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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

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of S-400 missiles in Syria as he and other officials in Moscow escalated a war of words with Ankara after Tuesday's shootdown, which Turkey claims was justified on grounds that two Russian fighters ignored repeated warnings to change direction after entering Turkish airspace. (Associated Press)

Vladimir Putin orders S-400 missiles to Syria after Turkey downs Russian jet

Russia announced plans Wednesday to deploy long-range surface-to-air missiles at its air base near the Syria-Turkey border to destroy any target that threatens its warplanes in the area — an angry response to Turkey's downing of a Russian fighter jet, which raised fears of a direct clash between Russia and NATO.

November 25, 2015
A woman holds a poster reading "Turkey to account!" as others wave Russian and Syrian national flags during a picket at the Turkish Embassy in Moscow on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Turkey's decision to down a Russian jet near the Syria border a "stab in the back." (Associated Press)

Russian jet shot down by Turkey ramps up Syria tension

The downing of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey raised the complex tensions around Syria's multisided civil war to new heights Tuesday, putting more pressure on the Obama administration to take a more aggressive leadership role in the conflict to head off a further escalation between Moscow and Ankara.

November 24, 2015
Soldiers patrol in the courtyard of the Louvre museum in Paris in 2015. (Associated Press photographs) ** FILE **

Abdelhamid Abaaoud killed, but his travels worry intel experts

European and U.S. intelligence officials expressed alarm that the supposed architect of the deadly Paris attacks last week was able to slip so easily back and forth between Syria and the heart of Western Europe, even as French officials confirmed Thursday that the Islamic State terrorist Abdelhamid Abaaoud had been killed in a raid in a Paris suburb.

November 19, 2015
French police check vehicles at the border crossing between France and Belgium as part of the hunt for fugitives in the Paris attacks. (Associated Press)

France, Russia join forces, strike ISIS targets in Syria

France and Russia engaged in unprecedented joint strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria on Tuesday, the latest in a flurry of diplomatic and military fallout from the deadly terrorist strikes in Paris last week.

November 17, 2015
This undated image made available in the Islamic State's English-language magazine Dabiq, shows Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who grew up in the Molenbeek-Saint-Jean neighborhood of Belgian capital. Abaaoud was identified by French authorities on Monday as the presumed mastermind of the terror attacks Friday in Paris.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud: Questions surround supposed Paris assault mastermind

The Belgian man of Moroccan descent fingered by French authorities as the mastermind of the Paris attacks is believed to be operating from Syria with the Islamic State, but U.S. officials say his ties to the terror group's leaders are unclear and that other jihadis, based in Europe, likely also played central roles in plotting the attacks.

November 16, 2015
CIA Director John Brennan listens during a news conference at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., in this Dec. 11, 2014, file photo. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) ** FILE **

John Brennan, CIA chief, issues comments on ISIS harsher than Obama’s

Taking a noticeably darker tone than President Obama, CIA Director John O. Brennan warned Monday that the Paris terrorist attacks were not "a one-off event" and that intelligence officials anticipate the Islamic State has other sophisticated plots "in the pipeline."

November 16, 2015
Notre Dame cathedral in Paris hosted a national service Sunday to remember the victims of the Friday terrorist attacks. By Sunday night, as French military forces pounded the Islamic State's self-styled capital in Raqqa, Syria, officials in Belgium had detained seven people in connection with the attacks. (Associated Press)

Paris terror attacks: Islamic State’s sophistication shakes Western leaders

The Paris terrorist attacks featured three separate teams backed by a support network stretching across several European nations -- bearing a level of operational sophistication and capability that Islamist terrorists have not shown in the West in the decade or so since al Qaeda's four-plane Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. and the four-bomb London transport attacks of 2005.

November 15, 2015
Soldiers stand on the tarmac of the Charles de Gaulle airport, north of Paris, as part of a security reinforcements, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Paris attacks show high level of sophistication, was kept secret

The coordinated Paris attacks required a level of operational sophistication that Islamic extremist terrorists have not shown in Europe since the London suicide attacks in 2005 when four separate bombs, detonated in quick succession, targeted civilians on mass transit in the British capital.

November 14, 2015
Secretary of State Kerry speaks on U.S. strategy in Syria and the Middle East before heading back to Vienna for more talks on how to resolve the crisis, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, at the Peace Institute in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

John Kerry: Syria talks shrouded in uncertainty

Secretary of State John F. Kerry says the Obama administration will not step back from its demand that the Assad regime relinquish power in Syria, but he simply does not know whether Russia and Iran -- the regime's top backers -- will accept the mandate.

November 12, 2015
Supporters of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party cheer as they watch the results of the general election outside the party's headquarters Monday. (Associated Press)

Aung San Suu Kyi’s party wins Myanmar elections, makes history

Vote tallying was still going on Monday night, but Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition leaders were claiming an overwhelming victory in the nation's historic elections -- a development likely to expand opportunities for trade and diplomacy with the U.S., as concerns persist over the Southeast Asian nation's human rights record.

November 9, 2015
Polls suggest American voters are increasingly wary of the Obama administration's response to the wars in Syria, Iraq and Libya, which have killed more than a quarter-million people and spawned a vast refugee crisis stretching into Europe during recent years. (Associated Press)

Obama pushes military frustration to highest level in decades

Key lawmakers from both parties say frustration with the White House among the top military officers is at its highest level in decades, the product of President Obama's cautious approach to the wars in Syria and Iraq and an indecisive inner circle of White House advisers who, critics say, have iced the Pentagon out of the policymaking process.

November 5, 2015
In this photo provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Douma Revolution, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, people gather near damaged buildings, in the aftermath of an airstrike that activists said was carried out by Russia, in Douma, Syria, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015. (Douma Revolution via AP)

U.S. says 90 percent of Russian strikes hitting Syria’s moderate opposition

While Moscow asserts that its military campaign in Syria is aggressively targeting the Islamic State, a top U.S. State Department official said Wednesday that as much as 90 percent of strikes carried out by the Russian fighter jets over the past month have actually hit moderate opposition rebels groups in the war-torn nation.

November 4, 2015
Kurdish peshmerga forces have proved to be the most formidable fighters against the Islamic State group. (Associated Press/File)

Kurds seek supplies for peshmerga winter fight against Islamic State

Kurdish peshmerga fighters who have proved the most effective force against the Islamic State have not been paid for the past three months and badly need winter gear and ammunition if they are to hold ground seized from the extremists over the past year, a top Kurdish intelligence official said Tuesday.

November 3, 2015
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this Feb. 26, 2015, file photo. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

James Clapper: Islamic State may have taken down Russian plane in Egypt

America's top spy said Monday there is not yet any "direct evidence" that terrorists took down the Russian charter flight over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, but he would not rule out the possibility that the Islamic State -- also known as ISIL -- has the capability to shoot a plane out of the sky in the region.

November 2, 2015
Critics say Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is orchestrating the government's deeply unpopular policies, such as stepping up military actions against Kurdish forces and cracking down on the media and opposition groups. (Associated Press)

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party re-secures majority in Turkish vote

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's nationalist and Islamist political party pulled off a stunning victory in the nation's snap election Sunday, winning enough seats to again secure dominance over parliament just five months after losing its long-held majority.

November 1, 2015