Epstein Secrets

ng a managed transition, where the existing rulers might agree to an orderly handover of power, a scenario that guided U.S. policy most closely in Yemen, where the long-standing president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, handed over power to his vice-president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, in late-2011. For a time,

ed, it would give the U.S. leverage to pursue "tough love" with other American allies, EFTA_R1_00441184 EFTA01964436 including Hosni Mubarak and the House of Saud, to push for reforms in their countries. The 2004 G-8 Sea Island Summit was also, in theory, supposed to lay the foundations for massive new effor

upporting anti-Shi'a forces in Lebanon, supporting (it is said, and the Iranians presumably believe that the rumors are true) ISIS. They've got the Yemen war on one side, and they can't let Jordan fall. This is a heavy burden, even for them. Iran, say the hawks, can win a war of attrition with the H

Yemen war on one side, and they can't let Jordan fall. This is a heavy burden, even for them. Iran, say the hawks, can win a war of attrition with the House of Saud. Elsewhere, while Hezbollah may be having problems, and ISIS is ugly, Iran's hawks reason that the best way to help their friends and hurt their e

f failed states and intervention in them by international organizations to prevent them turning into breeding grounds for terrorism as Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan did. Given Russia's domestic terror problems, amply publicized at the recent winter Olympics, it should be possible to deal wit

fundamentalist groups in the region to overthrow the Saudi royal family in the 1980s. (The Saudi government is essentially a joint venture between the House of Saud and the Wahhabi establishment, lubricated by vast amounts of Danegeld paid to the propagation of Wahhabi fundamentalist views around the Muslim wor