Skip to main content

Quotes

Filter

Close

Products

August 23, 2011 Obama Finally Tells Assad to Go So why did Obama finally leap into action? Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies tells me, “Very little has happened in recent days that wasn’t happening five... August 19, 2011 Conservatives Suggest Syria Next Steps President Barack Obama said yesterday that he wants to see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down from office, and promised to implement more sanctions on the Syrian regime. But conservatives... August 18, 2011 Obama Tolerates Terror Operations Run Out of Syria’s Embassy Aside from the impact on our own citizens, American quietude is inexplicable from a diplomatic standpoint. Tony Badran, a Syria expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, e-mailed me:... August 16, 2011 New Iran Sanctions Could Bring Unintended Blowback "You want to move the market so that you have a smaller number of buyers" of Iranian oil, added Mark Dubowitz, director of the Iran Energy Project at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, a... August 16, 2011 Diplomatic Chorus Grows for Sanctions on Syrian Oil Mark Dubowitz, FDD executive editor and director of its Iran Energy Project, said important sanctions bills have recently been introduced in both houses of the US Congress, but that the most cons... August 12, 2011 Taking Out a Tyrant These leaders, says Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “will essentially be militia heads, like those who arose during Lebanon’s civil wars.&... August 12, 2011 C.I.A. Is Disputed on Civilian Toll in Drone Strikes Others who question the C.I.A. claim include strong supporters of the drone program like Bill Roggio, editor of The Long War Journal, who closely tracks the strikes. “The Taliban d... August 12, 2011 Assad’s Noose Tightens Kuwait’s turnaround may be the most significant since, as Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, explains, Assad and his cousin Rami Makhlouf have reac... August 9, 2011 Syrian Defense Minister Killed? Syria expert Tony Badran of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies is cautious. He e-mails me, “Well, first we don’t yet know for sure if he’s actually dead. There are some n... August 8, 2011 Senators Demand Obama Step Up Iran Policy Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has been intimately involved in drafting sanctions legislation and in urging a series of escalating measures. He e-mailed me this mornin... August 4, 2011 US Looks at Intensifying Sanctions Against Syria Over a quarter of the Syrian regime’s revenue comes from the sale of oil, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. FDD Executive Director Mark Dubowitz assessed that... August 4, 2011 Iran Sanctions Failing Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has been intimately involved in helping to craft sanctions efforts. But he, too, recognizes that sanctions alone are insufficient. He e-... August 2, 2011 Obama Finally ‘Appalled’ at Syria Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies e-mailed me: “Syria is an increasingly ugly mess, and I don’t see anyone from the international community willing to ste... August 2, 2011 Obama ‘Horrified’ as Syrian Forces Kill at Least 80 in Hama “What the regime is facing here is a tribal insurrection in the east stretching from the north in Deir al- Zor, through the middle in Albu Kamal,” Tony Badran, a research fellow with... July 29, 2011 Whatever the Fate of al-Qaeda, the Islamist Terrorist Threat Remains There is a clear and present danger of premature triumphalism when American counter-terrorism officials proclaim al-Qaeda is “on the brink of collapse.” As Daveed Garstenstein-R... July 29, 2011 Oh, Yeah, There is an Iran-al-Qaeda Connection Iran expert and former CIA analyst Reuel Marc Gerecht of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies was part of that debate. He e-mails me: Iranian-al-Qaeda ties... July 26, 2011 Even Dead, Osama Has a Winning Strategy (Hint: It’s Muhammad Ali’s) Osama bin Laden is dead. And the Obama administration that killed him is smelling the successful conclusion to the war on terrorism. “There will come a time when they simply can no longer r... July 26, 2011 Rally in London Calls For an End to The Persecution of Falun Gong At an event in the UK Parliament on July 12, investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann said that the persecution of Falun Gong is one of the “clearest cases of genocide in this century”.... July 22, 2011 US is Right to Give Aid to Somalia, Despite Risk of Helping Al Shabab The answer to the crisis would seem to be aid from the outside, but control of southern Somalia by al Shabab, an Islamic militia designated as a terrorist group by the US State Department, poses... July 21, 2011 Al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa Jon Huntsman made an interesting comment the other day. He said the al Qaeda terrorism sweeping the world these last decades represents the collapse of old regimes much as collapse swept old Euro... July 19, 2011 Do We Have An Iran Policy? I spoke to Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies yesterday about the state of the administration’s Iran policy. He was blunt: I&rsquo... July 18, 2011 The Secret War in Somalia Writing in the Nation this week, Jeremy Scahill revealed that the CIA is running "a counterterrorism trai... July 15, 2011 Middle East Diplomacy Adrift Although the General Assembly action may not be able to grant the Palestinians membership in the U.N., Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies cautions that serious consequ... July 15, 2011 Austrian FM Faces Criticism for Visit of Iran Minister BERLIN - Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger's decision to meet with sanctioned Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Tuesday triggered criticism from the Au... July 15, 2011 Egypt Might Postpone Elections Until November “This will definitely come at the expense of the Brotherhood. This has been the wish of the liberal democrats in Egypt since the first day after the fall of Mubarak,” said Jonathan Sc... July 15, 2011 It’s a Fact: U.S.-Israel Relations at Low Ebb But let’s see where we are today. Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies e-mails me while we await the results of the Quartet meeting today: “The Quartet, afte... July 15, 2011 Syria’s Opposition Boycotts Government Talks “It’s the regime talking to itself, essentially,” said Tony Badran, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “They reached out to certain veteran opposition... July 13, 2011 The Panetta Doctrine: Declare Victory, Don’t Go Home A forthcoming book from Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a terrorism analyst with the conservative Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, contends al-Qaida’s primary strategy against the U.S. i... July 5, 2011 Analysis: Why is the Bundestag Courting Iran? BERLIN – German-Israeli relations were strained last week because a delegation of Israeli lawmakers headed by MK Shaul Mofaz discovered during their visit to Berlin that the German... June 28, 2011 Dutch MP Calls to Slash Funding of Anti-Israel NGOs BERLIN – A panel in the Dutch parliament earlier this month titled “To discuss the activity of NGOs in Israel and Palestine” has generated a heated debate among lawmakers and th... June 28, 2011 Tunisia’s Popular Revolution Far From Settled The Jasmine Revolution is a work in progress, to say the least. Khairi Abaza of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies put it this way: "The regime is trying to make a cosmetic change to stay... June 21, 2011 Syrian Subterfuge “The argument for keeping Imad Mustafa in Washington, that we needed someone to send tough messages to, was never convincing,” says Tony Badran, research fellow at the Foundation for... June 21, 2011 Quiet Cheers For a Delay in Egyptian Elections Khairi Abaza of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies echoes this sentiment. Having recently been in the region, he tells me, “The country is going through a debate that polarized the E... June 20, 2011 Canadian Minister Urges UN to Drop Durban III Parley In a series of interviews with The Jerusalem Post at last week’s Conservative Party convention in Ottawa, leading politicians from the newly reelected Conservative government discussed supp... June 17, 2011 Leverage and Legitimacy in Lebanon and Syria However, as Tony Badran writes in Foreign Policy, “The evolution of the Syrian uprising has presented Washington with a unique opportunity to squeeze Assad. The United States has leverage;... June 16, 2011 The Obama-Fatah Tag Team Looking through a strictly foreign policy lens, Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies says Obama’s current stance on Israel is actually part of a trend evident sinc... June 16, 2011 Jihadi Forum Watchers Beat Wires to Zawahri Story Here's how it all went down. At around 2 am EST, Aaron Zelin, who runs the website Jihadology, tweeted that al-Qaeda's General Command had announced its new leader, linking to a stateme... June 14, 2011 Hamas Rules Out PM Job for Salam Fayyad Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) said in an e-mail to me last night, “This is predictable, of course. Fayyad was never acceptable to Hamas. This, among o... June 14, 2011 Will State Dept. Nominee Get Through the Senate? Journalist Claudia Rossett, who covered foreign policy at the time, tells me, “Among panderers to the North Korean regime, she earned herself a place in the group portrait that used to hang... June 14, 2011 The ‘Peace Process’ Delusion: Have Another Meeting! He proclaims, “Mr Obama should announce during the summer that he is inviting them to resume the negotiations on the basis of these terms of reference with a timeline for an agreement by th... June 14, 2011 Document: Syria Orchestrated Border Battles with Israel Tony Badran, a Syria specialist for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said he “didn’t need the document” to know that the Syrian government was behind the clashes.... June 10, 2011 Afghanistan Nation Building May Fail: Senate Report On April 25, Taliban completed a nearly 400-meter tunnel into the city’s main prison and used it to free about 500 fellow guerrillas in what officials said was an inside job. The operation... June 8, 2011 Sectarian Violence in Syria? “Early on in the uprising the regime dispatched Mustafa Talas to negotiate with the locals in Rastan,” says Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies... June 7, 2011 Clinton: French Should Forget About Hosting Peace Confab Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies agrees that this is a “sad” statement on the decline of U.S. influence in the region. He says, “We are arguing wit... June 1, 2011 The Palestinians’ U.N. Gambit “So far,” Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told me, “Obama’s not winning the day.” Britain appears adamant about supporting the Palesti... June 1, 2011 The Dark Places of the Mideast, or Why There is Little We Can Do About Syria There could not have been a more appropriate time for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) to host its event "Unrest in Syria: How Will the U.S. Respond?" than the morning of President... May 23, 2011 ‘Die Welt’: Iran building rocket bases in Venezuela BERLIN – The Iranian government is moving forward with the construction of rocket launch bases in Venezuela, the German daily Die Welt wrote in its Thursday edition. Venezuelan Pre... May 19, 2011 Obama’s Middle East Gambit Abandoned? Obama nevertheless will face skepticism on the right, aside from the cost. Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies expressed concern that we are just going to be shoveling... May 13, 2011 Iran ‘Increasingly Cut Off’ From Financial Markets: UN Report Financial sanctions are impeding Iran's purchase of materials for its nuclear and missile programs, a United Nations report said, compelling the government in Tehran to try to buy foreign banks and... May 11, 2011 Iran Tells EU Next Atom Talks Must Be Without Pressure TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's nuclear negotiator has said the next talks with world powers must be held without pressure, which analysts said indicated Tehran would stick to its refusal to address its...

1

…

306

307

308

309

310

311

#archivePage { display:none; } .noscript-posts { display: flex; flex-direction: column; max-width: 600px; margin: 50px auto; } .noscript-posts a { margin-bottom: 25px; text-decoration: none; display: flex; flex-direction: column; } .noscript-posts a .post-title { text-decoration: underline; font-weight: 700; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; } .pagination { list-style-type: none; max-width: 600px; margin: 50px auto; }