Appearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on January 31, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James R. Clapper warned that the “2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. shows that some Iranian officials—probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei—have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the U.S. in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime.” In October, U.S. officials accused Iran of plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington with hired assassins from a Mexican …
There has been a lot of discussion recently of Iranian involvement in Latin America, especially with the recent plot involving an assassination attempt against the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Of course, a lot of people are going to Latin America these days: the Russians, the Chinese— and even the Europeans. That’s because the region is abundant in natural resources, especially energy, and it offers the potential of emerging markets. Unfortunately, Iran is looking to make a less-than-friendly mark in Latin America, especially for the United States. Tehran has …
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta presided over a muted ceremony in Baghdad yesterday marking the end of the U.S. military mission in Iraq. He proclaimed that the United States had achieved its goal of establishing “an Iraq that could govern and secure itself.” But he warned that “Iraq will be tested in the days ahead—by terrorism, and by those who would seek to divide it.” Unfortunately, the Obama Administration’s failure to negotiate an extension of the U.S. military presence past the December 31 deadline set by the 2008 status of …
In a lengthy piece on December 13, the New York Times reported on the role Western Hemisphere drug trafficking plays in financing the Shiite, pro-Iranian terrorist organization Hezbollah. The Times took a lengthy look at the Treasury Department’s investigation of the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) and the organizational structure that moves illegal drugs from South America to Europe and the Middle East via West Africa and launders hundreds of millions of dollars monthly through accounts held at LCB, as well as through trade-based money laundering involving consumer goods throughout the …
In this week’s Heritage in Focus, expert Ray Walser discusses the increasingly anti-U.S. policies in Latin America. PODCAST: Terrorism in Latin America Threatens U.S. In the past decade, Iran has increased its influence in Latin America. Considering Iran’s long history of bad actions, this increased activity in the Western Hemisphere should give Americans pause. This year alone, Iran refused to abandon its nuclear ambitions, its military sat idly by as Iranian students stormed a British embassy, it attempted to assassinate a Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C., and now is aggressively expanding its …
When the U.N. General Assembly voted on resolution A/RES/66/12 in late November, it passed easily with 106 votes. What was unusual about the otherwise routine vote was that several notable countries voted against it. The resolution, which was introduced by Saudi Arabia and co-sponsored by more than 50 nations including the U.S., was intended to condemn terrorism, specifically criticizing Iran’s alleged involvement in the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. The text “encouraged Member States to take additional steps to prevent, on their territories, the planning, financing, …
Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets of Syrian cities on Friday to call for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in one of the largest outpourings of opposition since protests began over three months ago. At least 12 protesters were killed by Assad’s internal security forces. More than 1,400 Syrians, most of them peaceful protesters, have been massacred in a series of violent crackdowns by the embattled regime in Damascus. The Assad regime, which has ruled Syria with an iron hand since seizing power in a military …
Iran is one of the most dangerous and evil regimes in the world. The protests in Egypt and Tunisia have distracted U.S. attention from its nuclear programs. This makes recent Iranian protests all the more important, reminding us yet again of the oppressive nature of the Iranian regime, a regime that poses even more dangers if regional instability expands its sphere of influence and emboldens it to press ahead even more rapidly with its development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. The U.S. needs to refocus the international spotlight on …
Two years of President Barak Obama’s Middle Eastern foreign policy, and especially its handling of the Egyptian revolution, earned poor marks at Israel’s flagship national security event, the Herzliya Conference. The prestigious conference attracted NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, U.K. Defense Minister Liam Fox, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and many others. Israel is concerned that the the Obama Administration demonstrated inconsistency, first declaring the Mubarak regime stable, then hastening to ease out an octogerian President who for a long time was America’s …
From the outset of the Obama presidency and the emergence of the Obama Doctrine, the similarities between this Administration and that of Jimmy Carter have been striking. Like Obama, Carter trumpeted soft power and international institutions as the means to solve the most perplexing foreign policy problems. The programs of both Presidents hinged on the cooperation of adversaries who interpreted the U.S. initiatives as signs of weakness, and in the second half of their presidencies, both faced the prospect of sharp reversals.
