IPS Writers in the Blogosphere

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Gregory D. Johnsen: John Brennan is the wrong man for the CIA

From On November 20, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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Gregory D. Johnsen, a Princeton scholar who has emerged as a key Yemen analyst, explains why promoting John O. Brennan to CIA director following David Petraeus’ resignation is counterproductive:

Mr. Brennan is the president’s chief counterterrorism adviser and the architect of this model. In a recent speech, he claimed that [...]

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David Petraeus and the Militarization of the CIA

From On November 14, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill injects some badly needed context into the media frenzy over David Petraeus’s CIA resignation by examining the four-star General’s legacy against the backdrop of an increasingly militarized intelligence agency:

As head of US Central Command in 2009, Petraeus issued execute orders that significantly broadened the ability [...]

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Just a Tuesday, like any other, for US drone strikes

From On November 9, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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Election Day in the United States was — as it has been since 1845 — a Tuesday, which meant that it also coincided with “Terror Tuesday,” the label attached to the meetings held by President Obama and his inner national security circle to discuss and authorize drone strikes based on the Administration’s [...]

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Netanyahu-Lieberman Union Won’t Change Iran Timetable

From On October 26, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled an “October surprise” out of his hat when he announced his Likud party would form a joint list in the upcoming election with Avigdor Lieberman’s fascist Yisrael Beiteinu party. This is more of a partnership than a merger, but it has profound implications.

In [...]

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Matthew Kroenig and Trita Parsi Debate: Should the US Strike Iran?

From On October 18, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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Back in January, academic Matthew Kroenig claimed the United States could militarily strike Iran without causing havoc and catastrophe in the region. His arguments were widely criticized and supported by the usual suspects. Jamie Fly, the neoconservative executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, disagreed with Kroenig, but only because [...]

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Don’t Iraq Iran: Foolproof the Intelligence

From On October 2, 2012 · 1 Comment

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Roger Z. George, a former national intelligence officer who teaches at the National War College in Washington, explains how to avoid making the same mistakes the US made before invading Iraq in 2003, with Iran:

- set extremely high standards for evidence
– don’t over-rely on information gathered and supplied by [...]

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The Daily Talking Points

From On September 11, 2012 · Leave a Comment

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News and views relevant to US foreign policy for Sept. 11

“New intelligence on Iran nuke work”: The Associated Press reports that the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) has received intelligence from the United States, Israel and at least two other Western countries showing that Iran has “moved further toward the [...]

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Greg Thielmann counters CNN’s alarmism about Iran’s nuclear program

From On May 2, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Greg Thielmann, a former intelligence official with more than 3 decades of service under his belt, knows a thing or two about intelligence on alleged nuclear weapons programs. He argued during the beginning of the U.S.’s war on Iraq that the intelligence he and his team presented to the Bush Administration about Iraqi [...]

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Seymour Hersh and Iranian Nukes: A Primer

From On June 4, 2011 · 5 Comments

Seymour Hersh’s new piece in the New Yorker has generated a fair amount of buzz, so much so that Iran hawks have quickly leaped into action to try to discredit it. Virtually none of the criticism of Hersh’s piece has actually addressed the substance of his article, however, and since the article is [...]

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