After nearly two weeks worth of diplomatic tension, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a room packed with thousands of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) delegates that the U.S.-Israel bond is “rock solid” and that “it is our responsibility to give credit when it is due and More…
It’s not been the greatest week for the Obama administration’s commitment to open government. But Harold Koh, the State Department’s legal adviser, told Shane Harris of National Journal that the administration is open to disclosing the legal underpinnings of one of its most controversial and beloved national security More…
It’s not the Mullen Doctrine — yet. But in a recent speech that’s attracted little notice outside the defense blogosphere, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered the first set of criteria for using military force since Gen. Colin Powell held Mullen’s job nearly More…
As I reported last week, the Government Accountability Office has been reviewing for months a protest against a contract to train the Afghan police that Blackwater sought to win, even after Blackwater essentially stole weaponry intended for those selfsame Afghan cops. Today, the GAO’s acting general counsel, Lynn H. Gibson, More…
This is Michael D. Furlong, a strategic planner for the Joint Information Operations Warfare Command based in Texas. According to a baroque story in today’s New York Times, Furlong is under criminal investigation for diverting money from a program that hired contractors to gather information about Afghanistan and Pakistan More…
Man, Dan Benjamin, the State Department’s counterterrorism chief, sure picked an unlucky day to deliver a speech defending the Obama administration’s counterterrorism record to the International Peace Institute in New York:
Finally, our approach recognizes that our counterterrorism efforts can best
As reported on Monday, the Pentagon didn’t embrace Stuart Bowen’s proposal to create a new agency — the U.S. Office of Contingency Operations — to help plan and coordinate civilian-military operations in conflict and post-conflict zones and failed states. But that’s not to say that Robert Gates, the secretary More…
Josh Rogin reports that “multiple sources” are saying Jim Steinberg, the deputy secretary of state, is being headhunted for a position running Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Steinberg, Clinton’s deputy for policy and diplomacy, is reportedly dissatisfied with his status in the Obama administration. And the feeling is More…
Ever since Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, told a congressional panel two weeks ago that he was cut out of the loop on reading would-be Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights, it’s been a circus. Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) plan More…
Politico’s Laura Rozen catches Hillary Rodham Clinton indicating to our old friend Tavis Smiley that she doesn’t envision staying on as secretary of state for two terms. Nothing really surprising: Dean Rusk, I think, was the last secretary of state to serve for eight years during the Kennedy-Johnson More…
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