“Grand Waffle” in the Middle East

Amb. Chas Freeman (ret.) spoke to a Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) forum on U.S. Grand Strategy — or, in his words “Grand Waffle” — in the Middle East on Capitol Hill yesterday and has graciously agreed to have the… Continue Reading →

Obama Nominates Hagel for Pentagon, Brennan for CIA

via IPS News Rounding out his second-term foreign policy picks, U.S. President Barack Obama Monday nominated former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to head the Pentagon and his top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, to direct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The… Continue Reading →

The Gaza Crisis: A Strategic Boon for Iran

The recent war in Gaza has been portrayed as a political dividend for the main protagonists, namely Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, Egypt’s Mohammad Morsi, and the Hamas leadership in Gaza, despite the tremendous psychological, infrastructural and humanitarian costs borne by innocent… Continue Reading →

Gregory D. Johnsen: John Brennan is the wrong man for the CIA

Gregory D. Johnsen, a Princeton scholar who has emerged as a key Yemen analyst, explains why promoting John O. Brennan to CIA director following David Petraeus’ resignation is counterproductive: Mr. Brennan is the president’s chief counterterrorism adviser and the architect of… Continue Reading →

David Petraeus and the Militarization of the CIA

The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill injects some badly needed context into the media frenzy over David Petraeus’s CIA resignation by examining the four-star General’s legacy against the backdrop of an increasingly militarized intelligence agency: As head of US Central Command in 2009,… Continue Reading →