January 2010 - Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

John Yoo on Jon Stewart

I'll be live-tweeting at www.twitter.com/annielowrey and will be back with a wrap-up post. Pass the popcorn. Read More...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 8:02 PM by FP Passport

No, U.S. President Barack Obama has informed People . The United States has no interest in or plans to invade Yemen or Somalia -- and nor should it. Out of curiosity, I took a look at the experience of the last western power to occupy part of Yemen: Britain...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 4:34 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Middle East, History

Guido Westerwelle and the giant floating head of Ali Abdullah Saleh

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle paid a surprise visit to Yemen today to meet with President Ali Abdullah Saleh and ask for his help in locating German hostages who have been held in the country since June. Do you think the Yemenis might have...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 3:15 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Diplomacy, Middle East, Germany

Monday Morning Chavez: A world leader for the Drudge era

I see Hugo Chavez is talking about sending in the troops to enforce price controls: Speaking on his weekly television program, "Alo Presidente," Chavez railed against merchants who re-price their items in reaction to Friday's announcement...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 2:03 PM by FP Passport

The "right" stuff

Percentage of Afghans who believe their country is going in the "right direction": 70 Percentage of Americans who believe their country is going in the "right direction": 36.6 Read More...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 11:40 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Afghanistan, Central Asia

$50 billion, 30 years, and 4,000 corrupt Chinese officials

One of the biggest stories of the weekend -- that some $50 billion in state funds was smuggled out of China over the past 30 years by as many as 4,000 corrupt officials -- was broken by Chinese state media. (Western sources, such as the AFP, alternatingly...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 11:07 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: East Asia, China

Yemen: Show us the money

I can't really condone SNL's policy of having every sleazy "ethnic" character be played by Fred Armisen in what seems like the same accent, but last Saturday's cold open did a pretty good job of summing up what happens when a country...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 11:03 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Middle East, Fun Stuff

What we write about when we write about Yemen

Many thanks to Gregory Johnsen for weighing in on the article that I wrote about Yemen's "most wanted" terrorists . Without the research that he has done on al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) over the years, it would have been literally...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 9:26 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: al Qaeda, Middle East

Justice Emirates-style

Sheikh Issa bin Zayed, brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi and the President of the United Arab Emirates (and on of the world's worst sons ), was acquitted yesterday of charges that he tortured an Afghan business associate on his ranch. A video leaked...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 9:07 AM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: Iranian parliament holds senior official responsible for protester deaths

Iranian parliament holds senior official responsible for protester deaths Top Story: An a rare criticism of a senior government official, an Iranian parliamentary panel has accused former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, an ally of President Mahmoud...

Published Mon, Jan 11 2010 5:53 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

New details emerge about the CIA bomber

Isn't it interesting that the underpants bomber -- whose failed attempt to detonate plastic explosives on a Detroit-bound plane killed zero people -- has gotten a lot more attention than the CIA bomber -- who successfully perpetrated a devastating...

Published Sat, Jan 09 2010 10:35 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: al Qaeda, Afghanistan, Intelligence

Book claim: Palin believed Saddam was behind 9/11

From Jeff Zeleny's gloss of Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's dishy new book on the 2008 campaign: In the days leading up to an interview with ABC News’ Charlie Gibson, aides were worried with Ms. Palin’s grasp of facts. She couldn’t explain...

Published Sat, Jan 09 2010 8:29 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Politics, Middle East

Friday Photo: Israel escalates hummus war

A giant serving of hummus weighting 4,087.5 kilos (8992.5 pounds) is seen resting on a six-meters (20 foot) satellite dish while attempting to break a new world record in the Arab Israeli village of Abu Gosh on January 8, 2010. Fifty chefs in the Arab...

Published Fri, Jan 08 2010 4:16 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Friday Photo

Lee Harvey Oswald's request for Soviet citizenship

From Unredacted , the very cool blog of the National Security Archive, here is a letter from Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, asking for citizenship from the Soviet Union. He lived in the Soviet Union...

Published Fri, Jan 08 2010 9:58 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Eastern Europe, U.S. Foreign Policy, Migration/Immigration

FARQaeda comes to Congress

Not sure if Florida Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Connie Mack's proposal to add Venezuela to the list of countries whose travelers will require extra scrutiny to enter the United States will go anywhere, but I was interested to see the FARC...

Published Fri, Jan 08 2010 9:38 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Drugs & Crime, Latin America, U.S. Congress