Epstein Secrets

ng `president to president' with Hassan Rouhani. President Obama would have been well advised to initiate a call the next morning to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Not only would that have tested the sincerity of Tehran's apparent warming to the United States, it would have dispelled the damaging misimpressio

nk Prime Minister Netanyahu is legitimately concerned, as any prime minister of Israel has been, about the future security needs of their country," Hagel said. Netanyahu, he continued, "has got a history of being very clear on where he is on this." Hagel, now in his ninth month leading the Pentagon,

h many in the U.S. Senate, by the way), so on a visit to the Pentagon late last week, one of the first questions I put to the secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, was this: Is Netanyahu, in fact, using scare tactics in order to torpedo Iran negotiations? "I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is legitimately con

passed in 1992 on four Iranian officials by a criminal court in Berlin. The court applied for international arrest warrants against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, then- president Hashemi Rafsanjani, then-foreign minister Ali-Akbar Velayati and then-intelligence and security minister Ali Fallahian. This is wh

crackdown on the Brotherhood will continue, despite the heartfelt pleas from the White House and the near daily phone calls from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. And one reason is Syria: Egyptian generals can't help but notice that the world has stood idly by as Bashar al-Assad has presided over the deaths

e region, Obama will be advised by new Secretary of State John F. Kerry. He has also named former HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029696 --- PAGE BREAK --- senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary, a nomination still in question after an unsteady performance by the candidate before the Senate Armed Services Committee last w

cave in at the talks, it's likely that they are badly misreading Iranian politics. For many observers, however, and for Iran, too, the nomination of Hagel for secretary of defense may be a sign that the White House is beginning to realize that sanctions, and threats of military action, won't force Iran'

e have made it clear at the outset that... we would be prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership" when Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is serious about negotiations. Iran's Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi responded favorably and said, "I am optimistic, I feel this new administrati

e region, Obama will be advised by new Secretary of State John F. Kerry. He has also named former HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029783 --- PAGE BREAK --- senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary, a nomination still in question after an unsteady performance by the candidate before the Senate Armed Services Committee last w

cave in at the talks, it's likely that they are badly misreading Iranian politics. For many observers, however, and for Iran, too, the nomination of Hagel for secretary of defense may be a sign that the White House is beginning to realize that sanctions, and threats of military action, won't force Iran'

e have made it clear at the outset that... we would be prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership" when Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is serious about negotiations. Iran's Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi responded favorably and said, "I am optimistic, I feel this new administrati

array of pro-Israeli forces. They include Congressmen eager to defend Israeli interests at all costs (as was vividly illustrated by the recent Chuck Hagel confirmation hearings), powerful lobbies such as AIPAC, media barons, high-profile Jewish financiers like Sheldon Adelson, a phalanx of neo-con strat

, currently Nasrallah, presides over the Majlis al-Shura and functions as the group's leader under the authority of the "jurist theologian" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader. Five administrative bodies, organized around thematic responsibilities, run Hezbollah's political, military (jihad), parliame