Gareth Porter

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006.

Obama Resists Pressure for Red Line on Iran’s Nuclear Capability

President Barack Obama’s refusal in a White House briefing earlier this month to announce a "red line" in regard to the Iran nuclear program represented another in a series of rebuffs of pressure from Defense Secretary Robert Gates for statement that the United States will not accept its existing stocks of low enriched uranium. The … Continue reading “Obama Resists Pressure for Red Line on Iran’s Nuclear Capability”

Obama Plays Down Plan for Post-2011 Iraq Troop Presence

When the Barack Obama administration unveiled its plan last week for an improvised State Department-controlled army of contractors to replace all U.S. combat troops in Iraq by the end of 2011, critics associated with the U.S. command attacked the transition plan, insisting that the United States must continue to assume that U.S. combat forces should … Continue reading “Obama Plays Down Plan for Post-2011 Iraq Troop Presence”

Israeli Generals and Intel Officials Oppose Attack on Iran

Pro-Israeli journalist Jeffrey Goldberg’s article in The Atlantic magazine was evidently aimed at showing why the Barack Obama administration should worry that it risks an attack by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran in the coming months unless it takes a much more menacing line toward Iran’s nuclear program. But the article … Continue reading “Israeli Generals and Intel Officials Oppose Attack on Iran”

Obama Drops 2009 Pledge to Withdraw Combat Troops From Iraq

Seventeen months after President Barack Obama pledged to withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2010, he quietly abandoned that pledge Monday, admitting implicitly that such combat brigades would remain until the end of 2011. Obama declared in a speech to disabled U.S. veterans in Atlanta that “America’s combat mission in Iraq” would … Continue reading “Obama Drops 2009 Pledge to Withdraw Combat Troops From Iraq”

The Real Aim of Israel’s Bomb Iran Campaign

Reuel Marc Gerecht’s screed justifying an Israeli bombing attack on Iran coincides with the opening of the new Israel lobby campaign marked by the introduction of House Resolution 1553 expressing full support for such an Israeli attack. What is important to understand about this campaign is that the aim of Gerecht and of the right-wing … Continue reading “The Real Aim of Israel’s Bomb Iran Campaign”

Leaked Reports Make Afghan War Policy More Vulnerable

The 92,000 reports on the war in Afghanistan made public by the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks and reported Monday by the Guardian, the New York Times, and Der Spiegel offer no major revelations that are entirely new, as did the Pentagon Papers to which they are inevitably being compared. But they increase the political pressure on … Continue reading “Leaked Reports Make Afghan War Policy More Vulnerable”

Sources: Amiri Told CIA Iran Has No Nuclear Bomb Program

Contrary to a news media narrative that Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri has provided intelligence on covert Iranian nuclear weapons work, CIA sources familiar with the Amiri case say he told his CIA handlers that there is no such Iranian nuclear weapons program, according to a former CIA officer. Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism official, … Continue reading “Sources: Amiri Told CIA Iran Has No Nuclear Bomb Program”

Clues Suggest Amiri Defection Was an Iranian Plant

U.S. officials are explaining Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri’s return to Iran as the result of a defector having a change of heart because of his concern about Iranian government threats to his family. Iran and Amiri himself have insisted that it is a simple case of a victim of abduction escaping his captors. But several … Continue reading “Clues Suggest Amiri Defection Was an Iranian Plant”

McChrystal Probe of Afghan Killings Excluded Key Eyewitnesses

The follow-up investigation of a botched Special Operations Forces (SOF) raid in Gardez Feb. 12 that killed two government officials and three women, ordered by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal April 5, was ostensibly aimed at reconciling divergent Afghan and U.S. accounts of what happened during and after the raid. That implied that the U.S. investigators … Continue reading “McChrystal Probe of Afghan Killings Excluded Key Eyewitnesses”