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Guy Taylor

Guy Taylor

Guy Taylor is the National Security Editor at The Washington Times, overseeing the paper's State Department, Pentagon and intelligence coverage and driving the daily Threat Status newsletter. He has reported from dozens of countries and been a guest on the BBC, CNN, NPR, FOX, C-SPAN and The McLaughlin Group.

A series Mr. Taylor led on Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election was recognized with a Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency, and a Society for Professional Journalists award. In 2012, he won a Virginia Press Association award reporting from Mexico.

Prior to joining The Times in 2011, Mr. Taylor was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Fund For Investigative Journalism. He wrote for a variety publications, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to Salon, Reason, Prospect, the Daily Star of Beirut, the Jerusalem Post and the St. Petersburg Times. He also served as an editor at World Politics Review, wrote for America's Quarterly and produced videos and features for Agence France-Presse.

Mr. Taylor holds an M.S. in Global Security Studies from Angelo State University and a B.A. from Clark University. He was part of a team who won a Society of Professional Journalists award for their reporting on the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

He can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.

Threat Status Influencers Videos

Go behind the scenes with Washington Times National Security Editor Guy Taylor as he interviews officials and experts directly involved in the most important global security, foreign policy, and technology issues impacting America's position in the world.

Threat Status Podcast

An edgy and informative look at the biggest U.S. national security and geopolitical issues making headlines right now. Less about hot takes and more about depth, the Threat Status podcast is helmed by veteran Washington Times journalists Ben Wolfgang and Guy Taylor and features regular appearances by insiders with expertise on war, politics and global affairs.

Special Report: Vlad's Vengeance

Inside Putin's 'hybrid warfare' on the U.S. Click here to read more.

Articles by Guy Taylor

Iraqi federal policemen stand guard at a checkpoint in Baghdad, Iraq. Tensions in the country have heated up as the extremist ISIL group has allied with more moderate, secular Sunni militant groups, many of whom are not even targets of U.S. operations. (associated press)

Sunni secularists blur picture of ISIL; targets for airstrikes hard to see

The surge of an al Qaeda splinter group in Iraq over the past month has depended heavily on support from more secular Sunni factions in the nation, which challenges the Obama administration's policy of making distinctions between extremists and moderate militants in the region. Published June 22, 2014

Volunteers train at a military base in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, on Tuesday after authorities urged Iraqis to help battle insurgents. Signs emerged of a reprisal of a sectarian slaughter in Iraq. Police said pro-government Shiite militiamen killed nearly four dozen detainees after insurgents tried to storm a prison northeast of Baghdad. (Associated Press)

Iraqi Shiites take a stand against Sunni extremists heading for Baghdad

The Sunni extremist militants rampaging through northern Iraq faced fierce gunbattles against forces aligned with Iraq's Shiite prime minister roughly 40 miles northeast of Baghdad on Tuesday, as evidence emerged of mounting sectarian and reprisal violence between the nation's divided Muslim populations. Published June 17, 2014

This image posted on a militant website on Saturday, June 14, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, appears to show militants from the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) taking aim at captured Iraqi soldiers wearing plain clothes after taking over a base in Tikrit, Iraq. The Islamic militant group that seized much of northern Iraq has posted photos that appear to show its fighters shooting dead dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers in a province north of the capital Baghdad. Iraq's top military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi confirmed the photos’ authenticity on Sunday and said he was aware of cases of mass murder of Iraqi soldiers. (AP Photo via militant website)

ISIL militants slaughter 1,700 Iraqis in mass execution

The al Qaeda-inspired Sunni extremist group surging in Iraq over the past week now claims to have massacred hundreds of Shiite Muslim men taken captive from the nation's government security forces. Published June 16, 2014

** FILE ** Iraqi Shiite Muslims venerate Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a man of influence in Iraq who is revered as well as by Shiites around the world. He is now 81 years old and has lived in seclusion for years. (Associated Press)

Top Shiite cleric calls on Iraqis to take up arms against Sunni militants

The battle lines for sectarian war in Iraq appeared to harden Friday as the nation's most-revered Shiite Muslim cleric called on all Iraqis to take up arms against the al Qaeda-inspired Sunni extremists who have seized control of several Iraqi cities and towns this week. Published June 13, 2014

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Al-Baghdadi, a brutal contender for bin Laden’s mantle, emerges in Iraq

U.S. officials monitoring the fast-shifting landscape of al Qaeda-inspired militancy in the Middle East in recent years have been on the lookout for a single figure who might emerge to match the jihadist charisma and global mystique once held over Sunni Muslim extremists by Osama bin Laden. Published June 12, 2014

REFUGEES: Iraqis fleeing Mosul arrive at Khazir refugee camp outside Irbil, 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Baghdad following an al Qaeda breakaway group's takeover of their home city. An estimated half a million fled Iraq's second-largest city. (associated press)

Gains by al Qaeda group in Iraq spark fears of a decade’s progress lost

Sunni militants swept rapidly Wednesday toward Iraq's capital, Baghdad, facing almost no resistance as they wrested control of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit from Iraqi forces — part of a fast-moving advance prompting fresh concern in Washington that hard-fought gains during nearly a decade of U.S. occupation of the Mideast country are slipping away. Published June 11, 2014

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 11, 2014, before the House Armed Services Committee. Hagel faced angry lawmakers becoming the first Obama administration official to testify publicly about the controversial prisoner swap with the Taliban. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Top officials sought Justice Dept.’s OK for Bergdahl-Taliban swap

Senior defense officials told Congress on Wednesday that President Obama got legal approval from the Justice Department to skirt Congress and release five former Taliban commanders from Guantanamo in a prisoner trade for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Published June 11, 2014

**FILE** Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican (Associated Press)

Obama officials fail to quell questions on Taliban exchange

Senate Republicans hurled fresh criticism Tuesday at the White House for trading five former Taliban commanders from Guantanamo for an American soldier, a day after Sen. Ted Cruz said he will introduce legislation to prevent President Obama from making any more prisoner swaps. Published June 10, 2014

**FILE** CIA Director John O. Brennan speaks in Washington on March 11, 2014. (Associated Press)

CIA officially joins Twitter, Facebook

The CIA announced Friday that it is expanding its public outreach efforts into the social media realm by launching official Twitter and Facebook accounts that anyone in the general public can follow. Published June 6, 2014

Dale Wen-Chieh Jieh, head of the department of policy planning within the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meets with editors and reporters at The Washington Times. (Lloyd Villas/The Washington Times)

Taiwanese resist U.S. system to detect Chinese missiles, officials say

A delegation of high-level Taiwanese diplomats said Thursday that many of their own people oppose a major trade deal with mainland China, and also made a rare public acknowledgment of rising domestic resistance to U.S. pressure to expand a radar system for detecting long-range missile threats from Beijing. Published June 5, 2014

In this image taken from video obtained from Voice Of Jihad website, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, sits in a vehicle guarded by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Voice Of Jihad Website via AP video)

Congress twice rejected release of Taliban from Gitmo in trade for Bergdahl

President Obama's aides met with unanimous opposition from Congress when they first raised the possibility of releasing five Taliban guerrillas from Guantanamo Bay in 2011 and 2012, and administration officials publicly and repeatedly vowed to return to Capitol Hill before making any final moves. Published June 4, 2014

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., listens at right as the committee's Vice Chairman Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 3, 2014, following a closed-door committee briefing. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Clinton promised to consult Hill on Gitmo swaps

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees in January 2012, assuring them that the decision to release five former Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay would only be made "after consultation with Congress." Published June 4, 2014

Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, California Republican and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has included in the defense budget an order for the Army to consider ready-made systems for processing battlefield data. (Associated Press)

White House defends keeping Congress in dark on Bergdahl

White House security advisers pushed back for a second time Tuesday against Republican claims that President Obama overstepped the bounds of executive authority by not informing Congress about the deal being cut with the Taliban to releasing five Guantanamo inmates in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Published June 3, 2014

An MQ-9 Reaper, armed with GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided munitions and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, is piloted by Col. Lex Turner during a mission over southern Afghanistan. Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen shot down a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone operating in international airspace off the country's coast, a Defense Department official confirmed Wednesday. (USAF via Associated Press)

Obama’s Afghanistan pullout may end domination of drones

President Obama's call to cut the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to 5,000 troops in 18 months will end an era of American drone superiority over the region and jeopardize hard-fought gains against al Qaeda just as the terrorist movement's original core is rising again, former senior defense officials and national security sources say. Published May 29, 2014