By Robert Windrem, NBC News producer

Abu Laith al-Libi, one of al-Qaida’s most senior commanders, was apparently killed early Tuesday morning in a Predator attack on a house in the Mir Ali district of Pakistan’s tribal area, U.S. officials say.

Western and U.S. intelligence officials declined to say how the senior commander of al-Qaida operations in Afghanistan died, other than to say, “It was not from natural causes.” But a senior military official told NBC News on Wednesday that al-Libi had been targeted in the attack that killed 10 militants and five others. The main target in the 1:15 a.m. attack was a male guesthouse owned by Madad Khan, believed to be a Taliban militant, according to Pakistani officials.

By Amna Nawaz, NBC News Investigative Unit Producer

The U.S. Department of Agriculture took action today against a Southern California-based meat supplier, suspending all production and delivery of its products after an animal-rights group released video from an undercover investigation at the company's plant.

The video - shot, edited, and released by the Humane Society and now posted on its website -- is the result of a six-week investigation that took place in October and November of 2007. It shows "downer" cows - too sick or injured to stand on their own - being poked in the eye, kicked in the face, and electrically shocked by employees at the slaughterhouse operated by the Westland Meat Company in Chino, California. Some animals are seen being lifted or pushed along the ground by a forklift, in an effort to force them to stand for investigation. Another cow has a high-pressure water hose aimed at its nose, in an attempt to get it to stand on its own.

By Robert Windrem and Victor Limjoco

The 9/11 Commission suspected that critical information it used in its landmark report was the product of harsh interrogations of al-Qaida operatives - interrogations that many critics have labeled torture. Yet, commission staffers never questioned the agency about the interrogation techniques and in fact ordered a second round of interrogations specifically to ask additional questions of the same operatives, NBC News has learned.

Those conclusions are the result of an extensive NBC News analysis of the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report and interviews with Commission staffers and current and former U.S. intelligence officials.

By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer

Welcome to Deep Background, the NBC News investigative blog. We hope you'll turn here for breaking investigative news, and for analysis of stories involving terrorism, espionage, politics, corruption and government waste, fraud and abuse.

NBC's top correspondents and producers will be contributing to these pages, and we hope you'll let us know what you think.