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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

A Houthi Shiite fighter shows support for his comrades after seizing the capital in Sanaa, Yemen. President Obama has yet to reveal a response. (Associated Press)

Yemen coup shows Obama lacks Middle East terror strategy, critics say

The Yemeni government's fall to Iran-backed Shiite militants last week is only the latest sign that Tehran is "on the march" and that President Obama needs a battle plan to rout extremists across the Middle East, the administration's critics charged Sunday.

January 25, 2015
A Houthi Shiite fighter wearing an army uniform chants slogans during a demonstration to show support for his comrades in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. Thousands of protesters demonstrated Friday across Yemen, some supporting the Shiite rebels who seized the capital and others demanding the country's south secede after the nation's president and Cabinet resigned. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Yemen’s Shiite rebels growing in power amid Obama uncertainty on Iran, experts fear

The surge in Yemen this week by Shiite Muslim militants represents what some national security insiders are calling a "huge victory" for Iran, just as the Obama administration faces criticism for being too lenient in nuclear talks with the Islamic republic and appears — at least tacitly — to be coordinating with Tehran against Sunni terrorists in Iraq.

January 23, 2015
Mourners prepare to bury bodies of the entire family of Khalil Abdullah in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Nearly six months ago Islamic State extremists kidnapped Abdullah and his family members after the occupation of Jalula, a town northeast of Baghdad. Recently, Iraqi soldiers retook control of Jalula and found the family slain. (Associated Press photographs)

Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister complains of lack of help in terror fight

Iraq's prime minister complained Monday that the international community has left his nation largely in the lurch against the extremist Islamic State movement, even as U.S. and European officials scrambled to revamp their strategy for countering Mideast-based jihadis following this month's Paris terrorist attacks.

January 21, 2015
Houthi Shiite Yemeni gather Tuesday while guarding a street leading to the presidential palace in Sanaa, Yemen. (Associated Press)

Yemen unrest undermines U.S. operations against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Yemen is veering closer toward the abyss of failed statehood amid violence that has surged just as European, American and Arab counterterrorism officials refocus their attention on the strategically positioned Persian Gulf nation — where at least one of the gunmen responsible for this month's Paris terrorist attacks received training.

January 20, 2015
This file photo taken from video by Nigeria's Boko Haram terrorist network, Monday, May 12, 2014, shows their leader Abubakar Shekau speaking to the camera. (AP Photo) (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Boko Haram embraces Islamic State model for extremist jihad

With the world's attention focused on Paris, analysts and intelligence officials are picking up an equally disturbing development on the global jihadi landscape: the growing connection between the Middle East-based Islamic State and the shadowy Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram.

January 14, 2015
Paris residents captured chilling video images after an attack at a French satirical newspaper. French officials are dealing with challenges of an evolving terrorist group. (Associated Press)

Charlie Hebdo attack: France fears more terrorists at large

French authorities said Monday that as many as six members of a terrorist sleeper cell involved in last week's attack on a satirical magazine in Paris may still be at large, as U.S. officials investigated the actual role played by al Qaeda's main affiliate in the Middle East.

January 12, 2015
Greek Cypriots cast a suspicious eye on the Cypriot gas pipeline project, as the EU selected a plan that went out of its way to exclude Turkish participation. (associated press)

Cyprus: Cypriot union threatened by dispute over oil and gas rights

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW: A top official from the Turkish north of Cyprus says the Greek Cypriot government has jeopardized a delicate peace process between the two long-divided sides by pursuing "hegemony" over oil and gas exploration operations in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

January 11, 2015
David Cohen, the Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, talks about actions the Treasury Department is taking to combat financing for the Islamic State group during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington on Oct. 23, 2014. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Obama tabs David Cohen as CIA deputy director

A top Treasury Department official seen as a key architect of the Obama administration's use of sanctions against Iran and several terrorist organizations including the Islamic State has been tapped by the president to serve as deputy director of the CIA.

January 9, 2015
People light candles as they pay tribute to victims of the attack against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, in front of the French embassy in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday, a day after 12 people were slain by two armed men who stormed the Paris offices of the magazine. Inscriptions read "I am Charlie". (Associated Press)

Paris newspaper attack underscores terrorist shift to ‘soft targets’

Where the al Qaeda of Osama bin Laden's leadership flew an airplane into the Pentagon in a meticulously prepared operation, the tip of today's global jihadi spear is increasingly pointed at exploiting such "soft targets" as shopping malls, sporting events, tourist attractions and, in the case of this week's horror in Paris, the office of a satirical news magazine.

January 8, 2015
A still from a home video shows gunmen firing their weapons outside the newspaper Charlie Hebdo's Paris office. (Associated Press)

Paris newspaper shooting exposes rift in Muslim-Europe relationships

The grisly Islamist terrorist assault that left 12 people dead at a French satirical magazine Wednesday came against a backdrop of mounting xenophobia and tension boiling over Western Europe, where traditionally secular societies are struggling to absorb surging Muslim immigrant populations that analysts say will only continue to grow in the years ahead.

January 7, 2015
From the Islamic State's circulation on social media of photos depicting a so-called "cyclops baby" to its fixation on a Syrian town where the prophecies say the final battle will occur, analysts say the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is tapping mythology to convince his followers that the apocalypse has already begun. (Associated Press)

Apocalypse prophecies drive Islamic State strategy, recruiting efforts

Leaders of the Islamic State movement in Syria and Iraq are infatuated with apocalyptic Muslim prophecies foretelling a titanic final battle of good and evil that even involves the re-emergence of Jesus Christ to join their cause at the end of time in the Middle East.

January 5, 2015
Members of the Ladies in White, a Cuban dissident group, participate in a demonstration Sunday in Havana. Cuban authorities have reportedly detained overnight dozens of pro-democracy and free speech activists this week, including at least three members of the nation's political opposition ahead of a planned protest art performance in Havana. (Associated Press)

Cuba crackdown on political dissidents tests Obama diplomatic outreach

The Obama administration has responded harshly to the Cuban government's arrest this week of political dissidents planning a protest in downtown Havana, casting an uncomfortable shadow over the historic detente announced just weeks before between the U.S. and the Castro regime.

December 31, 2014
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is under fire for doing little to uncover the whereabouts of 43 missing university students and facing accusations of cronyism. (Associated Press)

Washington questions if scandal-plagued Mexican president can implement reforms

Mexico's once-ultrapopular President Enrique Pena Nieto has become so scandal-plagued that questions are swirling in Washington on whether his government will be capable in 2015 of implementing such groundbreaking reforms as the U.S.-supported and politically delicate privatization of the nation's oil sector.

December 29, 2014
President Nicolas Maduro — the hand-picked successor to the late socialist Hugo Chavez — faces mounting international criticism for jailing opposition figures after months of street protests. (Associated Press)

Oil prices push Venezuela to brink of economic collapse

The ongoing plunge in global oil prices is pushing Venezuela toward economic collapse just as President Nicolas Maduro — the hand-picked successor to the late socialist Hugo Chavez — faces mounting international criticism for jailing opposition figures after months of street protests.

December 25, 2014
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Associated Press) ** FILE **

U.S. coy about North Korea Internet failure as retaliation speculation swirls

The U.N. Security Council took the groundbreaking step of placing North Korea's bleak human rights record in the official spotlight Monday, as speculation surged that Washington has now secretly hacked into — and effectively brought to a halt — Pyongyang's Internet infrastructure in apparent retaliation for the Asian nation's suspected cyberattack on Sony Pictures.

December 22, 2014
Central Intelligence Director Director John Brennan gestures during a news conference at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Va., Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

CIA urged to build rapport with terrorists to extract intelligence

In building a case for their sweeping conclusion that the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques were simply "not effective" during the years after 9/11, Senate Democrats cited in their report example after example in which another tactic, known as "rapport-building," succeeded in extracting valuable intelligence from al Qaeda suspects.

December 21, 2014