What We’re Reading Now
Aug 11, 2011
UNITED STATES
Tea Party activists: Bring on the defense cuts
Cristina Marcos, The Hill- August 10, 2011
Tea Party activists say the Pentagon should be targeted for cuts by the “supercommittee” created in the debt-ceiling deal.
IRAN
Iran Sanctions E-Z Pass
Wall Street Journal- August 11, 2011
Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani is a dangerous man. A trained nuclear physicist, he was described in a recent report by the Institute for Science and International Security as "a key scientist in the Iranian covert nuclear weapons program" who "personally directed work to calculate the yield of a nuclear weapon as well as work on high energy neutron sources." In 2007, he was designated by the U.N.'s Security Council, placed under a travel ban and subject to an asset freeze. The European Union has placed him under similar restrictions.
CHINA
China starts aircraft carrier sea trial
Jeremy Page, Wall Street Journal- August 11, 2011
China sent its first aircraft carrier to sea, a defining moment in its effort to become a top-tier naval power that seeks to challenge U.S. military supremacy in Asia and protect Chinese economic interests that now span the globe.
What We’re Reading Now
Aug 02, 2011
PAKISTAN
Pakistan urges clear U.S. 'terms of engagement'
AFP- August 2, 2011
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said the United States must provide "clear terms of engagement" in the battle against Islamist militants, if strained bilateral ties are to improve.
Pakistan relying too much on China against U.S.
Chris Allbritton, Reuters- August 2, 2011
Pakistan's quick response to charges by China that militants involved in attacks in Xinjiang had trained on its soil shows the importance of its ties with Beijing, but it could be a mistake for Islamabad if it relies too much on China.
UNITED STATES
Pentagon faces possibility of hundreds of billions in spending cuts over 10 years
Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times- August 1, 2011
The Pentagon began grappling on Monday with the possibility that it will have to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from the military budget over the next decade, but there were so few details in the debt ceiling deal reached by the White House and Congress that confusion over the actual size of the reductions was rampant.