FP’s Situation Report: Greenwald on how the NSA helps Israel attack its...
By Gordon Lubold with Nathaniel Sobel Glenn Greenwald reports this morning that the NSA has provided financial assistance, weapons and signals intel to Israel that has enabled attacks on its neighbors...
View ArticleAmerican General Killed in Afghanistan in Insider Attack Is First Since 1970
An American general who was shot Tuesday allegedly by a member of the Afghan military became the highest-ranking U.S. officer to be killed in a war zone since 1970. The inside attack, which took place...
View ArticleLatest Iraq Crisis May Force Obama’s Hand
The White House is considering a series of airstrikes in addition to humanitarian airdrops in northern Iraq, to assist the thousands of religious minorities trapped on a mountaintop by Sunni militants...
View ArticleObama Launches Airstrikes in Iraq, Delivers Aid
After telling a national audience Thursday night that he authorized bombing in Iraq, on Friday President Barack Obama gave the green-light to airstrikes. On Thursday the United States began dropping...
View ArticleObama Won’t Set Timetable for Iraq as Airstrikes, Humanitarian Aid Continue
This story has been updated. President Barack Obama sought to manage expectations about the new American involvement in Iraq, saying that it will take more than weeks to "solve this problem," and...
View ArticleFP’s Situation Report: Maliki becomes the new Assad; U.S. promises support...
By Gordon Lubold The White House has begun directly providing weapons to Kuridsh forces in northern Iraq. AP’s Lita Baldor, travelling with SecDef Hagel in Australia, and Matthew Lee: "…Previously, the...
View ArticlePentagon Will Arm Kurds Directly to Fight the Islamic State
The Obama administration on Monday made clear that U.S. airstrikes against the Islamist militants sweeping toward the capital of Iraq’s quasi-independent Kurdistan were meant to blunt their advance...
View ArticleFP’s Situation Report: Pentagon to arm the Kurds; Are the pesh up to it?;...
By Gordon Lubold The Pentagon is going to arm the Kurdish peshmerga directly. The Obama administration on Monday made clear that U.S. airstrikes against the Islamist militants sweeping toward the...
View ArticleU.S. Attempts to Build Coalition of the Willing in Iraq Begin to Pay Off
This story has been updated. In his multiple press briefings since authorizing airstrikes against Sunni militants in Iraq, President Barack Obama has yet to make a vocal public case for allies to join...
View ArticleFP’s Situation Report: Support for Maliki crumbles; Pentagon sends 130 more...
By Gordon Lubold Support for Maliki is crumbling and that may open the door for broader coalition support for an effort to counter the Islamic State in Iraq – and for greater U.S. intervention. Iraqi...
View ArticleFP’s Situation Report: Support for Maliki crumbles; Pentagon sends 130 more...
By Gordon Lubold Support for Maliki is crumbling and that may open the door for broader coalition support for an effort to counter the Islamic State in Iraq – and for greater U.S. intervention. Iraqi...
View ArticleObama Pledge to Keep Troops Out of Combat May Fall Flat
President Barack Obama has pledged repeatedly not to put "combat boots on the ground" in Iraq. But a growing air campaign, combined with an increasingly dire need to address the situation atop Mount...
View ArticleFP’s Situation Report: As a rescue mission looks “unlikely,” a decision for...
By Gordon Lubold Chuck Hagel says the assessment the U.S. military did on Mount Sinjar shows things aren’t as bad as feared and a rescue mission is now "unlikely." After weeks of speculation that as...
View ArticleSinjar Surprise: How the U.S. May Have Misjudged the Refugee Situation in Iraq
For weeks, as many as 40,000 Iraqi civilians were reportedly stranded on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq after fleeing the brutality of the Islamic State’s steady advance. They were hungry, thirsty, and...
View ArticleFP’s Situation Report: Maliki to step down; Administration’s Sinjar Surprise;...
By Gordon Lubold Maliki to step down in Iraq. For weeks, the Obama administration had been not-so-quietly pushing for a coalition government in Iraq – pinning efforts to reverse the worsening...
View ArticleHagel Taps Former Senate Aide to Lead Pentagon Front Office
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has selected Rexon Ryu as his new chief of staff, picking a former trusted aide over someone from inside the building with deep Pentagon experience, Foreign Policy has...
View ArticleAs Iraq Mission Expands, White House Struggles to Define Its Goal and Objectives
Nearly two weeks into the Obama administration’s bombing campaign in Iraq, the White House is still struggling to define a conflict in which it’s launched more than 70 airstrikes at Sunni militants and...
View ArticleExclusive: Baghdad Open to Letting U.S. Warplanes Fly From Iraqi Bases
Iraqi officials have given their American counterparts clear signals that Baghdad is willing to let U.S. fighter jets operate out of Iraqi air bases, a move that would allow planes to stay airborne...
View ArticleCall Sign ‘Rogue’: Pentagon Says One Chinese Commander Responsible for Spate...
A Chinese PLA wing commander has repeatedly harassed U.S. military aircraft in the South China Sea, most recently directing a Chinese jet fighter to do a Top Gun-like barrel roll that came dangerously...
View ArticleOf Course the U.S. Knew About Airstrikes on Libya
Two airstrikes in the past week on Islamist militias fighting for control of Tripoli, Libya, are raising questions about who was behind the attacks and whether the United States knew about or condoned...
View ArticleSyria Mission Could Start Easy But Become More Complex
If the Obama administration actually takes the fight to the Islamic State in Syria, it would likely do so in stages, hitting the easiest targets first and the most difficult ones later as it develops a...
View ArticleKerry Leading Coalition Drive to Confront Islamic State
Secretary of State John Kerry is now President Barack Obama’s point man for drumming up international support to fight the Islamic State, which the administration refers to as ISIL. Kerry will start...
View ArticleU.S. Conducts Counterterrorism Operation in Somalia
The Pentagon conducted an operation against the al Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia in what amounted to a rare public acknowledgement of the quiet work it’s been doing there, it revealed Monday. Ever...
View ArticlePentagon Says It Hit Its Target, but Did It Kill al-Shabab’s Leader?
U.S. officials are assessing whether an airstrike in Somalia killed the leader of the al-Shabab terrorist group, a potentially significant blow to the al Qaeda affiliate responsible for a wave of...
View ArticleWill al-Shabab’s New Leader Be as Dangerous as Its Old One?
The death of al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane pushes the counterterrorism fight in Somalia into a new phase, and now U.S. and Somali officials wonder what Godane’s possible replacement could mean for...
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