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Iran May Miscalculate in Taunting US, Panelists Say at AEI Josiah Ryan/ Staff Writer Washington. (CNSNews.com) - There is a danger that Iran may miscalculate the likelihood of a U.S. response as it taunts U.S forces in the Persian Gulf, experts on the Middle East said Monday at a conference held by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C. Noting that Iran threatened the U.S. Navy in international waters earlier this year, and that it continues to provide weapons and fighters to U.S. enemies in Iraq, Kenneth Katzman of the Congressional Research Service compared the U.S. to a great...

AEI scholar Michael Rubin's very sober analysis of Iran April 16, 2008 HH: Joined now by Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, one of the country’s leading authorities on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Michael Rubin, last week, Vice President Cheney was on the program, and I talked to him about 12th Imamism, and about Ahmadinejad. And the left has gone crazy, and they’ve been throwing bricks at him, because he said we should take very seriously what Ahmadinejad says, and we should be concerned about sort of a millennialist outlook. And I’ve been waiting to talk to you...

A lot of blame has sloshed around for the sub-prime meltdown, from greedy borrowers to greedy mortgage brokers to Alan Greenspan, but if you want the real culprit, it was the repeal of the Glass-Stegall Act. On November 12, 1999, the champagne must have been shooting from the walls at Citigroup, which had worked behind the scenes for over 30 years to get the act overturned. Snip - Snip Robert Rubin was (Clinton's) Secretary of Treasury, which had oversight over Glass-Steagall regulation. Days before he resigned, Glass-Steagall was repealed. Just over a year later, he became chairman of the Citi...

Rose-Colored Foreign Policy by Michael Rubin April 14, 2008 As Iraqis marked five years since Baghdad's fall on April 9, Democrats – including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – grilled Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Before the testimony, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Gen. Petraeus and Mr. Crocker to avoid undue optimism: "We have to know the real ground truths of what is happening there [in Iraq], not put a shine on events." Among Democrats, it is conventional wisdom that the Bush administration rushed to war, botched planning and ignored dissent. "Whether out of hubris or incompetence," Senate...

Appearing Friday night on Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” television program, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin called for quick action to address surging home foreclosures, and suggested that policy makers should consider using taxpayer money as part of a solution. Mr. Rubin was supportive of actions already taken by both the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. But he told Bloomberg journalist Al Hunt that “the place that hasn’t been addressed – well, the issue that hasn’t been addressed, are all of these mortgages that are in trouble, the mortgages that are facing foreclosure.” Mr. Rubin said the Federal Housing Administration would...

Washington Post's Curious Iran Reporting March 22, 2008 National Review Online Michael Rubin William Branigin and Robin Wright have a rather factually flawed Washington Post article on President Bush’s speech on Iran that suggests either extreme sloppiness or that integrity has gone out the window in the news section. (It wouldn’t be the first time with Robin Wright, who earlier turned a deeply-partisan Iran lobby group’s press release into a news story). In today's article, Branigin and Wright assert: In an October 2005 speech to a conference on a "World without Zionism," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by a...

Iran's Global Ambition   Michael Rubin   Middle Eastern Outlook/AEI Online   March 17, 2008   While the United States has focused its attention on Iranian activities in the greater Middle East, Iran has worked assiduously to expand its influence in Latin America and Africa. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's outreach in both areas has been deliberate and generously funded. He has made significant strides in Latin America, helping to embolden the anti-American bloc of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. In Africa, he is forging strong ties as well. The United States ignores these developments at its peril, and efforts need to...

Turkey's Terror Problem Is Ours Michael Rubin December 18, 2007 It's been nearly two months since the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) sparked an international crisis with a major attack inside Turkey, and more than six weeks since President Bush promised Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Washington would aid Turkey's fight against terrorism. Heady talk of intelligence sharing and cooperation followed and, indeed, may have been a factor in this weekend's Turkish air strikes on PKK targets in Iraqi Kurdistan. Yet at the same time the Bush administration -- more precisely its increasingly assertive State Department -- has embraced an...

Michael Rubin on Hugh Hewitt - discussing Huckabee's ignorance and naivte on Iran If you're a Huckabee supporter, it's important for you to listen to understand why Huckabee is not the man for the job of President at this time. Iran is too important an issue to trust to someone who is so ignorant/naive. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone, Iranian or otherwise, who understands Iran & this regime better than Michael Rubin and who will give you the truth and facts. The Rubin segment is about 8 mins and starts at @10:37 in the program.

Congressional Democrats have seized upon the latest National Intelligence Estimate - which says Iran stopped pursuing nuclear weapons in 2003 - with great relish. They suggest it proves that not only did the Bush administration exaggerate the threat of a nuclear Iran, but that the White House, in its drive for hard-line sanctions backed by military force, has been far too skeptical of diplomacy. In a statement yesterday, Sen.Joseph Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chastised President Bush, saying his "actions are doubly dangerous because they undercut the cooperation we need from other countries for dealing with...

The Iran NIE [Michael Rubin] I'm at a conference overseas and just got a chance to look through the highlights in the International Herald Tribune. A couple quick thoughts: The NIE appears focused on any indigenous Iranian program only. After the Syria episode, what does import of nuclear weapon-relevant technology do to the timeline? If Iran was working on a nuclear weapons program until 2003, what does this say about U.S. policy in the late Clinton period and European engagement? Is it fair to say that while Iran spoke of dialogue of civilizations, it was working on a nuclear weapons...

By agreeing to purchasing a $7.5 billion stake in the faltering banking giant Citigroup, the secretive, government-controlled Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is breaking with tradition. As the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, with assets estimated at $650 billion, it poured money in the past into low-return, low-profile investments or small emerging market deals, unlike its flashy emirate neighbor, Dubai. But a falling dollar and a growing cash pile are spurring Abu Dhabi to change strategy, according to analysts, economists and deal makers, who said that more big-ticket deals might be ahead. snip Abu Dhabi is the largest oil...

October 04, 2007 Congress condemns Iranian labor crackdown [Michael Rubin] October 04, 2007 Kudos to the House for passing, 418-1, a bipartisan measure condemning Iran's persecution of labor union organizers and activists. Hopefully, there can be hearings soon on the same issue. There's a certain irony in the silence, especially among self-described progressives, on the Iranian crackdown. I don't know of any serious policymaker who thinks that military strikes are a good thing, or that a nuclear-armed Iran wouldn't bring us into real crisis. An active union movement in Iran would strengthen civil society there. If the Iranian regime were...

Iran faces a deadline today to suspend its enrichment of uranium or, according to the terms of a U.N. Security Council resolution unanimously adopted last December, face further sanctions. While it is only proper that the world wait for the deadline to pass before responding, Tehran's answer is already clear. Gholam Reza Aghzadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, has said that "Iran will not comply with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737." How will the West respond? Earlier this month Sir Richard Dalton, until recently Britain's ambassador in Tehran, called for direct talks between U.S. and Iranian officials...

Right War, Botched Occupation By Michael Rubin November 27, 2006 As U.S. troops entered Iraq, President Bush promised freedom and democracy. But rather than establish a stable democracy, today terrorists and militias tear the country apart. After billions spent and the sacrifice of almost 3,000 U.S. troops, it is right to ask whether democracy in Iraq was not a fool's dream. It was not. President Truman faced similar questions about Korea. Critics accused him of embroiling America in open-ended war, ignoring his generals and losing touch with reality. They said democracy was alien to Korean culture. Time proved them wrong....

Why withdrawal from Iraq is the worst option by Michael Rubin Financial Times October 26, 2006 The news from Iraq is bad, but many of the recommendations coming from London and Washington are worse. Dividing Iraq would abet ethnic cleansing and break the country into morsels more easily digested by neighbouring states. Outreach to Iran and Syria is no panacea: Tehran and Damascus treat diplomatic commitment with disdain; Iran's revolutionary guards seldom abide by the promises of Iranian diplomats. Imposing a strong man to govern is easier said than done: while Iraqis support the concept, consensus quickly breaks down; Iraq...

Nurture Iraqi democracy, from the ground up by Michael Rubin Los Angeles Times November 16, 2006 The democratically elected government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has proved a grave disappointment. Security has worsened since Maliki has been in power. Ignoring the pleas of U.S. officials, he has been unwilling to crack down on the militias and death squads that fuel sectarian violence — and the mass kidnapping from a Ministry of Higher Education building in Baghdad on Tuesday by gunmen in police uniforms shows the consequences. Last month, Maliki's government refused to cooperate with U.S. troops searching for a...

Realist Utopianism [Michael Rubin] November 21, 2006 Do all of Iraq’s neighbors seek a stable, peaceful Iraq? Many realists, from Kofi Annan to James Baker to Barack Obama, seem to think so. Says Annan, “An Iraq at peace is in the interest of all countries in the region, including Iran and Syria.” And Obama, “Neither Iran nor Syria want to see a security vacuum in Iraq filled with chaos, terrorism, refugees and violence….” Where does this assumption, upon which all the calls for engagement derive, come from? The ether? Neither the actions of Tehran nor Damascus provide any evidence that...

That was fast. A mere two days after Democrats capture Congress claiming they wouldn't raise taxes, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin tells them they should do so anyway. "You cannot solve the nation's fiscal problems without increased revenues," declared Mr. Rubin, the Democratic Party's leading economic spokesman, in a speech last Thursday. He also took a crack at economic forecasting by noting that "I think if you were to increase taxes right now, you would have probably about zero negative effect on the economy." The economics and politics here are worth parsing. We suppose it's reassuring that Mr. Rubin now...

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Higher U.S. taxes are inevitable in order to reduce soaring budget deficits because foreigners will not finance U.S. shortfalls forever, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said on Thursday. "You cannot solve the nation's fiscal problems without increased revenues," Rubin told the Economic Club of Washington, adding that he did not believe U.S. economic activity would suffer if such action was taken. "I think if you were to increase taxes right now, you would have probably about zero negative effect on the economy," Rubin told a questioner after a dinner address to about 200 people.