Guy Taylor
Articles by Guy Taylor
Donald Trump’s world views worry global leaders
While Donald Trump's supporters say he's going to make America great again, domestically and internationally, there is little question that the incoming president's penchant for incendiary rhetoric and unpredictable policy swerves have unsettled audiences around the globe. Published January 19, 2017
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’ foreign minister, claims U.S. spies planted $10,000 in diplomat’s car
Russia's foreign minister says U.S. intelligence agencies were so desperate to recruit Russian spies in Washington last year that American officials planted $10,000 in cash inside a Russian diplomat's car, along with a letter asking the official to work with the U.S. government. Published January 17, 2017
Donald Trump’s NATO, EU comments spark fury, fear across Europe
Europe's leading powers responded angrily Monday to President-elect Donald Trump's comments published over the weekend that NATO is "obsolete" and that NATO's European members are failing to pay their fair share to the alliance's budget. Published January 16, 2017
Mike Pompeo promises an apolitical CIA, rejects torture
After a period of extraordinary tension between President-elect Donald Trump and the nation's intelligence community, the president-elect's pick to run the CIA vowed Thursday to uphold the morale of America's career spies and said solid, unbiased intelligence is the "lifeblood" of national security that is "more in demand than ever." Published January 13, 2017
Mike Pompeo says CIA won’t restart torture on his watch
President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head the CIA said Thursday that he won't push for the agency to use so-called "enhanced interrogation" techniques, such as waterboarding, against terror suspects. Published January 12, 2017
Mike Pompeo says intel is ‘lifeblood’ of national security
In a break from weeks of friction between President-elect Donald Trump and the Obama administration's outgoing intelligence community chiefs, Mr. Trump's nominee to head the CIA said Thursday that intelligence is the "lifeblood" of U.S. national security and "is more in demand than ever." Published January 12, 2017
Lights go out at Pompeo CIA hearing
The confirmation hearing for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head the CIA was abruptly halted by a power outage just as it was getting under way Thursday morning on Capitol Hill. Published January 12, 2017
Rex Tillerson: U.S. response to Russia Crimea seizure was ‘weak’
Former ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state, took a tough line on Russian hacking, praised Mexican immigrants and acknowledged the problem posed by global climate change -- drawing repeated accolades from Democrats during his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, but setting up some potentially awkward moments with his future boss. Published January 11, 2017
Rex Tillerson is asked: ‘Is Putin a war criminal?’; Marco Rubio says answer is ‘discouraging’
Sparks flew early in Wednesday's secretary of state nomination hearing for Rex Tillerson when Republican Sen. Marco Rubio ripped the former ExxonMobil CEO for refusing to say outright that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "war criminal." Published January 11, 2017
Rex Tillerson ‘right person at the right time’: Robert Gates
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson is "the right person at the right time" to be America's top diplomat, particularly when it comes to navigating the increasingly complex relationship between Washington and Moscow. Published January 11, 2017
Obama hoped to use ISIS as leverage against Assad, John Kerry reveals
Well before Russia's military came to Bashar Assad's aid in Syria, the Obama administration calculated that the Islamic State's expansion in the region would force the Syrian president into negotiating with Washington, according to private comments Secretary of State John F. Kerry made last fall. Published January 10, 2017
RT, Russia’s government-owned news operation, aggressively backed Donald Trump
The assertion by American spies that Russian hacking gave Donald Trump an edge in the election is dominating headlines, but almost no attention has gone to an entirely separate focus of the report circulated Friday by the U.S. intelligence community -- the influential role played by Russia's government-owned, and increasingly high-profile, satellite news organization. Published January 8, 2017
Donald Trump urged to mend relations with Philippines
President-elect Donald Trump would be well-advised to make a trip here early in his administration to shore up Washington's troubled alliance with one of the linchpins of its regional security network, says former President Fidel V. Ramos, an elder statesman among the Philippines' political and military elite. Published January 4, 2017
Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs strains U.S. alliance
Since taking office six months ago, hard-line populist President Rodrigo Duterte has succeeded in turning this city into one of the murder capitals of the world, authorizing the police and an array of unknown accomplices to gun down at point-blank range anyone suspected of dealing or using illegal drugs. Published January 3, 2017
Donald Trump, Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte seek connection as China looms
It was once the rock-solid symbol of one of the deepest and most enduring U.S. alliances in the region. Today this massive but long-shuttered U.S. Navy base is just one more question mark in a confused and evolving relationship at a time of major strategic changes in both Manila and Washington. Published January 2, 2017
John Kerry: Israel can be Jewish or democratic — not both
Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that if Israel rejects a two-state solution for peace with the Palestinian people, "it can be Jewish or it can be democratic." Published December 28, 2016
U.S. rebukes Israel and allows U.N. condemnation of settlements
In a move seen by critics as a last ditch slap at Israel by President Obama before he leaves office, the administration allowed the U.N. Security Council to push through a resolution Friday that called Israeli settlement construction on territory Palestinians want for an independent state a "flagrant violation" of international law. Published December 23, 2016
Trump, Netanyahu press Obama to veto U.N.’s Jewish settlement vote before postponement
A U.N. Security Council vote to condemn Israeli settlement construction in areas Palestinians want for an independent state was delayed Thursday, hours after President-elect Donald Trump, several other prominent Republicans and Israel slammed the motion and called on the Obama administration to veto it. Published December 22, 2016
U.N. vote on Israeli settlements delayed after criticism from Israel, Trump
A U.N. Security Council vote to condemn Israeli settlement construction in areas Palestinians want for an independent state was delayed Thursday -- hours after President-elect Donald Trump, several other prominent Republicans and Israel slammed the motion and called on the Obama administration to veto it. Published December 22, 2016
ISIS perfects art of self-radicalization, confounds counterterrorism officials
Monday's Christmas market attack in Berlin was the latest in an increasingly low-tech terrorism campaign being waged by the Islamic State and its sympathizers who favor butcher knives and trucks driven into crowds over suicide belts and booby-trapped cars -- a tactical shift that has confounded American and European counterterrorism officials. Published December 21, 2016