What We're Reading Now
Sep 02, 2011
IRAN
Iran charm offensive fails to ease nuclear fears
Fredrik Dahl, Reuters -- September 1, 2011
An Iranian effort to show increased openness about its disputed nuclear program is doing little to dispel Western suspicions about Tehran's atomic ambitions, with one Vienna-based envoy dismissing it as a "charm offensive."
Iran is said to be trying to shelter nuclear fuel program
David Sanger, New York Times -- September 1, 2011
Iran is moving its most critical nuclear fuel production to a heavily defended underground military facility outside the holy city of Qum, where it is less vulnerable to attack from the air and, the Iranians hope, the kind of cyberattack that crippled its nuclear program, according to intelligence officials.
Afghanistan?. Check, Iraq?. Check, Iran?. Checking?
Mark Thompson, Time -- August 31, 2011
Nice to know Air Force Lieut. Colonel Leif Eckholm is keeping busy in his job inside the inner sanctum of American military power: the strategic plans and policy directorate for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Perhaps that's why he has just written
The Military Option on Iran: Be Careful What You Wish For
Peter Crail, Arms Control Now -- September 1, 2011
TIME Magazine has recently highlighted an analysis entitled “Invading Iran: Lessons from Iraq” by Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Leif Eckholm, who works in the Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the analysis was published by Stanford’s Hoover Institution, where Eckholm served as a defense fellow).
NORTH KOREA
Obama moves to sell Northrop drones to South Korea
Reuters -- September 1, 2011
The Obama administration has begun consulting Congress on plans to sell remotely piloted Global Hawk surveillance planes to South Korea, which came close to all-out war with North Korea last year, two people familiar with the matter said.
North Korea ghost town reflects deeper woes as it woos China
Jeremy Laurence, Reuters -- September 1, 2011
Long grass grows around the idle hotels, stores are covered in cobwebs and a big padlock hangs off the front of the bank at the deserted shopping centre.