Claudia Rosett

Why North Korea Needs Relisting as a Terror-Sponsoring State

Officially the State Department is headquartered in Washington, but every so often -- far too often -- there come these moments when State seems so out of touch that it might as well be operating on Neptune. So it goes with the question of whether to put North Korea back on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism -- to which the the instant answer from State ought to be yes, yes, YES.

The Kerfuffle Before the Storm

With the phrase "the calm before the storm," President Trump on Thursday evening kicked off one of the biggest media kerfuffles since his late-night tweet in May about "the constant negative press covfefe."

Kick North Korea Out of the U.N.

Calls by the United Nations Security Council to isolate North Korea haven’t stopped Kim Jong Un from launching missiles over Japan or threatening America and its allies. This week President Trump told the General Assembly that the United States is prepared “to totally destroy North Korea” in the event of an attack. If the international community is serious about isolating the Kim regime, there’s a less drastic option not yet tried: expel North Korea from the U.N.

Kim Jong Un's Thermonuclear Joyride

Following North Korea's sixth nuclear test, advertised by Pyongyang as an ICBM-ready hydrogen bomb, it was good to hear Defense Secretary James Mattis talking tough. But that won't stop North Korea from building nuclear missiles. It won't stop North Korea's threats against the U.S. and our allies. I'd wager it won't even interfere with Kim Jong Un's enjoyment of his apparently ample meals.

North Korea's Fireworks

While Americans were celebrating Independence Day, North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, with a potential range that some experts estimate could reach the United States. As The Wall Street Journal reports, in an editorial headlined "The North Korean Missile Crisis":

The Moral Obscenity of Kim's North Korea

North Korea's menace has been all over the news, including its missile tests, visible preparations for a sixth nuclear test and its threats to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier and to reduce the U.S. to ashes with a "super-mighty preemptive strike." Assorted experts, debating how to handle the rogue regime of Kim Jong Un, have been weighing the pros and cons of trying yet more sanctions, new negotiations, tough talk, pressure on China, displays of military might, actual use of military force to take out North Korean missiles or even nuclear facilities, or assorted permutations of all these options and then some.

What America Really Needs To Do About the UN

This week brings fresh reports that the Trump White House wants to slash funding to the United Nations, possibly by as much as 50%.

Truth, Terror and Nikki Haley's Challenge at the UN

Samantha Power Reinvents Obama's Record on Russia

By all means, let's have a debate about the dangers of American presidents and their administrations purveying "alternative facts." But could the members of the media most ostentatiously seething over President Trump -- and now busy presenting their own alternative facts -- please spare us the pretense that the White House is suddenly in danger of losing its credibility. What's left to lose? We've just had eight years of the Obama administration beaming out alternative facts "narratives" to the mascot-media echo chamber, on the theory that saying something makes it so ("If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor"; Iran's "exclusively peaceful" nuclear program; the Benghazi "video"; etc.).

Obama settling old grudges--But not against Russian, Israeli leaders

Is President Obama using his final weeks in office to settle personal grudges against Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Obama certainly appears to be settling scores, slamming Russia for trying to meddle in the U.S. election, and abandoning Israel to the untender mercies of the United Nations Security Council.

Undoing Obama's Latest Legacy as UN Abstainer-in-Chief

To President Obama's legacy of foreign policy debacles, we can now add his landmark betrayal of Israel, carried out Dec. 23rd at the United Nations. By declining to wield the U.S. veto at the Security Council, by choosing instead to abstain -- by Vanishing-from-Behind -- Obama allowed the passage, by a vote of 14 in favor, 1 abstaining, of Resolution 2334. In the guise of condemning Israeli settlements, this resolution is configured to delegitimize and imperil Israel itself, America's longtime ally and the only democracy in the Middle East.

The Audacity of Silence On Possible Iran-North Korea Nuclear Ties

It’s now more than eight weeks since Senator Ted Cruz sent a letter to three senior officials of the Obama administration, detailing his concerns that North Korea and Iran might be working together on developing nuclear missiles.

Obama, Russia, The Election and A Visitor From Mars

So, as chance would have it we are currently hosting a newly arrived visitor from Mars, who has been avidly following the headlines. Having studied our world for some time, he is intrigued by the news, as reported first by the Washington Post on Friday: "Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House."

Escape From the Life of Julia

There were plenty of flaws in the victory speech with which President-elect Donald Trump just kicked off his "Thank You Tour" of swing states. I hope he'll stick with his free-market plans to cut taxes and scrap regulations and jettison his state-planning proposal to punish companies for leaving the country (prosperity will come of free markets, not of presidentially directed industrial policy). And Shakespeare he's not; nor, for that matter, is he a Winston Churchill or Ronald Reagan.

When the Trump Team Comes Looking for the Secrets of Obama's Iran File

Thursday's cordial meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama was a reassuring ritual of democracy. But Obama was far from convincing when he told Trump "we are now going to do everything we can to help you succeed." There are some highly disparate ideas here about what constitutes success, both foreign and domestic. There are also big areas in which one might reasonably wonder if Obama and his team are in a quandary over the prospect of a Trump administration inheriting the internal records of the most transparent administration ever.

For Next UN Secretary-General, A Managerially Incompetent Socialist

In the race for the next United Nations secretary-general, the Security Council has narrowed the field of candidates from a remaining 10 to precisely one: and the winner is, former Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Guterres. It could have been worse -- but not by much. Guterres brings to the job a record that suggests he is a perfect fit to head a UN that is prone to overreach, mismanagement, waste, fraud, abuse and government meddling in every aspect of life -- provided we all want even more of the same.

Could Iran Use Its $1.7 Billion Cash Jackpot To Buy North Korean Nukes?

Even beyond the danger that Iran could use its $1.7 billion in air-freighted cash to fund terrorists, North Korea’s fifth nuclear test reminds us that Iran could also use its U.S.-begotten trove of hard currency to buy nuclear weapons technology — or even the warheads themselves — from cash-hungry North Korea.

China's Insult and Obama's Climate Kowtow

President Obama took office in 2009 promising that his brand of engagement would yield global respect for the United States. We've since had more than seven years of leading from behind, standing "shoulder to shoulder" with the "international community," snubbing of allies, appeasing of enemies and cutting America down to size. As Obama makes what will likely be his final official visit to China, how's it going?

The Obama Narrative Goes to Midway

Before we get to this latest frolic in the Obama Narrative, let's take a moment to remember the Battle of Midway, fought from June 4-7, 1942. It was a huge World War II naval victory over Japan that tipped the advantage decisively toward America in the Pacific.

Riddle of $1.3 Billion for Iran Might Relate to 13 Outlays Of Exactly $99,999,999.99

Congressional investigators trying to uncover the trail of $1.3 billion in payments to Iran might want to focus on 13 large, identical sums that Treasury paid to the State Department under the generic heading of settling “Foreign Claims.”