Guy Taylor
Articles by Guy Taylor
U.N. reaches deal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons; U.S. and Iran open talks
The U.N. Security Council's five permanent members reached an agreement Thursday to push through a resolution calling for the swift elimination of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, a key development in fast-paced day of diplomacy that also featured the highest-level U.S.-Iranian meeting in years. Published September 26, 2013
White House pulls back on Assad ouster talk
The recent U.S.-Russia deal to rid Syria of its chemical weapons found the White House toning down its previous calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign. Published September 25, 2013
State Department security still lacking a year after Benghazi: OIG report
A year after the Benghazi attack, the State Department still doesn't have a good handle on managing security risks at foreign diplomatic missions, the department's internal auditor said in a report being released Wednesday. Published September 25, 2013
Freeze! Global gun grab treaty ‘dead in the water,’ Inhofe says
Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Wednesday formally signed a far-reaching international treaty in New York designed to regulate the international purchase and sale of conventional firearms — despite intense resistance from the American gun lobby and warnings from at least one Republican that the pact will never get ratified in Washington. Published September 24, 2013
Terrorist attacks on soft targets feared in U.S.
U.S. law enforcement authorities are investigating claims, first made via Twitter over the weekend by the al-Shabab terrorist network and now by the Kenyan government, that three Somali-Americans are among the gunmen who committed the mall massacre in Kenya. Published September 23, 2013
U.S. and Russia press Syria, but are slow to destroy their own chemical weapons
As the Obama administration presses the United Nations this week to rid Syria of its chemical weapons, it faces the stark reality that the United States has failed to meet a 2012 deadline to destroy its remaining arsenal and has never pressured its closest Middle East ally, Israel, to sign the treaty banning such weapons. Published September 22, 2013
Kerry tells U.N. to focus on ridding Syria of chemical weapons, not on sarin attack
Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Thursday urged the U.N. Security Council to ignore Russia's questions about the source of chemical weapons used in the Syrian civil war and to back quickly the plan to rid Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime of its stockpile. Published September 19, 2013
Obama was warned of earlier chemical attacks in Syria, stayed mum until deaths hit masses
Well before last month's sarin nerve gas attack in a Damascus suburb, the Obama administration had gathered intelligence that chemical weapons had been used in Syria on multiple occasions but did not take action because there were debates about who was responsible and there was little public outcry, according to officials familiar with the intelligence. Published September 16, 2013
ANALYSIS: Deal with Russians legitimizes Assad; raises prospect of partitioning Syria
The U.S.-Russia agreement to compel Syria to account for and destroy its chemical weapons completes what foreign policy insiders say is a dangerous about-face by the Obama administration — flipping from demanding Syrian President Bashar Assad's resignation to now legitimizing him as the lynchpin player in a tenuous deal. Published September 14, 2013
U.S. can’t prove Bashar Assad approved chemical attacks in Syria
U.S. intelligence has yet to uncover evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad directly ordered the chemical attacks last month on civilians in a suburb of Damascus, though the consensus inside U.S. agencies and Congress is that members of Mr. Assad's inner circle likely gave the command, officials tell The Washington Times. Published September 11, 2013
Woman who wrote WSJ op-ed cited during Syria hearing fired for lying
The woman whom Secretary of State John F. Kerry cited for evidence that the rebels aren't infiltrated by al Qaeda-linked fighters has been fired from her think tank job for lying about her academic credentials, her employer said Wednesday. Published September 11, 2013
Analysts counter claims on number of al Qaeda among Syrian rebels
Al Qaeda-linked groups operating alongside Syria's rebels are growing stronger, analysts told Congress on Tuesday, countering recent claims by the Obama administration and some senior lawmakers that extremists are playing only a marginal role in the civil war. Published September 10, 2013
Lawmaker warns: Chaos from Assad fall could give al Qaeda chemical weapons
Should Syrian President Bashar Assad's government come apart chaotically — a possible ramification of U.S. military strikes — the risk is high that al Qaeda-linked groups among Syria's opposition forces could gain access to the nation's lethal chemical weapons stocks, the head of the House Homeland Security Committee warned Tuesday. Published September 10, 2013
Al Qaeda’s strength with Syrian rebels now being downplayed
The Obama administration has started to rebrand Syria's rebels by de-emphasizing the number of al Qaeda fighters among them — a move critics say is based on questionable intelligence designed to downplay the risks associated with a U.S. military strike on the regime of President Bashar Assad. Published September 9, 2013
Intel clashes with Obama’s election-year al Qaeda claims
EXCLUSIVE — As President Obama ran to election victory last fall with claims that al Qaeda was “decimated” and “on the run,” his intelligence team was privately offering an assessment that the terror network was shifting resources to emerging spinoff groups in Africa that posed fresh threats. Published September 9, 2013
What U.N.? Obama runs Bush playbook by assembling coalition of the willing
President Obama's stated willingness to go it alone on Syria surprises those who followed him during the previous administration, when, as a senator, he derided George W. Bush's commitment to multilateralism and questioned his "coalition of the willing" in Iraq. Published September 8, 2013
Iran’s fury: Ready to unleash Hezbollah, kidnap Americans if U.S. strikes Syria
The debate over whether Congress approves the Obama administration's plan to strike Syria for its use of chemical weapons is being watched nowhere more closely than in Iran, where the notoriously opaque political leaders are wrestling over whether — and how — to retaliate. Published September 4, 2013
John Kerry: Syrian regime killed 1,429 people in chemical attack
Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. knows based on intelligence that the Syrian regime carefully prepared for days to launch a chemical weapons attack — killing 1,429 people. Published August 30, 2013
State Dept. names David Satterfield temporary new top diplomat to Egypt
The State Department assigned a new chief of diplomatic affairs to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Friday, announcing the departure of current Ambassador Anne Patterson, who has served at the embassy during a the tumultuous past two years and has now been nominated to become assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs. Published August 30, 2013
Strike on Syria would bring Iran into the mix
The possibility of an imminent U.S. military strike on Syria brings with it real danger that Iran-backed Hezbollah might respond by sending rockets into Israel — or that Israel might exploit the development to conduct strikes of its own against Iran, Middle East analysts monitoring the situation said Thursday. Published August 29, 2013
