Guy Taylor
Articles by Guy Taylor
Pentagon: 2 U.S. Navy boats, 10 sailors held by Iran but will be returned
Iran seized control of two small U.S. Navy boats with 10 sailors aboard in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, but U.S. officials said they were assured by Tehran that the sailors and the vessels, one of which was experiencing mechanical problems, would soon be released without harm. Published January 12, 2016
John Kerry objects to Republican confirmation delays for 17 foreign policy nominees
When President Obama nominated John F. Kerry to be secretary of state, it took less than five weeks for the Democrat-controlled Senate to confirm the choice. These days, however, Republicans run the chamber and are a lot less willing to sign off on any nominees -- let alone for foreign posts with an administration in its final year. Published January 11, 2016
El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala violence surges, threatening new refugee flood
El Salvador and Honduras are locked in an unholy race for the world's highest homicide rate, with surging crime and drug violence across the region threatening to trigger an even larger surge of migrants seeking to get into the United States. Published January 10, 2016
John Kerry blasts critics of Obama’s handling of North Korea nuclear threat
In the wake of North Korea's claim of successfully testing a miniaturized hydrogen bomb, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry pushed back Thursday against Republican critics who've accused the Obama administration of ignoring the threat of a nuclear-armed Pyongyang. Published January 7, 2016
Truck bomb in Libya kills at least 60, wounds 200 others at police training center
A massive truck bomb killed at least 60 people and wounded 200 others at a police training center in Western Libya on Thursday, just days after the main Libyan Islamic State branch attacked a key oil export terminal in the North African nation. Published January 7, 2016
Kim Jong-un hydrogen bomb claim underscores North Korean leader’s volatility
North Korea's surprise claim Wednesday that it detonated a miniaturized hydrogen bomb was the latest proof that regime leader Kim Jong-un is even less predictable than his unpredictable father, according to experts, who say the isolated, untested young leader poses a particularly difficult problem for the U.S. and its allies as he presses for an ever more menacing nuclear arsenal. Published January 6, 2016
Iran moves ‘Emad’ ballistic missiles to underground base
Iran's leaders on Tuesday revealed the existence of a previously undisclosed weapons bunker stocked with ballistic missiles, adding to President Obama's diplomatic headaches in the region at a time when tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have soared to new heights. Published January 5, 2016
Islamic State’s thirst for oil highlighted by attacks in Libya
The Islamic State's main branch in Libya launched attacks Monday near a key oil export terminal on the Mediterranean, the latest in a growing offensive that national security sources say underscores the terrorist group's desire to seize lucrative territory in the war-torn North African nation to fund its global ambitions. Published January 4, 2016
Obama admin treads lightly amid Iran-Saudi friction
The Obama administration responded cautiously Monday to growing friction between Saudi Arabia and Iran, as regional tensions continued to soar around the Sunni kingdom's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and the subsequent sacking of the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Published January 4, 2016
Russian, Chinese propaganda muffling U.S. government’s message to world
NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW: The U.S. government's international media operations grossly lack funding to counter effectively the rising global blitz of state-sponsored propaganda from Russia, China and other rivals, says the head of the federal board that oversees such Washington-financed outlets as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America. Published January 3, 2016
White House on defense as furor grows over Israeli spying report
The Obama White House found itself playing defense Wednesday amid rising anger from lawmakers and Republican presidential rivals over a report that President Obama authorized spying on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other U.S. allies, snooping that may have swept up private conversations involving members of Congress and private U.S. pro-Israel groups. Published December 30, 2015
Islamic State driven from Ramadi by Iraq with U.S. help
After months of training with U.S. advisers, Iraq's military scored a key and symbolic victory Monday by driving the Islamic State from a central clutch of government buildings in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, although major challenges lie ahead as the terrorist group still holds vital pockets of the city. Published December 28, 2015
Russia propaganda machine gains on U.S.
Russia has reorganized and intensified its international propaganda machine so effectively over the past decade that some Western lawmakers and diplomats say Washington now is badly losing a global messaging war to the increasingly modernized blitz of anti-U.S. content from Moscow-backed news operations. Published December 27, 2015
ISIS targets Balkans as next recruitment hotspot
The arrest in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday of at least 11 people suspected of ties to the Islamic State has underscored growing concerns among U.S. and European intelligence officials that the Balkans region of southeastern Europe is emerging as the next big target of opportunity for the jihadi terrorist group. Published December 22, 2015
Obama yields to Russia and Iran, puts Bashar Assad ouster on back burner
Publicly, the Obama administration says it still believes Bashar Assad must be ousted, but behind the scenes the White House is embracing a strategy that would leave the Syrian leader in place as the world unites against a greater immediate threat from Islamic State terrorists. Published December 21, 2015
Obama administration poised to lift sanctions even as Iran flouts nuke deal with missile tests
The Obama administration is poised to begin lifting sanctions on Iran — possibly as early as January -- even as Tehran flouts the spirit of the nuclear agreement in a spate of rocket launches and other shenanigans. Published December 17, 2015
Obama pushes Syria peace talks as divisions persist over Bashar Assad’s fate
Having apparently abandoned demands for the immediate departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Obama administration will push anew Friday for international powers -- including key Assad allies Russia and Iran -- to back peace talks aimed at ending the country's bloody 4-year-old, multifront civil war. Published December 16, 2015
Saudi Arabia announces Muslim alliance to fight Islamic terrorism
Saudi Arabia's announcement of a coalition of predominantly Muslim nations to fight the "disease" of Islamist terrorism drew an optimistic response from Washington on Tuesday despite uncertainty over the alliance's true focus and goals. Published December 15, 2015
U.S. has mapped ISIS propaganda centers but won’t launch military strikes
In a secret project tied to the overall U.S. campaign against the Islamic State, intelligence officials have spent months mapping out known physical locations of media safe houses where the extremist group's operatives are compiling, editing and curating raw video and print materials into finished digital propaganda products for dissemination across the Internet. Published December 14, 2015
Ed Royce: Obama ‘whitewashing’ Iran bomb-making program
The top House Republican on foreign policy says the Obama administration is trying to "whitewash" Iran's history of nuclear bomb research by pressuring the U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency to formally end its probe into the "possible military dimensions" of the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities. Published December 11, 2015
