National Public Radio

Jeffrey Lewis on NPR | Syria Revelation Could Affect N. Korea Nuclear Talks

Communications — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:26:00 -0400

New America in the News:

NPR | Syria Revelation Could Affect N. Korea Nuclear Talks

. . . But it remains to be seen whether Thursday's intelligence briefing in Congress will help or hinder the negotiations.

Jeffrey Lewis, who runs the Web site armscontrolwonk.com, says it's clear that the briefing is meant to undermine the negotiations.

"Members of Congress who have been pushing hardest to have this information declassified — or at least put out into the public domain in some form or another — are those who want to make the point that North Korea can't be trusted," Lewis says. . .

Parag Khanna on NPR | America's Waning Influence in 'The Second World'

Communications — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:04:00 -0400

New America in the News:

NPR | America's Waning Influence in 'The Second World'

Parag Khanna believes that America's dominant moment is over. In his new book, "The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order," he argues that the 21st centruy will be dominated by three first-world superpowers: the United States, China and the European Union. . .

Sascha Meinrath on NPR | 'Philly Fears Earthlink May Bail on WiFi Network'

Communications — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:39:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Philly Fears Earthlink May Bail on WiFi Network (NPR)

Philadelphia's wireless Internet network was supposed to be a model for the nation, but the project has been plagued by delays and spotty service. Now EarthLink, the company building it, is getting out of the municipal wireless business in other cities. That may leave Philadelphia disconnected.

...NPR reports on Philadelphia wireless and interviews Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation Wireless Future Program. Listen to the segment here.

NPR Interviews Gregory Rodriguez on Mexican Immigration

Communications — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:25:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Farai Chideya (Host): In a country that long defined itself in black and white, this past decade marked a watershed moment. Latinos surpassed African-Americans to become the largest ethnic group in America; Mexican immigration was just one driving force behind the change. According to cultural critic Gregory Rodriguez Mexican immigration will transform the way Americans view race. It's the premise of his new book, "Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans and Vagabonds." And Gregory joins me now. ... So you kick off your book in 1519 with Hernan Cortes. It sounds like you think a lot of people need a long background on history. Tell us why you started there.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ: I think in order to find out how Mexicans will affect the American future, it's important to understand the Mexican past. And I needed to start at the beginning ...

CHIDEYA: Now some people say - some Mexican-American say we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us. What do you make of that sentiment and how it relates to you as history?

Mr. RODRIGUEZ: Well, it is true that the first Mexican-Americans were people who became Americans by virtue of conquest and annexation. But those were about 75 to a hundred thousand people. And the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 extended the right to citizenship. If people within the conquest territory who stayed within a year, if - and didn't go back to Mexico. But for the most part, the - those people who call themselves Mexican-Americans today are largely from 20th century emigrations - the first one being the wave during the revolution - Mexican revolution in the teens and then, of course, the big wave from the mid- 70s to now.

CHIDEYA: So why do you think Mexican immigration specifically - and you're not dealing broadly with Latinos, and you're not just dealing with Mexicans who are already in the U.S although we'll get to that in a second - but why is Mexican immigration now so important?

Mr. RODRIGUEZ: Well, I'm dealing with Mexican immigration because the other factoid, I think, that makes it so important is that in the last three or four years, Mexican surpassed Germans as the largest immigrant group in the history of United States. They're not only the most - biggest contemporary immigrant group, they're also the immigrant group with the deepest roots. And it's ongoing and it's really - it's - I think they're very important, and we've sort of forgotten them. We use the generic term Latino or Hispanic, and we've forgotten the importance of desegregating and understanding the importance of each individual national origin group - Puerto Ricans, Columbians, Dominicans, et cetera. ...

For the full interview on News & Notes, please follow this link.

NPR.org Quotes Daniel Levy on Rice's Role and the Annapolis Conference

Communications — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:56:00 -0500

New America in the News:

President Bush will host Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the White House on Monday for separate meetings ahead of a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, that will formally launch Middle East peace talks.

Bush will open the Annapolis conference with a speech. He'll make clear that Mideast peace is a top priority for the rest of his time in office through January 2009, indicating a level of interest in the conflict never seen before in this administration. Analysts see the talks as an effort by the administration to build up a legacy other than the war in Iraq.

Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said that after seven years of largely avoiding the peace process, the Bush administration is now playing its hand. Although the key issues are basically same as always, Indyk sees one new element in the background — a common fear among the U.S., Arab states and Israel about a rising Iran.

"The old line — the enemy of my enemy is my friend, … is fueling this peace meeting more than any other factor," Indyk said.

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator now with the New America Foundation, said that earlier this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to get Arab help on Iraq and Iran. She was told by her Arab counterparts that Washington needed to do something on the Israeli-Palestinian to take that card out of Iran's hands.

"It was like two ships passing in the night and eventually I think something got through," Levy said. "The sense of this administration was … either an ideological opposition to connecting the dots in the Middle East. … That has changed and I think Annapolis signifies that change." ...

For the complete article, please visit NPR.org.

Annapolis Conference, Ghaith Al-Omari and Daniel Levy on NPR

Communications — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 10:52:00 -0500

New America in the News:

The Arab-Israeli conflict has not been high on President Bush's agenda until now. A conference in Annapolis, Md., is seen as a "relaunch" of a process meant to move the two sides toward peace. Ghaith Al-Omari and Daniel Levy of the New America Foundation discuss prospects for progress at the summit. ...

For the complete story, please visit the NPR website. Listen to the interview here and please visit the American Strategy Program's special section on the Annapolis conference.

Ghaith Al-Omari and Daniel Levy on NPR's All Things Considered

Communications — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:14:00 -0500

New America in the News:

MICHELE NORRIS, host: The formal invitations are just now going out for the Bush administration's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis next week. The idea of the gathering is to formalize final status peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians and get the blessings of key players, especially from the Arab world. …

MICHELE KELEMEN, correspondent: There were initially high expectations that the Israelis and Palestinians would set out their end game in Annapolis. But despite numerous trips by Secretary of State Rice, they're expected to come up with a less-ambitious joint statement. … Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas seemed to have built up trust in their private talks. But both men are seen as politically weak and unable to make major concessions. Daniel Levy who was part of previous Israeli negotiating teams says it would be easier for Olmert to do nothing so his coalition stays with them.

Mr. DANIEL LEVY (Senior Fellow, New America Foundation; Former Member, Israeli Negotiating Team): But I think, first of all, that the Israeli prime minister does see a need in realizing a two-state solution. And secondly, he's not going to politically survive by doing nothing. He would much rather people were arguing about whether it's right to negotiate with the Palestinians or even the Syrians, or whether he's corrupt or whether he ran a bad war last year.

KELEMEN: As for Abbas, he has a political need for a peace process especially after the militant group Hamas seized control of Gaza in June. One of his former advisers, Ghaith al-Omari, who now works alongside Levy at the New American Foundation in Washington, says Abbas needs to prove that only a negotiated settlement will bring about an end to Israeli occupation.

Mr. GHAITH AL-OMARI (Visiting Fellow, New American Foundation; Former Adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas): Abbas right now is in a very adversarial zero-sum game with Hamas. And I think he realizes that's the only that he can position himself in a situation where he can put Hamas on the defensive is if he reaches a peace deal.

KELEMEN: Omari says the challenge for Secretary Rice and the Bush administration is to try to make a peace process look credible for the Palestinians.

Mr. AL-OMARI: The worst thing that you can have is the high officials speaking high politics and the realities in the world keeps on getting worse.

KELEMEN: That brings the two sides right back to where they were four years ago when Palestinians promised to crack down on terrorism and Israelis promised to free settlements among other things in the so-called roadmap. Daniel Levy says we should all expect to hear a lot of these confidence-building steps again.

Mr. LEVY: Annapolis in a way represents regression. Much of the emphasis today will be on process rather than substance and will be on sounding convincing when you commit yourselves to roadmap implementation items that have been there for four years. ...

For the complete transcript and more on this story, please follow this link, or listen to the interview here.

Peter Bergen in NPR Discussion on U.S.-Pakistan Relations

Communications — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:30:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the U.S. will review its aid to Pakistan after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency and suspended the nation's constitution on Saturday. ...

NEAL CONAN (Host): Peter Bergen is a terrorism analyst and author of two books on Osama bin Laden, also a senior fellow at the New America Foundation here in Washington. Today, he joins us from the studios of the BBC in Oxford in England. ... And it must be counted as a setback to U.S. foreign policy that Musharraf has made the decision to impose emergency rule.

Mr. PETER BERGEN (Senior Fellow, New America Foundation; Author, "Holy War, Inc." and "The Osama bin Laden I know): No doubt. But unfortunately, Musharraf has had a history of overreaching in the past, whether it was putting the fix-in in elections in 2002 that marginalized the secular parties and how the un-affect - the unintended consequence of the Islamist parties doing the best that they've done in Pakistani history, or whether it was being in charge of the ill-fated Kargil operation before he became president, the encouragement of India out of Kashmir, which was basically a defeat for the Pakistani military and its allies and the Pakistani militant groups.

And again, of course, now with this declaring emergency law, because Musharraf himself is now the least popular politician in Pakistan. He was before this declaration of emergency measures and I think he will double - it will doom him in even more politically. You know, he's got of a messiah complex. Anybody who's had to read his autobiography, "In the Line of Fire," realizes that he have used himself as the true savior of Pakistan, and unfortunately, he is going out on a huge limb here just as really it seemed that the return to real civilian rule was a real possibility. ...

To listen to the complete story, please follow this link and visit the NPR website. Peter Bergen is a Schwartz Senior Fellow with New America Foundation.

NPR Interviews Steve Coll on Pakistan Military Aid

Communications — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:04:00 -0500

New America in the News:

JACKI LYDEN, NPR host: As we mentioned, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today the United States is reviewing financial aid to Pakistan including all assistance programs. At the same time, she stressed that the situation is complicated.

Secretary CONDOLEEZZA RICE (U.S. Department of State): The president has an obligation to protect the United States, to protect Americans. That means that we have to be very cognizant of the counter-terrorism operations that we are involved in. We have to be very cognizant of the fact that some of the assistance that has been going to Pakistan is directly related to the counter-terrorism mission.

LYDEN: To find out more about U.S.'s assistance to Pakistan and what leverage it might give the Bush administration, we've called on Steve Coll. He's the author of Ghost Wars, a book about the CIA in Afghanistan, and he's reported extensively from that country and Pakistan. ... How much does U.S. financial aid helped General Musharraf as he fights the Taliban and what seems to be a growing insurgency in Pakistan?

Mr. STEVE COLL: Well, it's been an important source of support for the Pakistan Army since September 11th. In total, United States has provided about $10 billion, with a B, in overt funding to Pakistan since 9/11 and probably another 5 billion or so in undeclared covert money. A great majority of that has gone, either, directly to the army as compensation for its joint operations against Taliban and al-Qaida elements in Western Pakistan or as direct economic support to the Pakistan treasury which is effectively controlled by the army. So it's been a substantial infusion of hard currency.

LYDEN: Secretary of State Rice has been quite forceful this weekend. Yesterday she said the state of emergency was highly regrettable. But a Pentagon spokesman said that Musharraf's declaration doesn't impact U.S.-military support for Pakistan. What about the Pentagon? What do you surmise the thinking is there?

Mr. COLL: Well, I think, I hear Secretary Rice today setting up the administration's argument with Congress about what to do over Pakistan military aid in the aftermath of this essentially second coup by Musharraf, and I think she's signaling that the administration is going to argue for a continuation of the bulk of U.S. aid to Pakistan despite Musharraf's defiance of the stated U.S. wish that he not impose emergency rule and that he'd proceed quickly to election. So what I think the administration is already trying to do is to engage Congress in an argument that most or at least that portion of the aid which directly supports the Pakistan Army's counterinsurgency operations should continue. ...

For the complete story, please follow this link and visit NPR.org. Steve Coll is the President and CEO of New America Foundation.

NPR Interview with Peter Bergen on Osama bin Laden

Communications — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:16:00 -0400

New America in the News:

ALEX COHEN: On MORNING EDITION today, Steve Inskeep spoke with President Bush's media adviser and friend, Karen Hughes. She is leaving her state department job promoting this country to the world. Karen Hughes acknowledged the standing of the U.S. has slipped. But she said the terrorist leadership of al-Qaida is even more reviled.

CHADWICK: She is missing the point - that's what journalist Peter Bergen argues in The New Republic magazine. He writes frequently about terrorism. Last year, he published the book, "The Osama bin Laden I Know," based on interviews he conducted with the al-Qaida founder a decade ago. We spoke earlier about this new article, titled "War of Error." Peter Bergen, the subtitle of your article in The New Republic is "How Osama bin Laden Beat George Bush." Defend that.

Mr. PETER BERGEN (Journalist): If we had this conversation in 2002, I think it would have been safe to say that al-Qaida, by its own account, was on the run. Most of its leaders were captured or killed. Some of the documents we picked up in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban were quite critical of bin Laden's decision to do the 9/11 attacks because they basically, you know, led to the fall of the Taliban, the destruction of their safe haven in Afghanistan. And basically the organization, you know, been taking a huge hit.

Now of course, five years later, the situation looks very different, where al-Qaida has been - is resurgent on the Afghan-Pakistan border, has conducted significant terrorist attacks in places like London, has exerted a great deal of influence strategically about what's going on in Iraq, getting United Nations to pull out, getting much of the international community to pull out because of suicide attacks. And then, of course, sparking civil war and amplifying it with the attack on the golden mosque in Samarra in 2006.

Osama bin Laden is still out there influencing the jihadi networks around the world with his video tapes and audio tapes. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's number two, is still out there. GSPC, which is the largest Algerian terrorist group, last year announced it's now part of al-Qaida. People don't join groups that they think are going out of business. And the influence of al-Qaida on the Taliban, both tactically and ideologically, is playing out in the rising levels of violence we're seeing in Afghanistan. ...

To listen to the complete inverview, please follow this link, and visit NPR's website. Peter Bergen is a Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation.