Reuters reports today that Mitt Romney’s campaign foreign policy advisers are increasingly at odds, with the moderate faction fighting the neocons. “[F]ights have broken out over touchstone issues such as Russia and China,” Reuters says. The New York Times reported as much back in May and the campaign stresses that internal disputes are part of the normal process.

But one question is, which side is winning? One senior Republican operative told Reuters that it’s “the Cheney-ites”:

A long-time Republican activist who has been in contact with some of the Romney camp’s more centrist elements said that moderates “are very concerned about the fact that if Romney needs to call anyone, his instinct is to call the Cheney-ites.”

This is a reference to acolytes of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Several top former Cheney aides are among Romney’s advisers.

The Times also reported a Romney adviser saying the former Massachusetts governor doesn’t want to talk foreign policy during the campaign. Reuters says the fights over policy have resulted “in full-time staffers trying to limit Romney’s public statements on foreign policy” which perhaps explains why Romney’s foreign policy on a number of key issues isn’t all that different from President Obama’s.

But — despite the influence of moderates like Richard Williamson — the GOP operative’s observation confirms suspicions that Romney’s foreign policy is really being run by those that brought you the war in Iraq and want another in Iran. They’re just not comfortable talking about it — yet.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has made a point of criticizing President Obama’s diplomacy with China and “strategic pivot” to Asia as “invevitably weaken[ing]” the U.S. military position in Asia.

But while the Romney campaign takes increasingly hawkish positions towards China — former GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman even acknowledged that Romney’s rhetoric sounded like “typical” campaign bluster — a new public opinion poll shows the U.S. public is far from sharing Romney’s antagonistic perception.

Indeed, a new poll [PDF] conducted by the Committee of 100, a nonpartisan Chinese-American group, did find that militaristic rhetoric about China’s rise appears to have some resonance in U.S. public opinion — two-thirds of Americans see China as a serious or potential military threat. But the poll also found overall American sentiments toward Beijing are surprisingly mixed.

The poll data reveals that the general public holds a much more favorable view of China than business leaders and policymakers think.

Fifty-five percent of the general public views China favorably, a three percent increase from 2007. But business leaders and policymakers, whom the Committee of 100 polled separately, vastly underestimate the U.S. public’s views on China. Business leaders believe only 20 percent of the U.S. public hold a favorable view of China and policymakers say 17 percent.

Other polls found varying results about the American public’s views of China but a recent Gallup poll, which showed only 42 percent of Americans holding a positive opinion of China, reported that 80 percent of Americans think a close relationship with China is a good thing.

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Earlier this month, fifteen state attorneys general announced an investigation into QuinStreet for its role in connecting veterans and servicemembers to its for-profit school clients via a website called “GIBill.com” — which is not affiliated with the U.S. government.

But all that’s about to change. Today Gov. Jack Conway (D-KY) announced a settlement with QuinStreet, the Army Times reports:

QuinStreet Inc., a marketing company accused of misleading veterans and steering them toward for-profit colleges, will hand over its GIBill.com domain to the Veterans Affairs Department and pay $2.5 million to cover investigation costs under an agreement signed Tuesday with the attorneys general of several states.

QuinStreet posted the terms of the voluntary agreement in a Securities Exchange Commission filing linked to from its Wednesday. According to the filing, QuinStreet has been negotiating with the attorneys general of several states. Fifteen states were investigating the company for violation of their consumer protection laws.

“This company preyed on our veterans who received educational benefits as a result of their military service to our country,” General Conway said in a statement. “The actions were unconscionable and purposefully drove veterans to for-profit colleges who were perhaps more interested in getting their hands on the federal benefits than in educating our soldiers and their families.”

Among other terms of the settlement, social media accounts associated with GIBill.com will be shut down and QuinStreet’s military-related websites will be required to unavoidably disclose that they are not affiliated or operated by the U.S. government. QuinStreet sites will also “no longer be able to make any claims that the information presented on the site is ‘neutral’ or ‘unbiased’ or that schools are “top” or “best” unless the information comes from an independent source.”

Former Defense Secretary William Cohen said in an interview with CNN last night that the U.S. doesn’t want to go to war in Syria, but with tensions mounting between Turkey — a NATO ally — and Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad’s embattled government over a downed Turkish plane, the U.S.’s alliance may require it to:

COHEN: I think that [Assad] wants to be careful. Russia wants to be careful. NATO wants to be careful that we don’t see this spin out of control that suddenly there’s a war declared against Syria by NATO, which I think doesn’t have the power to declare war, but has the power to declare we’re with Turkey if Turkey should respond from a military point of view… We have to be very careful there. We want to avoid that.

I think the shot that’s been fired is a verbal one, saying that Syria, you’re on notice. If you so much as fire one of our aircraft again, we’re going to retaliate, and it won’t be a very low level. So, I think Syria is on notice.

The United States, the other NATO countries, are saying we’re with you politically. We hope we don’t have to be involved in a war, but if war comes, it’s one nation of NATO, it’s all of us.

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Cohen is referring to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty which states that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all members, and each “will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”

Turkey’s stance toward Syria’s brutal crackdown on Arab Spring demonstrations last year and, now, military assaults against civilian areas in its civil war with various rebel factions has grown more aggressive. Turkey hosts the main exiled Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Council, and leadership of the largest rebel faction, the Free Syrian Army. According to reports, Turkey sold anti-tank missiles to the rebels, purchased with Saudia Arabian and Qatari money.

Lawyers for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) revealed yesterday, the U.N.’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, that they had written to the U.N. special rapporteur on torture asking the world body to investigate KSM’s alleged torture at Guantanamo Bay. Agence-France Presse reports:

The letter asks that the special UN rapporteur “initiate a full, fair and impartial inquiry” into both US conduct and that of “any other potentially complicit state party to the Convention (against Torture).”

“After subjecting Mr. Mohammed to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment following his capture on March 1, 2003 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, the US government has silenced him,” reads the letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. [...]

“The US government seeks to close this painful and dark chapter in our Nation’s history by killing Mr. Mohammed after a show trial,” it claims.

Army Capt. Jason Wright, one of Mohammad’s lawyers, said: “No human being should be tortured. In the period since 9/11, the US has misplaced its moral compass. Through accountability, we can hopefully find our way again, and pursue a path of rediscovery and redemption.”

Yesterday, the ACLU released a “Torture Database” making over 100,000 pages of government Bush-era interrogation and rendition documents searchable by the general public.