United States and Canada

‘CIA and State’ prepared list of Russians for swap before FBI arrested spies in US

By the Washington Post

From the Washington Post:  President Obama’s national security team spent weeks before the arrest of 10 Russian spies preparing for their takedown and assembling a list of prisoners Moscow might be willing to trade for the agents, senior administration officials said Friday.

Ahmet Davutoglu: ‘We Are a Part of the West’

By Newsweek

Former top Russian spy Sergei Tretyakov dies at 53

By Brett Zongker, the AP

NATO Officials To Brief On Afghan Intelligence Shake-Up

By the Eurasia Review

From the Eurasia Review:  Some 200 senior NATO officials and commanders will meet in The Hague, Netherlands, on 15 July, to announce the next steps in a radical overhaul of the way orders, intelligence and battle reports are shared between Alliance and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Obama welcomes EU renewal of terrorist finance tracking agreement

By Barack Obama, the White House

From Barack Obama, the White House:  The United States welcomes today’s decision by the European Parliament to join the Council and Commission of the European Union in approving a revised agreement between the United States and the European Union on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data for the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP).

Russia sends warship to international naval drills in North Atlantic

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti:  The Severomorsk guided-missile destroyer from Russia’s Northern Fleet set sail Friday for British shores to team up with NATO warships in an international naval exercise in the North Atlantic, a fleet spokesman said. The Russian Navy earlier said the Frukus 2010 exercise will be held on July 22-25. The annual exercises, which […]

The Special Relationship in Peril

By Con Coughlin, the Wall Street Journal

From Con Coughlin, the Wall Street Journal:  The radical reappraisal of British foreign policy undertaken by Prime Minister David Cameron‘s new coalition government has raised serious questions about the future of Britain’s historic alliance with Washington..

Identities revealed in the largest spy swap since the Cold War

By Peter Baker, Ellen Barry and Benjamin Weiser, the New York Times

Obama sees Turkey turning eastward if snubbed by EU

By Reuters

From Reuters:  Turkey could end up seeking alliances outside the West if the European Union keeps it dangling over its bid for membership, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a newspaper interview on Thursday. Obama told Italy’s Corriere della Sera the United States believed it would be wise for the European Union to accept Turkey, […]

Officials: 3 arrested in Norway al-Qaida bomb plot

By the AP