Five Years (Updated)
In an article in the New York Times Eric Schmitt reports that the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, a bipartisan commission established by Congress in 2007, has produced a report warning of the likelihood of an attack on the United States with an unconventional weapon within five years: WASHINGTON — An independent commission has ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 1, 2008 08:40
Terrorist Rampage Ended in Mumbai (Updated)
After nearly three days the terrorist rampage that has rocked India's financial capital, Mumbai, has ended in a hail of bullets as Indian forces killed the last three gunmen who had barricaded themselves within a luxury hotel: MUMBAI, India – A 60-hour terror rampage that killed at least 195 people across India's financial capital ended Saturday when commandos killed the last ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 29, 2008 10:18
What the Heck Happened in Mumbai? (Updated)
The Washington Post is now reporting that the Indian Army is conducting raids in an attempt to free the hostages that have been taken in the attack that took place in Mumbai yesterday: Sharpshooters and Indian Army commandos launched dramatic raids Thursday into two of India's most luxurious hotels, attempting to root out gunmen whose deadly attacks have transformed parts of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 27, 2008 16:26
OTB Radio - Tonight at 7 Eastern
The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. Dave Schuler and Steve Verdon will join me to discuss Barack Obama's cabinet choices, the continuing economic meltdown, and whatever other topics we meander into. Please join us. We'll also be taking your calls at (646) 716-7030. You can play the show, subscribe ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 26, 2008 17:19
Why Are We Bailing Out Citigroup? (Updated)
Citigroup is currently valued at about $20.5 billion. It received $25 billion from the Treasury already, and is now poised to receive another bailout. Here's how they got to where they are.There, Citigroup’s chief executive, Charles O. Prince III, learned for the first time that the bank owned about $43 billion in mortgage-related assets. He asked Thomas G. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 24, 2008 10:45
Making Predictions Is Hard
especially about the future, as Niels Bohr once said (and was echoed by Yogi Berra). The National Intelligence Council has published its quintennial attempt to part the mists of the future and consider what the world might be like seventeen years hence in 2025. A good place to start taking a look at it might be the executive ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 24, 2008 10:34
Making the Transition in Iraq and Afghanistan
Yesterday's New York Times featured a collection of seven columns on the challenges the incipient Obama Administration faces in managing the transition between administrations in two ongoing wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. Contributors cover a wide spectrum of opinion and expertise from journalists (Linda Robinson, Rory Stewart) to scholars (Anthony Cordeman) to military officers (Peter Mansoor) to a former ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 24, 2008 09:37
Shameless Self-Promotion
Although I'm now publishing all of my foreign policy and international relations posts here at Outside the Beltway, I continue to post my thoughts on domestic policy and politics, economics, and a host of other subjects at my own blog The Glittering Eye. In the interests of shameless self-promotion I'd like to mention that in the last 18 hours I've got ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 20, 2008 11:24
Enough For One Bomb
This morning the New York Times is reporting that, based on the information in the latest update from the IAEA, Iran has produced a quanitity of low enriched uranium that, with enrichment, could be turned into enough highly enriched uranium to make one nuclear weapon: Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 20, 2008 11:13
Another Ship Seized (Updated)
A freighter carrying a cargo of grain to Iran has been seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden: Somali pirates struck again yesterday, seizing an Iranian cargo ship holding 30,000 tonnes of grain, as the world’s governments and navies pronounced themselves powerless against this new threat to global trade. fester at The Newshoggers is correct in that the cost-benefit ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 19, 2008 11:36
