Guy Taylor
Articles by Guy Taylor
CIA creates new office to counter cyber threats
The Central Intelligence Agency is creating a new directorate focused on cyber operations as part of major structural reorganization the agency announced Friday to, in part, "leverage the digital revolution" across U.S. intelligence missions worldwide. Published March 6, 2015
Mark Lippert, U.S. ambassador to South Korea, attacked
Mark Lippert, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea has been attacked, according to reports Wednesday afternoon. Published March 4, 2015
U.S., China, South Korea should prepare for North Korea’s collapse, former top negotiator says
The U.S. should embrace China's growing relations with South Korea, and all three nations should prepare for the inevitable collapse of North Korea and the hard work of unifying the peninsula. Published March 4, 2015
U.S. military says tensions are up on DMZ in Koreas
U.S. Army Col. James M. Minnich stood on a wet slab of concrete near a single-story blue U.N. structure in this old village that straddles the official line marking the border of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. Published March 3, 2015
Seoul hopes to build U.N. headquarters, peace park near North Korea’s DMZ
An influential lawmaker here says President Park Geun-Hye's government is putting its weight behind an initiative to bring a new U.N. regional headquarters to South Korea, along with an "international peace park" that could be built on land inside the highly sensitive Demilitarized Zone that has divided the nation from North Korea since 1953. Published March 2, 2015
Obama lacks Islamic State plan, should increase arms to Kurdish peshmerga, envoy says
The Obama administration lacks a clear strategy to contain the chaos in Syria and should build on the battlefield successes of Iraq's Kurdish forces by accelerating shipments of heavy weapons to the front, one of Kurdistan's top diplomats said Thursday. Published February 26, 2015
James Clapper says political instability, mass killings at highest rate in decades
Breaking sharply with Secretary of State John F. Kerry's far sunnier assessment just a day before, the Obama administration's intelligence czar told Congress on Thursday that political instability and state-sponsored mass killing are at their "highest rate" in decades, and the U.S. still faces ominous challenges from China, Russia, cyberterrorists and the continuing turmoil in the Middle East. Published February 26, 2015
James Clapper, intel chief: Cyber ranks highest on worldwide threats to U.S.
President Obama's top intelligence official pointed to a range of threats facing America Thursday, from the surge by Sunni Muslim extremist groups in the Middle East, to the pursuit of nuclear weapons by Iran and North Korea, to the push by Russian and Chinese operatives to penetrate Washington's clandestine national security community. Published February 26, 2015
Gen. John Allen, overseer of anti-IS coalition, claims Iraqis winning
President Obama's top adviser overseeing the coalition fighting the Islamic State said Wednesday that "significant gains" have been made against the Islamist group, and claimed that Kurdish Peshmerga as well as Iraqi military forces will be able to defeat the group on the ground despite skepticism in Washington about their readiness. Published February 25, 2015
John Kerry: U.S. looking into dissidents’ claims of new Iranian nuke cheating
Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday that a final nuclear deal with Iran could be derailed if new allegations from an Iranian dissident group that Iran is running a secret uranium enrichment operation at a facility near Tehran prove true. Published February 25, 2015
John Kerry: Cold War ‘simple’ compared to fight with Islamic State
Secretary of State John F. Kerry drew heat from from one Republican lawmaker Wednesday when he said the task of providing American leadership in the world is far more complicated today than it was during the Cold War era — particularly in the face of religious extremism emerging in the post-Arab Spring Middle East. Published February 25, 2015
Benjamin Netanyahu to speak on Iran before Congress, while John Kerry sorts out nuke deal overseas
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears before both houses of Congress next week, Secretary of State John F. Kerry won't be there — he'll be in Geneva trying to hammer out the final details of a nuclear deal with Iran that the Israeli leader in coming to Washington to oppose. Published February 25, 2015
John Kerry defends Obama Iran nuclear talks, fails to appease bipartisan critics
Secretary of State John F. Kerry defended the Obama administration's pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran in the face of mounting bipartisan scrutiny from lawmakers Tuesday — even as an Iranian dissident group claimed to have fresh proof that Tehran has lied to world powers about its drive to obtain a nuclear weapon. Published February 24, 2015
Iran running clandestine nuclear facility; group says it has proof
Claiming that Iran's government has been lying for years to U.N. nuclear inspectors, a prominent Iranian dissident group on Tuesday asserted that scientists in the Islamic Republic have actually been running a secret uranium enrichment operation at a facility buried deep beneath the ground in the northeast suburbs of Tehran since 2008. Published February 24, 2015
John Kerry urges patience amid report of nukes deal: ‘Iran will not get a nuclear weapon’
Secretary of State John F. Kerry pushed back against critics of the Obama administration's pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran Tuesday, asserting that U.S. negotiators are working from a simple policy point that "Iran will not get a nuclear weapon." Published February 24, 2015
Iran nuclear deal closer with uranium enrichment increase provision
U.S. and Iranian negotiators moved closer Monday to reaching a two-phase nuclear deal that would hinge on a provision allowing Tehran to ramp up its uranium enrichment gradually after a 10-year period of restrictions and inspection from outside powers. Published February 23, 2015
Israeli spy agency broke with Netanyahu on Iran threat — report
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2012 warning world that Iran was about a year away from having a nuclear bomb was contradicted just weeks later by a top secret assessment from Israel's own Mossad intelligence agency — which concluded that Tehran was "not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons." Published February 23, 2015
White House: Odds still iffy for nuclear deal with Iran
The Obama administration said Monday that the prospects for a successful nuclear deal with Iran are "fifty-fifty at best," despite reports that U.S. and Iranian negotiators moved closer over the weekend to a two-phase agreement that would allow Tehran to ramp up its nuclear activities over time after an initial clamp-down. Published February 23, 2015
Obama admin. pressured to ignore Egypt’s human rights abuses as Islamic State threat grows
With Islamic State violence spreading rapidly into Libya, the Obama administration finds itself under increasing pressure to downplay human rights abuses carried out by the Egyptian government in favor of trumpeting Cairo as the next major Sunni Muslim Arab partner willing to take a military stand against the extremists. Published February 22, 2015
IAEA: Iran withholding cooperation on nuclear disclosure
In a new assessment that may complicate the ongoing Iran nuclear talks, the United Nation's atomic watchdog agency said Thursday that Iranian authorities still haven't addressed allegations that they carried out explosives tests and other activities that could have been aimed at developing a nuclear bomb. Published February 19, 2015