Epstein Secrets

epublic's ability to sell oil overseas. Iran responded by threatening to militarily shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane out of the Persian Gulf through which 20 percent of the world's oil trade passes. On January 8, three days before the attack on Roshan, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta

the most extensive effort to catalog what a nuclear-armed Iran might do outside its borders is a monograph published last year by Ash Jain of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Jain's inventory of possible Iranian nastiness is comprehensive, ranging from strong-arming Persian Gulf states to expanding a strategic relations

rder to win tit-for-tat concessions from Iran in 2012. Better, they calculate, to stall, look tough, and if need be engage in a military buildup in the Persian Gulf now and then. That U.S. and E.U. sanctions against Iran aren't likely to force Iran to back down doesn't mean that Tehran isn't feeling the pain. P

utility of the sanctions policy and the exemptions granted to China, India and other countries in Asia. Patrick Clawson, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), laid out a detailed argument explaining why economic sanctions won't work, and he concluded bluntly that success "may require a profound s

dlocked and Israel will decide to take unilateral military action. In the resulting fog of war, there will be a need for reliable communications in the Persian Gulf and a hotline with Tehran. EFTA00712896 Establishing these communications links is an urgent priority, as the rumors of war continue. The Weekly

to the exhortations by former U.S. State Department and White House official Dennis Ross — a stalwart of the pro-Israel scene from his post at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy — that the United States should withhold financial aid from Egypt if it violates the Camp David peace treaty with Israel (because Cairo is sending