updated Wed. December 13, 2023
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LobeLog
March 30, 2018
by Paul R. Pillar Though fully justified, the sudden attention paid to the exploitation, including for political purposes, of information on millions of Facebook users in ways that ought to make those users uncomfortable—and to how Facebook does not seem… Continue ReadingÃâà...
LobeLog
March 27, 2018
by Paul R. Pillar. Donald Trump appears poised to make one of the most damaging moves yet of his presidency: to pull out of the multilateral agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which severely restricts Iran's nuclear program and closes all pathways to a possible IranianÃâà...
RT
March 26, 2018
Former CIA operative Paul R. Pillar praised her apolitical relationship with the White House in an NPR article, as did her former supervisor, Robert Baer. The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity memo however, closes with a recommendation that Trump rescinds the nomination in the name ofÃâà...
The National Interest Online (blog)
March 23, 2018
John Bolton has a glaring record of extreme and bombastic views and behavior. First-hand recollections of that record include, for example, former State Department officer Greg Thielmann's description of Bolton's performance as one of the most enthusiastic promoters of the Iraq War. The followingÃâà...
The National Interest Online (blog)
March 21, 2018
One of the more intriguing news reports about the rapid rise to power of the 32-year-old Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), concerns how he isolated his mother, placing her under house arrest for a time. He kept her away from his father, the mentally declining King Salman, and devisedÃâà...
Just Security
March 20, 2018
Saudi Arabia's U.S.-backed military campaign in Yemen, now almost three years old, not only drives the world's worst humanitarian crisis, but also deepens the terrorist threat to the United States. After more than 1,000 days of war, 22 million Yemenis – more than the population of Florida – needÃâà...
New York Times
March 13, 2018
President Trump announced on Tuesday that he would nominate Mike Pompeo, the director of the C.I.A., to be the next secretary of state now that Rex Tillerson has been pushed out. This is bad news for the country and the world. If confirmed, Mr. Pompeo will bring to the job not the discretion and objectivityÃâà...
The National Interest Online (blog)
March 11, 2018
In July 1951, armistice talks began that eventually, after two years of difficult negotiations, would halt the Korean War. The locale was the city of Kaesong, which was just south of the 38th parallel but on the North Korean/Chinese side of the front line. The lead negotiator for United Nations forces was U.S.Ãâà...
LobeLog
March 7, 2018
Long after Donald Trump leaves office, analysts will continue to discuss the roots of his presidency's excesses and outrages. They will offer explanations about larger phenomena in politics and society that go beyond Trump himself and that helped to make possible the damage he has inflicted on theÃâà...
The National Interest Online (blog)
March 3, 2018
Vladimir Putin's video show about formidable new Russian strategic weapons, which took up half of the Russian president's recent state of the nation address, has given defense analysts plenty to chew on. The presentation, which Putin probably was aiming at his domestic audience as well as anÃâà...
LobeLog
February 28, 2018
by Paul R. Pillar. Later this week Secretary of Energy Rick Perry will lead a U.S. delegation to negotiate a possible nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia. The subject already has been a point of contention between Riyadh and Washington. Saudi Arabia wants to establish a large-scale nuclearÃâà...
LobeLog
December 31, 1999
by Paul R. Pillar. John Bolton has a glaring record of extreme and bombastic views and behavior. First-hand recollections of that record include, for example, former State Department officer Greg Thielmann's description of Bolton's performance as one of the most enthusiastic promoters of the Iraq War.
NPR
December 31, 1999
Paul R. Pillar served in the CIA for 28 years. He is a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. President Trump's nominee to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gina Haspel, will become, if confirmed, the first career professional of the agency to riseÃâà...
The National Interest Online (blog)
December 31, 1999
The sudden attention to the exploitation, including for political purposes, of information on millions of Facebook users in ways that ought to make those users uncomfortable—and to how Facebook does not seem to have cared about such abuses—has been tardy and myopic even though the attention isÃâà...
