Michael Cohen in Scotsman | 'Barack Obama Takes a Big Step Towards Becoming the First Black US President'

Communications — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:33:00 -0400

New America in the News:
The bloody battle with Mrs Clinton might also have elevated Mr Obama's standing in the eyes of voters, some analysts believe.

"In adversity has come opportunity," Michael Cohen, of the New America Foundation, said. "(He] has been able to confront difficult questions about his candidacy that would normally arise during the general election...LINK

Daniel Levy, Flynt Leverett on the Administration, Iran in The Scotsman

Communications — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:33:00 -0500

New America in the News:

THE ingredients most likely to spark confrontation between the United States and Iran could scarcely be simpler or more combustible: a tin filled with an explosive charge and a lump of copper is all that is needed to manufacture what the US military calls an Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP).

When the device is triggered by an infrared sensor it fires a molten ball of metal at its target with sufficient speed to penetrate most American vehicles' armour. The consequences can be horrific.

Hezbollah routinely uses such devices against Israeli forces, leading the US to suspect Iran has been supplying Shi'ite militias in Iraq with the devices that have, according to one estimate, killed as many as 170 coalition troops in Iraq.

The use of EFPs doubled in Iraq last year, prompting the Bush administration to secretly approve measures to counter Iranian "meddling" in Iraq. As a result of that decision, in December, US troops raided the Baghdad offices of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Iraq's biggest political party and one that receives support from Tehran. That raid resulted in two arrests. Three weeks later the US arrested five more Iranians following a raid on an Iranian diplomatic office in the northern city of Irbil...

The bottom line is clear: "Iranian lethal support for select groups of Iraqi Shia militants clearly intensifies the conflict in Iraq," the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq states.

With his legacy on the line and facing a Congressional revolt against his Iraq policy, President George W Bush used a press conference this week to vow he would "do what is necessary" to protect American troops in Iraq. Though Bush said it was "preposterous" to accuse the administration of exaggerating the extent of Iran's destabilising influence in Iraq, the wounds caused by the intelligence debacle concerning Saddam Hussein's WMD programmes are still raw...

Flynt Leverett, a former CIA official and Middle East expert at the National Security Council, accused the administration of trying to provoke an Iranian reaction by "setting the stage so that the odds are rapidly rising that Iran will eventually respond to provocations, like having diplomats arrested, having Iranian officials taken into custody and detained by American officials, having orders outstanding for US troops to kill or capture Iranians found in Iraq... Eventually, Iran will respond to that, and then the administration will have a casus belli [justification for acts of war]..."

Washington will press European capitals to impose their own sanctions on Iran if, as expected, Iran fails to meet Wednesday's UN deadline for it to end its uranium enrichment programme.

The Bush administrations' sabre-rattling may please hawks at home, but one by-product of Washington's impatience with Iran is that it boosts the standing of Ahmadinejad. The Iranian president suffered a humiliating reverse in the most recent local elections, but finds his popularity recovering as the US threatens Iran. "The more the rhetoric is ratcheted up, the more Ahmadinejad is given a life vest," said Daniel Levy, director of the Middle East Initiative at the New America Foundation, a centrist Washington think tank...

For the complete article, please visit the Scotsman website.