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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

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
Indonesian Armed Forces Chief Gen. Moeldoko said that the threat now presents an opportunity for the U.S.-Indonesian military relationship to expand (Associated Press)

Indonesia wants to aid U.S. in Islamic State fight, top military commander says

Indonesia's top military commander said in an interview that the world's most populous Muslim nation sees the Islamic State movement in Syria and Iraq as a grave threat to the world and that Jakarta wants to increase coordination with Washington to counter the radical group's rise in Southeast Asia.

December 18, 2014
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, Michigan Republican, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 6, 2013. (Associated Press) **FILE**

House intel chief: Threats rising, Obama failing in terror war

The outgoing head of the House Intelligence Committee said Friday that the U.S. under President Obama is not doing enough to combat terrorism around the world and that the threat posed by extremist Islamic militants today is as great as it has been at any time since before 9/11.

December 12, 2014
Central Intelligence Director (CIA) Director John Brennan gestures during a news conference at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Va., Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014. Brennan is pushing back hard against the wave of criticism following a Senate Intelligence Committee report detailing harsh interrogation tactics employed by intelligence community people against terrorism war-era detainees. Brennan and several past CIA leaders fear the historical record may define them as torturers instead of patriots. The CIA is now in the uncomfortable position of defending itself publicly, given its basic mission to protect the country secretly. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

John Brennan: Senate report on CIA interrogations ‘flawed’

CIA Director John O. Brennan on Thursday criticized Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Democrats for producing a "flawed" report on enhanced interrogation techniques that failed to interview key personnel about their decisions, offering a half-throated defense of the defunct program that he maintained had provided valuable information used to thwart terror attacks and track down terrorists.

December 11, 2014
Retired Marine Gen. John Allen during a November 2012 press conference (File/Associated Press).

U.S. ‘very closely’ monitoring worldwide spread of Islamic State

President Obama's top adviser overseeing the coalition fighting the Islamic State said Thursday that U.S. officials are "very closely" monitoring the potential spread of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's extremist movement beyond Syria and Iraq, especially as international efforts ramp up toward crushing the group in those two nations.

December 11, 2014
Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

House criticizes White House on Islamic State progress

Sparks flew at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday when a key Republican accused the White House of "dithering" in its strategy for destroying the Islamic State group, while a top administration official argued the fight is in only its "earliest phase" and that progress is likely to be "uneven going forward."

December 10, 2014