Update as of 8/24: Legal Questions Remain for Freed Scholar in Iran (NYT). New York Times Oped by Camelia Entekhabifard, Fooled by Winds of Reform.
Haleh Esfandiari, one of three Americans imprisoned in Iran, has been released on bail, although charges are still pending and and there are new concerns about her health and if she will be allowed to leave the country.
Barack Obama gave a speech today at the Wilson Center on counterterrorism, which was covered by AP and blogged by WaPo’s The Trail , NYT Caucus.
Update as of 2:52 PST: see analysis by US News, ABC, Chicago Trib, and other outside experts on WaPo.
Related oped posted 8/21/07: Barnett: To rejoin world, U.S. must rejoin conversation.
CAP’s Joseph Cirincione and KSG’s Uri Leventer have a new piece out on the five major nuclear threats.
WaPo is covering the India-US nuclear deal and the Economist analyzes the underlying nuclear-power politics.
In related news, ASEAN is forming its own nuclear safety watchdog and earlier this month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported (PDF) on their investigation into domestic nuclear security.
An interesting trio of articles about the Iraq Study Group:
Also, Baker and Hamilton recently spoke at the National Press Club on June 11th.
A roundup of the day’s national and international security news: Pakistan ends truce with tribal leaders; Mahdi army becomes enemy #1 in Western Baghdad; Russia pulls out of treaty; DHS loses senior leaders;
One vehicle was found this morning in London’s theater district and contained canisters of nails and gas. A second suspicious car remains under investigation near Hyde Park. The CT Blog has thorough and ongoing coverage, in addition to the front page stories in the Times and Post.
Today, the UN announced a 14% rise in refugees from last year — the highest since 2002. This was due in large part to significant growth in the number of Iraqi refugees. By some estimates, Continue Reading »
A roundup of the day’s national and international security news: U.S. makes suprise visit in Pyongyang; Blair may become Mideast envoy; Six detainees released; Chertoff says the enemy is in Pakistan; Fred Thompson gives foreign policy speech; Foreign Service affected by wars: Continue Reading »
At first, it seemed like a good week for nonproliferation: the U.S. is taking steps to restart talks with North Korea and Pakistan has agreed to participate in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (although its military “facilities and activities” are not covered). But NYT’s business section offers a less glowing report… Continue Reading »
A roundup of the day’s national and international security news: Negroponte pressures Maliki; Iraq’s Sunni insurgents offer Al Qaeda a truce; Turkish Premier and Kurds de-escalate; State Department lists new human traffickers; Bush not pick pocketed in Albania. Continue Reading »
A roundup of the day’s national and international security news: Dems spar over Iraq, worrisome assessment of Baghdad security, Pakistan and China increase censorship, and Putin talks tough. Continue Reading »
With Chancellor Merkel headlining this week’s G8 meeting, President Bush moved to stage left for a warm-up act on global warming. His volte-face on climate change encountered a chilly reception: Speaker Pelosi called it a “profound disappointment,” and many scientists expressed skepticism due to Bush’s “legacy of stalling, back-pedaling and undermining of international talks.” Yet other experts held out some measure of “conditional [support for]… a potentially useful tool for gaining new consensus.”
After avoiding Secretary Rice in Egypt last week, Iran’s leaders accepted historic talks with the U.S. about Iraqi security.
… and then promptly started to sabotage them: imprisoning an Iranian-American Princeton scholar and announcing greater cooperation with North Korea.
Following Vice President Cheney’s speech on an aircraft carrier outside the UAE, Ahmadinejad spoke in Abu Dhabi, where his tone was a melange of menace, defensiveness, and “raucous anti-American[ism]”. Continue Reading »
Today, Venezuela decided to leave the IMF and World Bank (LA Times) and nationalized the last of its private oil fields (WaPo). There are essentially three ways to interpret this development:
Under any of these interpretations, the U.S. should take steps to repair gaps in the Intelligence Community, such as coverage of Latin America (see Douglas Farah’s diagnosis of the problem). America should also redouble its efforts to become energy independent and advance renewable energy technologies. That way, the United States can be freer to make geo-strategic choices as well as respond effectively to autocrats like Chavez.