Olmert Resigns (Updated)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has resigned: JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, crippled by a series of corruption investigations, announced he would resign Sunday, clearing the way for his foreign minister to try to succeed him as Israel's next leader. The prime minister's office said Olmert would submit an official letter of resignation to President Shimon Peres later Sunday, freeing ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 21, 2008 10:56
Israel Readying Iranian Strike?
Israel is taking steps to prepare for a military strike against Iran, Steve Gutkin reports for the AP. Israel is building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran's nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran's atomic program, even if it can't destroy it. Such talk could be more threat than reality. However, Iran's refusal to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 6, 2008 20:15
Sunni Awakening Leader Killed
The leader of a US-allied Sunni group was killed yesterday, along with six of his men: Unknown gunmen attacked the convoy of Sheik Ibrahim al-Karbouli in Youssifiyah on Monday, said the group member who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fears for his own security. The sheik was a senior leader of the so-called awakening council in the town, which ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 5, 2008 07:50
Netanyahu Back as PM?
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided, after months of under the cloud of scandal, to step down after his Kadima party choses a new leader in September. The hope is to form a new government under the new leader and revive the party until next spring's elections. Otherwise, Olmert could stay on until then. Likud party leader ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 31, 2008 08:11
Iraq War Over? We Won?
Michael Yon says that we've won the war in Iraq and all that remains is clean-up. The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 15, 2008 08:08
War Powers Consultation Act
Former Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher take to the op-ed pages of the NYT to call for a new War Powers Act. A bipartisan group that we led, the National War Powers Commission, has unanimously concluded after a year of study that the law purporting to govern the decision to engage in war — the 1973 War Powers ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 8, 2008 07:21
Iraqi Yellowcake Uranium Moved to Montreal
Saddam's supply of yellowcake has been secretly sold to a Canadian energy firm and flown safely to Montreal. The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 7, 2008 07:28
Iranian Nukes Breakthrough? (Updated)
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his gang of mullahs are said to be "seriously considering" the latest EU 5+1 proposals on resolving the international standoff on the Iranian nuclear program and are telling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to pipe down. Warren Strobel: Iran's senior diplomat said Tuesday that Tehran was seriously considering a new offer from six world powers to resolve the dispute over ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 2, 2008 07:12
North Korea Nukes Breakthrough: A Roadmap for Iran?
The news over the past 48 hours or so about movement in solving the nuclear arms standoff with North Korean has been stunning. Not only is President Bush taking the DPRK off the "state sponsors of terrorism" list but the Kim government has taken major steps to dismantle their program and provide with stringent verification regimes. The administration fully ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 26, 2008 14:40
Obama Offends 1.5 Billion Muslims
Writing at the San Francisco Chronicle, George Bisharat charges that Barack Obama unnecessarily offended the world's Muslims by pandering to the Israel lobby. On his first day as the presumptive Democratic candidate for president earlier this month, Barack Obama committed a serious foreign policy blunder. Reciting a litany of pro-Israeli positions at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 18, 2008 08:19
