Think Progress

Right Wing Attacks Clinton’s Successful Trip To Free American Journalists In North Korea - Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Yesterday, super-hawk John Bolton was upset that President Clinton, along with a group that included Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta, went over to North Korea to negotiate the release of two imprisoned American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. “It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists,” Bolton said. Even after [...]

Even After North Korea Frees American Journalists, Bolton Insists Clinton Trip Was A Mistake - Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Reports emerged yesterday that President Clinton — along with Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta — was traveling to North Korea to negotiate the release of two imprisoned American journalists. In an interview with AFP today, super-hawk John Bolton attacked Clinton for “negotiating with terrorists” and “rewarding bad behavior“:
“It comes perilously close [...]

Is Sen. Kyl Placing A Hold On Ellen Tauscher’s State Department Nomination Because He Wants More Nukes? - Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

The Senate has yet to confirm a number of President Obama’s nominees to various State Department posts. One of those nominees, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) — a champion of repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy — has had a hold placed on her nomination to become Under Secretary of State for Arms Control [...]

Kristol and Hume call for ‘targeted air strikes’ against North Korea. - Monday, June 1st, 2009

On Fox News Sunday yesterday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said that it would be “wise” for the Obama administration to “knock out a few” of North Korea’s missile sites. “You know, it might be worth doing some targeted air strikes to show the North Koreans — instead of always talking about, Gee, there could [...]

Flashback: Biden on 9/10/01 warned the ‘real threat’ may come in ‘the belly of a plane’ - Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Before 9/11, the Bush administration’s national security focus was on missile defense, not terrorism. In fact, on 9/11, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was set to deliver a speech that focused “largely on missile defense.” Writing at the Huffington Post, Joe Cirincione — president of the Ploughshares Fund — recalls this quote from Sen. Joseph [...]

Bush Falsely Claims Iran ‘Declared’ It Wants A Nuclear Weapon ‘To Destroy People’ - Friday, March 21st, 2008

During a recent interview with Radio Farda, a U.S. government-run radio service that broadcasts into Iran in the Farsi language, President Bush falsely claimed that Iran “declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people.”
However, the the U.S. intelligence community disagrees. A National Intelligence Estimate on Iran released last December stated unequivocally [...]

Following up on Israel’s bombing of Syria. - Monday, February 4th, 2008

The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh writes that his three-month investigation of Israel’s September 2007 bombing of a facility inside Syria has yielded no “solid evidence of ongoing nuclear-weapons programs” at the site:
Joseph Cirincione, the director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C., think tank, told me, “Syria does not have [...]

Kristol: Iran Halting Nuclear Weapons Program Is ‘Another Feather In The Cap For Iraq Invasion’ - Sunday, December 9th, 2007

Today in the Fox News Sunday roundtable, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol claimed that the reason Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in mid-2003 was because of the U.S. invasion of Iraq:
I believe we invaded a neighboring country in 2003 and removed their dictator and that sent shock waves through the region and at the [...]

Woolsey Claims Iran Could Have Nuclear Bomb In ‘A Few Months’ - Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

During an appearance on CNN’s Lou Dobbs last night, former CIA director James Woolsey, one of the earliest advocates of invading Iraq, claimed that Iran “could have” a nuclear bomb in “a few months.”
“The Iranians continue to work on getting enriched uranium,” said Woolsey. “I’m afraid within, well, at worst, a few months; at [...]

‘Bomb Iran’ Podhoretz: War Would ‘Unleash A Wave’ Of Global Anti-Americanism - Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

The current issue of Commentary magazine — “widely regarded as the leading outlet for neoconservative writing” — features a controversial cover story by Norman Podhoretz titled “The Case For Bombing Iran.”
Podhoretz’s article appeals to President Bush, “a man who knows evil when he sees it” and who has been “battered more mercilessly and with [...]

REPORT: Bush Officials Were ‘Rooting’ For North Korea to Test Nuclear Weapon - Monday, October 23rd, 2006

Senior Bush administration officials wanted North Korea to test a nuclear weapon because it would prove their point that the regime must be overthrown.
This astonishing revelation was buried in the middle of a Washington Post story published yesterday. Glenn Kessler reports from Moscow as he accompanies Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:
Before North Korea announced [...]

Containing North Korea the Old Fashioned Way - Saturday, October 21st, 2006

This week, China put pressure on North Korea’s mercurial dictator, Kim Jung Il, apparently winning a pledge to not conduct another nuclear test. If it stands, this is the first good news to come from Secretary of State Condoleeeza Rice’s travel to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, and Moscow drumming up support for the U.N. Security [...]

McCain Covers Up For Bush’s Nuclear Failures - Wednesday, October 11th, 2006

Senator John McCain’s claim that Bill Clinton is responsible for North Korea’s nuclear test this week is dead wrong. He should know better.
One more time, here are the facts:
North Korea’s bombs are built with plutonium. They produce their plutonium in a reactor they built during the Reagan presidency, starting around 1984. They separated enough plutonium [...]

Middle East Nuclear Dominos - Saturday, September 23rd, 2006

Last week in an op-ed for the Boston Globe, I warned about Iran’s nuclear program and asked the following question: “The real danger is what happens next [in the region]. What do Iran’s rivals — Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey — do if it declares itself a nuclear power?”
A partial answer to the question [...]

Senate Intel Committee Report Proves Bush Still Isn’t Telling the Truth - Sunday, September 10th, 2006

Long delayed, heavily censored and only partially complete, the new Senate Intelligence Committee report is still devastating to the administration: President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and other senior officials systematically misled the American public on the ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
The two sections of the report released late Friday also shows [...]

President Bush and Islamo-Mush - Friday, September 1st, 2006

The best case is that President Bush’s speech in Utah was a cynical manipulation of the American public.
Perhaps this is why he portrays his unpopular war in Iraq as part of a heroic battle against the forces of evil. Sunni and Shia, Persian and Arab, Al Qaida and Hamas are all, he [...]

Congress Fuels South Asian Nuclear Arms Race - Monday, July 24th, 2006

As Congress is marching in lock step to approve the administration’s sweetheart deal that would allow India to rapidly ramp up its nuclear bomb production to about 50 new weapons each year, news comes that Pakistan is racing to match the Indian capability.
The Washington Post reports on new satellite photos that reveal construction [...]

Washington Times Encourages Israel to Attack Iran - Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

Today, the Washington Times reports Israel is in a good position right now to take out Iran’s nuclear sites:
Israel is in the best position militarily in its history to mount air strikes against Iran, after a decade of buying U.S.-produced long-range aircraft, penetrating bombs and aerial refueling tankers. […] “They have the capability to strike [...]

Former CIA Director Woolsey: ‘I Think We Ought To Execute Some Air Strikes Against Syria’ - Monday, July 17th, 2006

Today, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stated that the United States’ position with respect to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East is to deescalate the tensions:
We believe that finding a way to deescalate the tensions in the current crisis…is really the way forward to achieve that ultimate goal which everybody agrees upon.
But Joseph [...]

Neocons Resurrect Plans For Regional War In The Middle East - Monday, July 17th, 2006

In 1996, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser (all later senior officials in the Bush administration) had a plan for how to destroy Hezbollah: Invade Iraq. They wrote a report to the newly elected Likud government in Israel calling for “a clean break” with the policies of negotiating with the Palestinians and trading land [...]