U.S. Stationing Diplomats in Iran
The United States has not had a formal diplomatic presence in Iran since our embassy there was stormed and its staff taken hostage on November 4, 1979. That may soon change, Ewen MacAskin reports for The Guardian. The Guardian has learned that an announcement will be made in the next month to establish a US interests section - a halfway house ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 17, 2008 12:22
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
Iran 6 Months Away from Nuclear Weapons?
Remember that National Intelligence Estimate saying that Iran had ended its nuclear weapons program years ago? It turns out that Iran is as little as six months away from nukes. And it's not some neo-con warmonger saying thus but none other than International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei. In an interview with Al-Arabiya, he said, "If Iran wants ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 24, 2008 12:33
Obama’s Prudent Inconsistency
If a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, Barack Obama is a wise man, indeed. He's changed his mind a lot lately. The latest example is NAFTA. After having campaigned in Ohio and elsewhere on the need to renegotiate our trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and excoriating Hillary Clinton for her long-time support ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 19, 2008 08:37
Obama’s AIPAC Gambit
Dana Milbank makes a funny at Barack Obama's expense: Now, here's a change we can believe in. A mere 12 hours after claiming the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama appeared before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee yesterday -- and changed himself into an Israel hard-liner. Classic. As a pandering performance, it was the full Monty by a candidate who, during the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 5, 2008 10:53
Americans Favor President Meeting With U.S. Enemies
A new Gallup poll shows that two thirds of Americans "believe the president of the United States should meet with the leaders of countries that are considered enemies of the United States." Lydia Saad, a friend of the family, analyzes this, reasonably enough, in terms of the 2008 election: The issue of using presidential diplomacy with U.S. enemies distinguishes Barack Obama from ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 2, 2008 11:16
Obama: Willing To Meet Ahmadinejad But Not Petraeus?
Jim Geraghty, commenting on Barack Obama's dismissal of John McCain's invitation to tour Iraq with him as "a political stunt," muses, [I]sn't Obama vulnerable to the argument that a man who's pledged to meet unconditionally, one-on-one, face-to-face with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad really ought to meet at least once one-on-one with Gen. David Petraeus? It's simultaneously superb polemic and rather silly. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 28, 2008 13:36
Sweetie-gate
Barack Obama has a "bad habit" of addressing "all kinds of people" as "Sweetie" in casual conversation, although he's trying to quit. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has apologized to WXYZ reporter Peggy Agar for calling her "sweetie" during a campaign stop Wednesday in Sterling Heights. Obama apologized in a voicemail he left on Agar's cell phone at 3:16 p.m: "Hi Peggy. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 15, 2008 08:04
Scowcroft: ‘Hard to Make Things Better if You Don’t Talk’
When I first saw the headline "Brent Scowcroft Echoes Obama" at memeorandum, I read it as "Brent Scowcroft Endorses Obama," which struck me as sufficiently newsworthy to immediately click the link. The actual story is markedly less surprising: Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, said on Monday that he agrees with ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 29, 2008 06:42
Bush to Replace Fallon on Route to Iran War?
Thomas Barnett published a piece in Esquire on CENTCOM chief William Fallon, a/k/a "The Man Between War and Peace," that hit the Web yesterday evening and is already creating quite a buzz. If, in the dying light of the Bush administration, we go to war with Iran, it'll all come down to one man. If we do not go to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on March 6, 2008 08:44
