Showing Archived Posts

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Diplomat, Spy, Contractor

Posted February 22nd, 2011 at 8:19 pm (UTC+0)
1 comment

In the murky world of intelligence and diplomacy – the two often intertwine – it’s not always easy to know the truth.  The Raymond Davis case is a prime example. It has now emerged that Raymond Davis, the American held by Pakistan for shooting two alleged robbers, is a CIA contractor.  Many news organizations had […]

The Spies Have It

Posted February 1st, 2011 at 4:34 pm (UTC+0)
Leave a comment

The appointment of Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as vice-president underscores both the power of the country’s intelligence services in keeping the government in power and the deep influence the military has on policymaking in Cairo. Egypt has three intelligence services: a foreign intelligence service, called the General Intelligence Service, often called the Mukhabarat; a […]

WikiLeaks: one week down, ???? to go

Posted December 10th, 2010 at 8:15 pm (UTC+0)
5 comments

There is little doubt the WikiLeaks cables have been a headache for U.S. officials in general, and diplomats in particular.  To have private and very candid assessments of foreign leaders and reports on their activities aired in public is embarrassing.  It’s like knowing someone is talking about you behind your back, and then finding out […]

Tags: Posted in diplomacy, intelligence

Documents Show U.S. Coalition Building on Iran

Posted December 3rd, 2010 at 6:28 pm (UTC+0)
1 comment

There is little question that the latest batch of WikiLeaks documents, mainly from the State Department, make for fascinating reading. Examples abound:  Over the past nine years, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has seemingly morphed from being a rather happy fellow to a mercurial and paranoid one.   Russian President Dmitri Medvedev “plays Robin to (Vladimir) Putin’s […]

Tags: Posted in diplomacy, Iran

About

About this blog

Gary Thomas

Gary Thomas is VOA senior correspondent and news analyst. He has spent more than 30 years covering a wide range of stories on political developments, war, and civil unrest. From 1990 to 1994 he was VOA’s bureau chief in Islamabad, and has made numerous trips back to the region since then. He was also Southeast Asia bureau chief in Bangkok from 1996-2001. He is now based in Washington, providing background and analysis on issues of intelligence, security, and terrorism for VOA’s worldwide audience.

Calendar

March 2024
M T W T F S S
« Mar    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031