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Guy Taylor

Guy Taylor

gtaylor@washingtontimes.com

Guy Taylor is the National Security Editor at The Washington Times, overseeing the paper's State Department, Pentagon and intelligence coverage and driving the daily Threat Status newsletter. He has reported from dozens of countries and been a guest on the BBC, CNN, NPR, FOX, C-SPAN and The McLaughlin Group.
A series Mr. Taylor led on Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election was recognized with a Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency, and a Society for Professional Journalists award. In 2012, he won a Virginia Press Association award reporting from Mexico.Prior to joining The Times in 2011, Mr. Taylor was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Fund For Investigative Journalism. He wrote for a variety publications, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to Salon, Reason, Prospect, the Daily Star of Beirut, the Jerusalem Post and the St. Petersburg Times. He also served as an editor at World Politics Review, wrote for America's Quarterly and produced videos and features for Agence France-Presse.Mr. Taylor holds an M.S. in Global Security Studies from Angelo State University and a B.A. from Clark University. He was part of a team who won a Society of Professional Journalists award for their reporting on the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
He can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.

Threat Status Influencers Videos

Go behind the scenes with Washington Times National Security Editor Guy Taylor as he interviews officials and experts directly involved in the most important global security, foreign policy, and technology issues impacting America's position in the world.


Threat Status Podcast

An edgy and informative look at the biggest U.S. national security and geopolitical issues making headlines right now. Less about hot takes and more about depth, the Threat Status podcast is helmed by veteran Washington Times journalists Ben Wolfgang and Guy Taylor and features regular appearances by insiders with expertise on war, politics and global affairs.


Special Report: Vlad's Vengeance

Inside Putin's 'hybrid warfare' on the U.S. Click here to read more.


Articles by Guy Taylor

Iran's deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, right, and Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Yukiya Amano shake hands next to IAEA deputy director general Tero Tapio Varjoranta, left, and Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Reza Najafi, right, prior a meeting at the International Center in Vienna, Austria on Monday, Oct. 28, 2013. The meeting was held before agency experts meet Iranian diplomats in a renewed push to probe suspicions that Tehran worked on nuclear arms. (AP Photo/Hans Punz)

Iran negotiator sees deal on nukes close

Iran's top nuclear negotiator claimed Thursday to be on the verge of a breakthrough deal with the U.S. and other world powers that would partially lift sanctions on the Islamic republic in exchange for Tehran agreeing to open its disputed nuclear program to close international scrutiny.

November 7, 2013
Iranian protesters hold flags during an annual anti-American demonstration in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Iran sharply divided going into nuclear talks

With a highly anticipated third round of nuclear talks opening Thursday in Geneva, Iran appears sharply divided on whether it truly wants to work with world powers to resolve tensions that have long surrounded its disputed nuclear program.

November 6, 2013
FILE - An undated file photo of Enrique Kiki Camarena, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, agent, murdered in Mexico in 1985. In the U.S., outrage grew over the surprise decision to overturn Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quinteros conviction for the 1985 slaying. Caro Quintero walked free Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, after a federal court overturned his 40-year sentence in Camarenas kidnapping, torture and murder. (AP Photo, File)

U.S. offers $5M in hunt for drug lord

The State Department set a $5 million reward Tuesday for information leading to the recapture of a once-notorious Mexican drug boss accused of masterminding the kidnapping and killing of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent three decades ago.

November 5, 2013
** FILE ** U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waits for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to arrive for their meeting at Villa Taverna, the US Ambassador's residence in Rome, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Claudio Peri, Pool)

Kerry praises international weapons inspectors for quick work in Syria

Secretary of State John F. Kerry lauded international weapons inspectors Thursday for working "with unprecedented speed" toward eliminating Syria's chemical weapons stocks in accordance with the recent pressure put on Syria by the U.S., Russia and other permanent members of the U.N. Securtiy Council to destroy the weapons.

October 31, 2013
Vice President Joseph R. Biden welcomes Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to the Naval Observatory. (Associated Press)

Al-Maliki visit presents a delicate challenge for administration

He was an obscure compromise candidate when unexpectedly elected prime minister in 2006. Against all odds, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is still on the job, and holds a worrying level of power in Iraq as he heads into a meeting Friday with President Obama to discuss the still-troubled state of his nation — a decade after the U.S.-led military action that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

October 30, 2013
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper pauses while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, before the House Intelligence Committee hearing on potential changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Faced with anger over revelations about U.S. spying at home and abroad, members of Congress suggested Tuesday that programs the Obama administration says are needed to combat terrorism may have gone too far. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Clapper contradicts White House, says Obama was aware of spying on allies

America's top intelligence official acknowledged Tuesday that President Obama and other senior White House officials were well aware of U.S. surveillance activities targeting leaders of friendly foreign nations — a stark contradiction of the administration's insinuation in recent days that the president was unaware of such spying.

October 29, 2013
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security seal is shown here in an undated file photo. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Armed agents seize records of reporter, Washington Times prepares legal action

Maryland state police and federal agents used a search warrant in an unrelated criminal investigation to seize the private reporting files of an award-winning former investigative journalist for The Washington Times who had exposed problems in the Homeland Security Department's Federal Air Marshal Service.

October 25, 2013
US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his seat on the occasion of their meeting at Villa Taverna, the US Ambassador's residence in Rome, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. Kerry and Netanyahu met in Rome during Kerry's last stop of his European tour. (AP Photo/Claudio Peri, Pool)

Netanyahu sees progress in Iran nuke talks

Despite being a leading skeptic of the U.S.-led drive to strike a deal with Iran over its disputed nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday suggested that the two sides may actually be "very close" to an agreement that Israel could support.

October 23, 2013
Secretary of State John Kerry said he is aware that the Saudis are unhappy that the U.S. has not followed through on threats to use force against the Syrian regime after its use of chemical weapons.

Saudis want more action from U.S. in Syrian crisis

The Obama administration Tuesday acknowledged frustration among Saudi Arabian leaders over U.S. unwillingness to play a more aggressive, perhaps even militarized, role in the Syrian civil war — but downplayed reports of a growing fissure in relations between Riyadh and Washington.

October 22, 2013
A trip Secretary of State John F. Kerry is making to France has been complicated by a French newspaper's report about data mining by the National Security Agency that resulted in tens of millions of digital communications being collected. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Kerry faces firestorm in France over NSA snooping

Seeking to tamp down the latest diplomatic crisis stemming from the NSA snooping scandal, President Obama called French President Francois Hollande to allay French outrage after the revelation the U.S. spied on tens of millions of phone calls and text messages in France.

October 21, 2013
U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, center, waits for the start of the two days of closed-door nuclear talks on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, at the United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland. Iran's overtures to the West are being tested as the U.S. and its partners sit down for the first talks on Tehran's nuclear program since the election of a reformist Iranian president. Negotiations between Iran and the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany began Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini, pool)

Caution voiced on Iran’s nuclear program proposal; Israel still wary

The Obama administration responded with caution Tuesday to a new Iranian offer to scale back — but not eliminate — its uranium enrichment program and allow increased international monitoring in exchange for the lifting of U.S.-led sanctions that have damaged the Islamic republic's economy and oil industry in recent years.

October 15, 2013
** FILE ** A Syrian rebel fighter returns from fighting Syrian army forces in Aleppo. (Associated Press)

U.S. allies let funds flow to al Qaeda in Syria

The United States has had limited success cutting off funding to the al Qaeda-linked fighters and foreign jihadists flowing into Syria — in part because of a lack of cooperation on the part of Middle Eastern allies, Intelligence and national security community sources say.

October 13, 2013
** FILE ** An unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field in southern Afghanistan on a moonlit night in January 2010. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Drone strikes plummet as U.S. seeks more human intelligence

The number of drone strikes approved by the Obama administration on suspected terrorists has fallen dramatically this year, as the war with al Qaeda increasingly shifts to Africa and U.S. intelligence craves more captures and interrogations of high-value targets.

October 9, 2013
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina wants Abu Anas al-Libi taken to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant and interrogated. (Associated Press)

Sen. Graham wants al-Libi sent quickly to Guantanamo for interrogation

Three influential Republican lawmakers slammed the Obama administration's handling of Abu Anas al-Libi, the suspected high-level al Qaeda operative captured by American commandos in Tripoli, Libya, on Saturday, saying the terrorist now being held and interrogated on a U.S. Navy ship on the Mediterranean Sea should be transferred quickly to the detainee prison at Guantanamo Bay.

October 8, 2013
FILE - This file image from the FBI website shows Abu Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the United States for more than a decade. Al-Libi was captured in a raid Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, and is being held aboard the USS San Antonio, a warship mainly used to transport troops. Instead of sending suspected terrorists to Guantanamo Bay or secret CIA "black" sites for interrogation, the Obama administration is questioning them aboard U.S. naval vessels. (AP Photo/FBI, File)

GOP lawmakers want captured Libyan in Guantanamo

Three influential Republican lawmakers slammed the Obama administration's handling of Abu Anas al-Libi, the suspected high-level al Qaeda operative captured by American commandos in Tripoli on Saturday, saying the terrorist now being held and interrogated on a U.S. Navy ship on the Mediterranean Sea should be quickly transferred to the detainee prison at Guantanamo Bay.

October 8, 2013
U.S. Navy SEALs in action. (U.S. Navy photo)

SEALs take over for drones as U.S. ups the stakes in fight against Al Qaeda

Clandestine U.S. military raids on terrorist targets in North Africa suggest the Obama administration is eager to send a message to an emerging generation of al Qaeda fighters: It does not matter where on the globe you are hiding, the U.S. is tracking you and willing to exert stealth military muscle — not just drones — to take you down.

October 7, 2013
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro visits the General Command of the Bolivarian National Guard in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013. Maduro announced the expulsion of U.S. charge d'affaires Kelly Keiderling and two other diplomats last Monday, accusing them of conspiring with "the extreme right" to sabotage the country's economy and power grid. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Expulsions from Venezuela show tensions endure in post-Chavez era

Tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats by Venezuela and the United States this week show there has been little thawing in the tense relations between the two nations — more than six months after the death of outspoken Washington critic President Hugo Chavez and a week after President Obama was willing to talk by phone with Iran's new president.

October 2, 2013