Obama Looks to Dennis Ross for Strategic Advice

The number of Obama Administration figures losing power to Dennis Ross is growing longer by the day, but one addition to the list is particularly surprising: General James Jones. Obama picked the 6’4″ former Marine to be his National Security Adviser last November after meeting him only a handful of times. And while Obama is happy with his strategic military advice, the President seeks more guidance on the “political and diplomatic” front than he’s getting from Jones, two senior Administration officials tell TIME

Share

Can the U.S. Deal With a Divided Iran?

“The most treacherous government is Britain,” Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, intoned at Friday prayers on June 19, and I had to laugh. The Supreme Leader, in the midst of announcing a crackdown on the Green Revolution demonstrators, was sounding like the lead character in the most famous contemporary Iranian novel, My Uncle Napoleon, a huge hit as a television series in the 1970s

Share

Iranian Politics: Watching ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in Tehran

On June 23, Iranian security forces, reportedly using live ammunition, clashed with protesters numbering in the hundreds in the area of the country’s parliament in Tehran. At the same time, there were indications that a behind-the-scenes struggle was intensifying in the corridors of power even as the government continued its campaign to quiet the populace through propaganda and entertainment.

Share

Nixon library releases tapes, papers from early in 2nd term

The Nixon Presidential Library released 154 hours of tape recordings and 30,000 pages of documents from the Nixon White House on Tuesday, offering a revealing look at the state of mind of America’s 37th president at the start of what would prove to be his disastrous abbreviated second term. The recordings, encompassing almost 1,000 conversations in January and February of 1973, cover a range of topics, including, among other things, the conclusion of the Vietnam Paris peace talks, the Supreme Court’s controversial Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling, the death of former President Lyndon Johnson, and a rapidly metastasizing Watergate scandal

Share

Man killed in D.C. Metro crash ordered jets above Capitol on 9/11

A former commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard — who ordered jets over the Capitol amid the September 11, 2001, terror attacks — was among those killed in a transit train crash in Washington this week, authorities said Tuesday. Retired Maj. Gen

Share

Who was Neda? Slain woman an unlikely martyr

The young woman who last weekend emerged as a powerful symbol of opposition to the Iranian government embraced life in many ways, but there was little about her that would have led her friends to predict she would become a martyr, one of them told CNN. Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, rose to prominence within hours after a crudely shot video documenting her final moments was uploaded to the Web shortly after she died Saturday from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Share

Clerics join Iran’s anti-government protests

A photo showing Iranian clerics prominently participating in an anti-government protest speaks volumes about the new face of Iran’s opposition movement. In a blatant act of defiance, a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran, to protest election results that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power

Share