Guy Taylor
Articles by Guy Taylor
Tikrit offensive vital in reversing Islamic State gains in Iraq and Syria, analysts say
It's best known as Saddam Hussein's hometown, but Iraqi officials and outside analysts say the strategically located city of Tikrit could play an outsized role in the larger campaign to roll back the Islamic State movement's stunning gains in Iraq and Syria. Published March 12, 2015
Benjamin Netanyahu in trouble in Israel elections as economy trumps Iran
Despite the buzz generated by his Iran speech to Congress last week, polls show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is increasingly likely to be ousted in elections Tuesday by voters who say he overplayed the threat from the Islamic republic while ignoring economic problems closer to home. Published March 11, 2015
China says Uighurs bring Islamic State terror back from jihad, plot attacks
A key Chinese official claimed Tuesday that ethnic Uighurs who once fought with the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq have returned with plots to attack China, an assertion that quickly drew scrutiny in Washington but underscored the increasingly global reach of the extremist outfit that has drawn more foreign fighters than any other jihadi movement in decades. Published March 10, 2015
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