Was Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei behind the abduction of Britain’s 15 sailors — who were taken by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on March 23rd of this year — or not? Many of the Iran experts I know have told me that it is hard to imagine a scenario that would not depict Khamenei as the…
I imagine Steve figured his “Happy 4th of July” post would stay up here throughout the holiday, but I’m bumping it down to announce my triumphant return to The Washington Note and explain my two-week absence.
Annie, Oakley the Amazing Weimaraner and I want to wish all of you a very happy and relaxing 4th of July.
The United States has had a long history of hawkishness in its foreign policy, but for the most part American hawks have been judicious ones who carefully weighed costs and opportunities. But then there is also a cast of characters in our history that can’t see the gray area between bombing and appeasement.
I am hosting a dinner for Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns tonight, and will report on the “on the record” portion later. In other news, Scooter Libby will not go to jail. He will still have to pay a $250,000 fine and will be on 2-year probation.
There is a lot of crime in the world, too much — but sometimes misfortune hits close to home and needs to be highlighted.
I have been arguing for years that Vice President Cheney had done more than any other single person in the government — including the President of the United States — to plant acolytes and followers of his throughout the national security bureaucracy.
I’m attending the launch conference today for the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) that is headed by two former CSIS senior staffers, Kurt Campbell and Michele Flournoy. The conference has pulled together a real who’s who of the Democratic national security establishment into this invite only confab at the Willard Hotel.
Johanna Mendelson Forman is a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and was previously Senior Program Officer for Peace, Security and Human Rights at the UN Foundation.
