Center for Middle East Policy

The nearest thing I can say to [President Bill Clinton's historic visit to India] was it must've been like what it was when The Beatles came to America for the first time. It was just crazy -- enormous crowds everywhere he went -- and this for the man who had just imposed the most intense economic sanctions on India in the history of the bilateral relationship, which were still in place during that visit. The outpouring was enormous

There are more questions in the last six months about India’s commitment to democracy than we’ve really seen in the history of the U.S.-Indian relationship. The good news for India is that the last person in the world likely to raise any of these issues is Donald Trump.

It is odd that a DCI who avoids public appearances of any kind would make a public appearance at the most fractious SOTU in our time. The job is being more politicized than it should be.

Trump wants trophy kills... [The killing of Yemeni Al Qaeda leader, Qasim Al Rimi was] a significant but not fatal blow [to AQAP]. Rimi was a strong contender to succeed Zawahiri some day, but al-Qaeda is a resilient group.

The timing of this [Al Qaeda] audio [claiming responsibility for the Pensacola shooting] is designed to cause maximum humiliation for Trump, who had just retweeted reports of al-Rimi’s death. It’s also a statement that AQAP has infiltrated the Saudi military, which is an embarrassment for the Saudis.