On Thursday, the world learned that one of the activists killed this week by Israeli commandos was a U.S. citizen. On Capitol Hill, the news seemed to raise no eyebrows at all.
Furkan Dogan, a New York-born student living in Turkey, was one of nine activists killed, according More…
Laura Rozen has a good post on some Harvard war games about new unilateral sanctions on Iran ultimately proving counterproductive to getting the Iranian regime to accept greater transparency on its nuclear program. You would think the war game would stop after someone said, “We’ve had unilateral economic sanctions More…
With Amb. Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, publicly floating the idea of increasing aid to Pakistan on top of the $7.5 billion five-year aid bill passed this year, it’s worth asking how the current aid gets doled out. And for an answer we More…
Now that Rep. Howard Berman’s (D-Calif.) bill authorizing new energy-sector sanctions on Iran has passed the House, the Obama administration is looking to the Senate to cool things down. The Obama administration “didn’t tell me to go ahead, but they also didn’t tell me not to go ahead,” Berman More…
Congress may have appropriated the first installment of a $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan, but Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, urged an even greater increase in assistance to “broaden out” the U.S. relationship with a nation he called crucial to the U.S.’s More…
A bill sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, to authorize new energy-sector sanctions on Iran overwhelmingly passed the House just now. The vote: 412 members in favor to only 12 opposed, with four voting “present.” Berman’s bill had strong More…
The Iran petroleum-sanctions bill authored by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif) is scheduled for debate in the House imminently. That bill, if it passes, wouldn’t require sanctions on Iran; but it would allow President Obama additional authorities for new sanctions. Both the Obama administration and Berman himself say they prefer multilateral More…
Earlier today, the Israel Project — a pro-Israel organization that endorses tough measures against Iran’s nuclear program — sent out a release announcing substantial support for placing sanctions on Iran. A petition issued by the Israel Project to be sent to “every ambassador to the U.S., all UN member More…
For their last appearance in the three-day gauntlet of congressional hearings, Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry reunited today before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the committee’s chairman, said that U.S. efforts in Afghanistan “cannot stop at the Durand Line,” the border with Pakistan, More…
Earlier today, progressive groups (and some conservatives) were surprised to see the pro-peace/pro-Israel/pro-Palestine American Jewish organization J Street come out in favor of a bill sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) granting the Obama administration additional powers to place gasoline sanctions on Iran in response to Iran’s intransigence on More…
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