Guy Taylor
Articles by Guy Taylor
Hillary Clinton says Libya chaos shows consequences of U.S. withdrawal from unstable places
While all eyes in Washington watch the clash between former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and House Republicans over events in Benghazi four years ago, chaos reigns in Libya, where two separate governments battle for control. Islamists are in control in the capital city of Tripoli, and Islamic State militants are expanding their hold on cities and towns across the country. Published October 22, 2015
Obama, Nawza Sharif discuss enhancing military-to-military relationship between U.S., Pakistan
President Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tried to project the image of an alliance in lock step during a summit at the White House Thursday, despite a range of sticky security disagreements over Pakistan's role in the Afghan war and U.S. concerns over Islamabad's growing nuclear weapons arsenal. Published October 22, 2015
Obama, Nawaz Sharif to weigh Afghanistan’s future
Islamabad's growing nuclear weapons arsenal, its deepening relations with China and the prospect of a homegrown Pakistani drone war against extremists along the Afghan border will all be on the table when Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visits the White House on Thursday. Published October 21, 2015
U.S. wary as Iran, Russia step up Iraq role
The visit to Iraq this week by new Joint Chiefs of Staff head Gen. Joseph Dunford comes at a pivotal moment for the Obama administration's tacit strategy of cooperating with Iranian proxies against the Islamic State in the nation, even as officials in Baghdad claimed a key oil refinery had been retaken from the jihadi forces on Tuesday. Published October 20, 2015
Iran dissidents say U.S. policies are appeasing Islamist rulers
When the doorbell rang, it was longer and harder than normal, like someone was ramming an angry finger on the button. Then the window suddenly was smashed and the police were inside the house. Published October 18, 2015
Park Geun-hye of South Korea eyes alliance with U.S., China to address North Korea threat
South Korean President Park Guen-hye, who meets Friday with President Obama, is pushing for a deeper three-way alliance among Washington, Seoul and Beijing to address the threat posed by North Korea and to open the way for an eventual reunification of the long divided Korean Peninsula. Published October 15, 2015
Leopoldo Cintras Frias, Cuban military chief, visits Syria
The head of Cuba's armed forces recently traveled to Syria, according to a Miami-based research group that claims a cadre of defense officials from the communist island have been dispatched to join Russia's growing military operations in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Published October 14, 2015
Israeli-Palestinian violence escalates, approaches 2014 Gaza Strip war levels
With tensions and violence soaring to their highest points in nearly a year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel's security forces will "extract the full price" from Palestinians who have carried out attacks on innocent Israelis. Published October 13, 2015
Obama to host Park Geun-hye as South Korea’s growing ties to China threaten alliance
President Obama is expected to highlight this week's U.S. visit by South Korean President Park Geun-hye as an example of the rock-solid alliance between Washington and Seoul -- but a range of sticky issues will lurk in the backdrop behind Ms. Park's visit to the White House at week's end. Published October 12, 2015
Obama shifts Syria policy as Russia takes lead role
With President Obama's Syria policy under new scrutiny as Russia takes a lead role in the conflict, administration officials said Friday that they will now scrap the Pentagon's still-born program for training a "moderate" Syrian opposition rebel force -- an effort that has cost millions over the past year but produced only a handful of combat-ready fighters. Published October 9, 2015
Hussein Hamedani, Iranian general, killed by Islamic State in Syria
A top Iranian military commander was killed by Islamic State fighters on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Aleppo on Thursday night, Iranian media reported. Published October 9, 2015
Congress investigates U.S. intelligence failures on Russia aggression in Syria
Key lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees have begun probing whether the CIA and other U.S. spy agencies failed to clearly predict the scope of Russia's military incursion into Syria -- an intervention of fighter jets, ground troops and dozens of cruise missiles fired across some 930 miles from warships in the Caspian Sea. Published October 8, 2015
Obama faces bipartisan push to assist Iranian dissidents trapped in Iraq
Key lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pressed the Obama administration to do more to help relocate members of a controversial Iranian dissident group confined to a camp in Iraq, a group that the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee credits with providing "useful intelligence" on Tehran's secret nuclear activities. Published October 7, 2015
John McCain: U.S. must do more to protect Iranian dissident group
The head of the Senate Armed Services Committee says the U.S. is not doing enough to help relocate from Iraq members of controversial Iranian dissident group that has a record of providing Washington with "useful intelligence" on Iran's clandestine nuclear activities. Published October 7, 2015
Iraq a ‘client state’ of Iran, former Obama adviser says
President Obama's former national security adviser warned Wednesday that Iranian leaders have effectively turned Iraq into a "client state" and are bent on exploiting the regional war against the Sunni Muslim Islamic State group to promote their own brand of Shiite extremism throughout the Middle East. Published October 7, 2015
Iran an unlikely beneficiary of Russia’s military campaign in Syria
Russia's stepped-up military campaign in Syria is not only offering a lifeline to the embattled Assad regime, it is providing badly needed relief for Iranian proxies that will enable them to move more aggressively in the region's other conflicts -- in particular in Yemen, where a war between Tehran-backed rebels and Saudi Arabia has been raging for months. Published October 6, 2015
Sohail Aman denies China helped Pakistan acquire armed drones
Reports that China helped Pakistan's military acquire armed drones are wrong, according to the head of the Pakistani air force, who said engineers in his nation developed the technology on their own and Washington should increase coordination with Islamabad to target and eliminate al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Published October 5, 2015
Vladimir Putin keeps tumultuous world guessing
Moscow's bombings in Syria, coupled with Vladimir Putin's railing against the U.S. at the United Nations General Assembly last week, have thrust the Russian president into the global spotlight and rejuvenated debate over the extent to which he is an evil geopolitical genius, a strategically brilliant hustler -- or some combination of both. Published October 4, 2015
U.S. has obligation to support South Sudan, top diplomat says
NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW: The struggling government of South Sudan says the U.S. must do more to support the democracy it helped create in the nation four years ago, asserting that the Obama administration and the international community are unfairly blaming the leadership in Juba for dragging its feet on a peace deal with rebels in the country's civil war. Published October 1, 2015
CIA goes live with new cyber directorate, massive internal reorganization
The CIA officially launched its new cyber-focused directorate Thursday, capping a massive internal reorganization that intelligence officials say will also include the agency's first ever creation of six regional command centers aimed at streamlining U.S. spying activities across the globe. Published October 1, 2015