New America in the News: 2007

SIMON: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Thursday, announced new sanctions on the Quds division of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and on banks with links to the guard. The administration and the U.S. Congress have labeled the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Flynt Leverett is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation where he directs the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative. In government, he worked on Middle East affairs at the State Department and at the National Security Council for Secretary Rice and the CIA. ...

Having belatedly realized that Cuba's communist regime is not doomed to collapse simply with the passing from power of Fidel Castro, the Bush administration is launching new pro-democracy initiatives with the decades-old U.S. hope of fostering a shift from communism.

Taking up an issue that could resonate with young voters, Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) presidential campaign blasted the Education Department for allowing student loan recipients to over-pay the loans and not get the money back. In a sharply worded statement Monday, Dodd pounced on a Washington Post article from Saturday in which Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings admitted that her department "had some responsibility" for "confusion" over regulations that allowed the excess payments to occur.

As the United States and Iran are locked in a battle for power and influence across the Middle East -- with the fear of an Iranian nuclear weapon looming in the background -- FRONTLINE gains unprecedented access to Iranian hard-liners shaping government policy, including parliament leader Hamid Reza Hajibabaei, National Security Council member Mohammad Jafari and state newspaper editor Hossein Shariatmadari.

In this report, FRONTLINE examines how U.S. efforts to install democracy in Iraq have served to strengthen Iran's position as an emerging power in the Middle East. ...

Flynt Leverett, NSC, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs (2002-03), discusses U.S. engagement with Iran. Leverett thinks the engagement policy with Iran may not have been serious and that the Administration is leaning toward naming the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. He left the White House over policy differences. Esquire magazine recently wrote an article about Leverett. ...

With their efforts to win more government funding stymied in Washington, medical researchers at the Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere are taking their lobbying campaign on the road -- and into the presidential campaign.

MARGARET WARNER: For more on the latest developments in Pakistan, we go to Griff Witte, Washington Post Pakistan bureau chief, and Steve Coll, New Yorker magazine journalist and author. He`s also president of the New America Foundation. ...

Now, Steve, I know you were both at this press conference today. And she pointed the finger pretty directly at some specific groups, did she not, Steve?

Explosions went off near a convoy carrying former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Thursday as she returned to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile. At least 108 people were reported killed in the blast. A reporter details the chaotic homecoming scene from Karachi.

Investigation of the Bombing Scene

MARGARET WARNER: And New Yorker magazine journalist and author Steve Coll also accompanied Mrs. Bhutto home, and he joins us by phone now from Karachi. ....

Last week Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto addressed her power-sharing deal with General Pervez Musharraf at her press confrerence. “Many have criticized the deal but it is being done to avoid bloodshed and ensure an orderly transfer of power to the people,” she said.

In an interview with ABC Radio Australia, New America Foundation Fellow Rajan Menon discussed Bhutto’s political situation upon her return to Pakistan after eight years in exile.

Has Bhutto been damaged politically by the amnesty deal struck with General Musharraf?