FOREIGN AFFAIRS - page 9

A bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to President Obama on Thursday, urging him to shoot down a report which claims that the CIA has planned to arm Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft weaponry. Led by Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), the lawmakers sent the missive in response to an April story in the Wall Street Journal. That article stated the CIA is considering providing vetted rebels with shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles known as MANPADS, if the fragile Syrian ceasefire breaks down further. The… Keep Reading

Speaking from Germany on Monday, President Obama announced plans to send 250 additional special forces to Syria to assist moderate fighters confronting the Islamic State. The president claimed that the additional troops would build off “momentum” created by the roughly 50 US commandos already operating on the ground in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Make no mistake these terrorists will learn the same lesson as others before them have,” Obama said in his remarks, “which is ‘your hatred is no match for our nations united in… Keep Reading

Piecemeal anti-Islamic State militias in Eastern Afghanistan aren’t being supported by the Pentagon’s primary mission in the country, a US military representative said Thursday. US Army Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland claimed that the armed groups–revealed last week by The Wall Street Journal–aren’t receiving aid from Resolute Support Mission. “As I think you know, we have a fairly strenuous process to make sure that anyone we provide support to meets a variety of conditions,” he said, via satellite link-up from Afghanistan, to the Pentagon press corps. Afghanistan’s… Keep Reading

The largest corruption probe in Afghanistan’s history is going to turn its focus on the United States. More than six years after the collapse of Kabul Bank, looted to the tune of nearly a billion dollars by its owners and a cadre of political elites, Afghanistan’s President has enlisted the help of a US government watchdog to track down stolen funds. In a speech to the University of Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko revealed he has been… Keep Reading

President Obama on Thursday recognized the role of the US government in Argentina’s Dirty War, a campaign of violence waged for seven years against tens of thousands of Argentine leftists after a 1976 coup d’etat. During a visit to Buenos Aires, Obama paid tribute victims killed and disappeared by the junta alongside Argentine President Mauricio Macri, at a monument alongside the River Plata. “Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideals that we stand for,” he said.… Keep Reading

The terrorist attacks carried out in Brussels on Tuesday bolstered calls from the administration to confront the Islamic State (ISIL) throughout the world. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the House Armed Services Committee hours after the killings that the United States’ counter-ISIL strategy needs to look beyond Iraq and Syria. “If we can expel ISIL from Raqqa and Mosul, that will show that there’s no such thing as an Islamic State based upon this ideology,” Carter said, referring to the largest cities held by ISIL. “We also… Keep Reading