The American Conservative - The New York Times is reporting that the CIA has been paying Afghan President Hamid Karzai millions of dollars every month. The money, which Karzai has acknowledged and described as an "easy source of petty cash," does not go directly to the president but instead is delivered in bundles of $100 notes via bags or even suitcases to the presidential office, where it is distributed by the Afghan National Security Council.

The American Conservative - Media reports of CIA preparations to use drones to target al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria, should the post-Assad situation warrant such an intervention, are only party correct. The plan to use drones under certain circumstances is in reality part of the much larger CIA program in Iraq that parallels the program being set up in Afghanistan.

AntiWar.com - In a recent op-ed entitled "Blunders to Remember" David Ignatius of the Washington Post apologized for his shortcomings in "being wrong on the overriding question of whether the [Iraq] war made sense." The op-ed’s recognition of the media frenzy that accompanied the invasion and occupation of Iraq reminded me once again of just how the Fourth Estate has failed the American people over the past twelve years. I can recall a number of significant stories that appeared in the alternative media that were deliberately avoided by the mainstream, including the false narrative established to justify invading Iraq. If Ignatius had been reading the pieces appearing on antiwar.com in early 2003, for example, he would have learned in some detail from credible commentators why the impending Iraq war was unjustified, unnecessary, and doomed to fail. Instead, he was embedded with the U.S. Army which gave him wonderful access and his reporting consequently reflected the hokum that he was being fed.

If Netanyahu wants rapprochement with Ankara, he must do more than apologize for the Mavi Marmara killings

The American Conservative - One of the surprise results of President Barack Obama's recent trip to the Middle East was the last-minute phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey that took place from a hastily set-up trailer near the Tel Aviv airport as Obama was about to leave.

AntiWar.com - As a long time commentator on American policy in the Middle East, I have been following with interest the discussion on the recent visit by Barack Obama to Israel, Jordan, and the state-or-non-state of Palestine. Most have observed that the Obama efforts amounted to little more than words completely bereft of possible action, with most of the stroking being done to placate the Israelis. That would certainly seem to be accurate, but I think there was more to the visit than meets the eye, exemplified by Obama's holding a lengthy private meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after which Netanyahu apologized to Turkey for the 2010 killing in international waters of nine Turks on board the Turkish flagged ship Mavi Marmara, which was attacked while taking humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Israel also agreed to pay reparations for the deaths.

AntiWar.com - In 1939 Germany blitzkrieged into Poland and France and Britain declared war. The Germans divided the conquered country with their ally, Stalin’s Soviet Union, and the two belligerents mopped up Polish resistance, a process that subsequently included the slaughter of twenty-two thousand Polish officers and intelligentsia by the Russians at Katyn Forest. France missed the opportunity to hit the Germans in the west while they were busy in the east and what was described as a phony war or "sitzkrieg" ensued with both sides staring at each other across the Maginot Line.

AntiWar.com - A lot of otherwise smart people are twisting themselves into pretzels explaining why Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is taking the foreign and defense policy positions that he has. Paul's latest gambit was to join in the looney tunes voices on the Likud fringe of the GOP in demanding more debate on the Chuck Hagel nomination by suggesting that the former Nebraska Senator might well have some unsavory foreign connections, an assertion for which there is absolutely no evidence. The apologists are noting that Paul did not actually vote against the Hagel nomination but merely to enable extending the debate, as if there are degrees of opposing a candidate even when there is no reason whatsoever to do so.

The American Conservative - We have lately witnessed two cabinet-level confirmation hearings by the Senate in which little or nothing was asked that actually might enlighten us as to how the State and Defense Departments might be transformed over the next four years. John Kerry was tossed softballs, while Chuck Hagel was hammered over his reported detachment from Israel and its interests. America’s important relationships with China, Russia, and the European Union were largely ignored, and potential threats posed by Iran and al-Qaeda were grossly exaggerated.

Part of the reason for this is that no one expects transformational changes at either the State Department or Pentagon even if sequestration or other budget cuts occur. But it will be different at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Obama’s nominee for director, John Brennan, was predictably attacked by senators concerned about the expanding drone program, which he supervised; about CIA torture, which he had little to do with; for the kill lists that he helped manage; and regarding the pervasive government secrecy, which he surely condoned to cover up the questionable nature of the assassination lists and the drones. Not surprisingly, he was forced to defend the policies of an administration that he has served as top counterterrorism adviser.