National Security | News-Opinion
TOP NEWS: Nat’l Security / Foreign Affairs: October 22nd, 2012
Top Five News and Analysis Links (Excerpts Below)
- Clashes Break Out Overnight in Lebanon
- The Truth Behind the Benghazi Attack
- U.S. and Iran Deny Plan for Nuclear Talks
- Many Urge Next Leader of China to Liberalize
- Russian Forces Kill 49 Rebels in North Caucasus Strike
Excerpts and more top news and analysis
LEBANON: Clashes Break Out Overnight in Lebanon- NYT Spurts of unrest continued into Monday a day after protesters angered over a deadly car bombing tried to storm government offices.
LEBANON: Protests Over Killing Roil Lebanon - WSJ Soldiers fired tear gas and shots into the air to stop protesters from storming the prime minister’s office in Lebanon, as opposition pressed for the government to resign over the killing of the country’s intelligence chief.
LIBYA: The Truth Behind the Benghazi Attack- NEWSWEEK The blow-by-blow of the killing of Ambassador Stevens.
LIBYA: Libyan Town Under Siege Is a Center of Resistance to the New Government - NYT A one-time bastion of support for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Bani Walid is under assault, stirring protests elsewhere and imperiling the country’s fragile political transition.
LIBYA: After Benghazi Attack, Talk Lagged Behind Intelligence - NYT The gap between the official explanations and the contemporaneous field reports on the attack in Libya illustrates the difficulty of turning raw intelligence into a coherent picture fit for officials’ public statements.
LIBYA: The Public Editor: Connecting the Dots in Libya – NYT, MARGARET SULLIVAN Though questions remain, The New York Times’s reporting on the Benghazi consulate attack has been strong.
IRAN: U.S. and Iran Deny Plan for Nuclear Talks- NYT Both the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the White House rejected a report that they had agreed to one-on-one talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
IRAN/AF-PAK:The Scariest Little Corner of the World – NYT In the dusty triangle where Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan meet, there is more than one war going on.
IRAN: Iran Closer to a Weapon Than Biden Says - WSJ, LETTERS A former secretary of the Air Force weighs in.
IRAN/CHINA: A lesson in restraint - WP, EDITORIAL What China teaches us about Iran.
CHINA: Many Urge Next Leader of China to Liberalize - NYT As the nation’s critical leadership transition approaches, officials, policy advisers and intellectuals are again pushing for what they broadly call “reform.”
CHINA: Crash Puts New Focus on China Leaders - WSJ As a Chinese court prepares to expose the alleged crimes of former Communist Party highflier Bo Xilai, censors and security officials have been trying to bury a separate scandal that has emboldened critics of President Hu Jintao and could complicate efforts to restore the party’s tarnished image.
CHINA: Why the World Needs a Stable China – DIPLOMAT, MINXIN PEI While many have feared its rise, a weaker China struggling with economic and political challenges at home may present an even greater challenge.
CHINA: Has China’s Economy Bottomed Out? – FORBES, GORDON G. CHANG On Thursday, Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the Chinese economy grew 7.4% in the third quarter. That was down from 7.6% in Q2 and 8.1% in Q1. It was the seventh-straight quarter of declining growth and a 14-quarter low. Moreover, growth for the first time fell below Premier Wen Jiabao’s full-year target of 7.5%.
CHINA/JAPAN: Japan Exports Fall Amid China Dispute – WSJ New trade data from Japan show that the territorial dispute with China over a small group of islands is now hitting the economy and threatening to worsen a global economic softening.
RUSSIA: Russian Forces Kill 49 Rebels in North Caucasus Strike - NYT President Vladimir V. Putin has urged aggressive tactics against the insurgency in the North Caucasus ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which is next to the turbulent region.
RUSSIA: Pussy Riot members sentenced to Siberia – WP Pussy Riot members sent to serve out sentence for ‘punk prayer’ in far-flung prison colonies
ARABS: The Arab Religious-Secular Balance – DAILY STAR, RAMI KHOURI There are many ways in which one can analyze the current transformations across parts of the Arab world in the wave of populist revolutions that overthrew some dictators and still threaten others. SYRIA: Explosion Rocks Damascus Neighborhood - NYT The latest violence came on a day when President Bashar al-Assad of Syria discussed the civil war with Lakhdar Brahimi, the envoy representing the United Nations and the Arab League.
SYRIA: A Political Solution Is Needed in Syria – GUARDIAN, PETER HAIN The only way forward for Syria is to broker a political settlement, in consultation with Russia and Iran
AFGHANISTAN: How to Prevent the Plunder of Afghanistan’s Mineral Riches – BLOOMBERG, EDITORIAL What do you get when you bless one of the most corrupt countries in the world with newly discovered bounties of natural resources? Answer: Afghanistan, perched between prosperity and greater malefaction. TURKEY: Gul Unleashed - NYT, ANDREW FINKEL There seems to be little to block the Turkish prime minister’s drive to become ever more powerful — except perhaps his closest colleague, the president. PALESTINE: Civic Duty and Economic Worries Drive Palestinian Voters in Parts of West Bank - NYT The municipal elections, the first of any kind in the Palestinian territories in six years, were dismissed by many as unimportant because Hamas refused to take part. UK: BBC Editor Steps Aside in Abuse Scandal- NYT The editor of a flagship news show is “stepping aside with immediate effect” after abandoning an investigation into the behavior of a leading television personality accused of pedophile abuse.
UK/SCOTLAND: Scottish Politics: Dreams and Realities - The Guardian The world is not always as accommodating as Mr Salmond paints it and the sense of inevitability he fosters is fragile
UK/GERMANY: Merkel to warn UK on Europe budget veto - FT David Cameron is being urged to back a German plan for an EU spending cap amid a threat to cancel the forthcoming summit if he remains uncompromising
UK/RUSSIA: Rosneft to Buy Entirety of TNK-BP - WSJ Russian energy giant Rosneft reached separate agreements to buy the entirety of oil venture TNK-BP from BP and a group of Soviet-born billionaires, an acquisition that promises to reshape the Russian oil industry in favor of the state-owned company.
S. KOREA/N. KOREA: South Korea Bars Leaflet Drop Over Border With North – NYT South Korean police blocked activists from dropping anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea on Monday after the North threatened attack over the propaganda launch. JORDAN: Jordan Says 11 Plotted a Series of Attacks - NYT Officials said that those arrested planned to use car bombs, machine guns and other heavy weapons at diplomatic targets and shopping malls. SPAIN: Spanish Voters Deliver Mixed Message - WSJ Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party kept control of Galicia but trailed behind two nationalist parties in the Basque Country in regional elections.
SPAIN: Spain’s New Old Flag – NYT, JONATHAN BLITZER Reeling from the crisis, Spanish protesters turn to a symbol of the Second Republic and the democratic promise of that era.
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