Biden Shouldn’t Rush to Restore the Iran Nuclear Deal
Moving quickly to resurrect the JCPOA, as Biden seems set to do, would start his presidency with a hugely divisive controversy.
National Intelligence Estimate
A Solarium For Presidential Transition Teams
In the next 100 days, America will go through a transition. Regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election, thousands of political operatives, pundits, think tankers, and other court whisperers will...
Op-eds
Iran’s Diplomatic Path to the Bomb
Let’s assume the Iranian nuclear talks in Vienna fail to conclude a final agreement by Nov. 24, the already extended deadline under the interim Joint Plan of Action signed in January. Iran&...
Op-eds
Scare Tehran, Please
Is Barack Obama’s threat of preventive military action against the Iranian regime’s nuclear program credible? Would a one-year, six-month, or even three-month nuclear breakout capacit...
Op-eds
Don’t Trust, Can’t Verify
The second line of the new nuclear deal with Iran is curious, to say the least: “Iran reaffi...
Op-eds
Saudis Stung by Obama Iran Initiative
President Obama’s Friday telephone call with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani—the first at such a level in over three decades—has exacerbated existing problems between the Unite...
Op-eds
Meet the New Mullah
Iranians aren’t wrong to celebrate the presidential victory of Hassan Rouhani. It is a (small) thumb in the eye of the country’s clerical ruler, Ali Khamenei. Leaving aside foreign af...
Op-eds
Forget Diplomacy: With Iran, Pressure Works
Diplomats often have a hard time being frank for the entirely understandable reason that they have to talk to the same foreigners day after day. Their love of process – the elevation of mea...
Op-eds
Radioactive Regime
The list is long of Occidentals who’ve fallen for Persia. This isn’t surprising. Compared with Arab lands save Egypt, Iran has a longer history—Hegel described the Persians as &...
Op-eds
The Al Qaeda Factor, and the Fate of a Jihadi Group
The Al Qaeda Factor: Plots Against the West by Mitchell D. Silber. One reason terrorism watchers have often been wrong about some of the critical...
Op-eds
Pinning Iran to the Mat
Can we learn lessons about stopping Tehran's nuclear program from a wrestling match? Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opin
Op-eds
Obama’s Classified Leaks Are Probably Not Prosecutable
In my post over the weekend about the folly of pushing for a special prosecutor on t...
Op-eds
How Washington Encourages Israel to Bomb Iran
Israel knows sanctions aren't likely to work and is increasingly aware of the poor quality of U.S. intelligence.
Op-eds
A Faulty Intelligence Report Lives On
The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear weapons program lives on in the imagination of some government officials. At the end of a...
Op-eds
Obfuscating Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program
During an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer shortly before the Super Bowl on February 5, President Obama was asked about Iran’s nuclear weapons program and the possibility of an Israeli...
Op-eds
Al Qaeda Round-Up, 2012
As we enter a new year, I wanted to outline the contours of, and analyze, a few issues that are likely to feature prominently in the fight between the U.S. and al Qaeda in 2012....
Op-eds
Iran’s Nuclear Surge Capacity
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s comments concerning Iran’s nuclear program have caused quite a stir. In an interview aired on Monday, CBS News’s Scott Pelley...
Op-eds
Obama’s Iran Failure
Israel turns up the heat.
Op-eds
Iranian Nuclear Details Should’ve Been Released Years Ago
A new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) offers a detailed list of evidence in regard to Iran’s clandestine efforts to build a nuclear device and fit it onto long-ran...
Op-eds
Has Evidence of Iran’s Nuclear Advances Been Withheld?
There are two embarrassing pieces of evidence buried in all the reporting about the IAEA quarterly report on the Iranian program, due to be released later this week. One is the fact that much of...