “Case numbers are rising”; “unwelcome surprises continue”; “as many milestones are being missed as are being met”; and “the (eradication) Programme is not on track for its end-2012 goal, or for any time soon after unless fundamental problems are tackled.”

Possibly the biggest problem, the board concludes, is a get-it-done optimism so ingrained in the...