In The News

Letting Sudan Get Away with Murder

Ben Kiernan February 4, 2005
Over 200,000 people have died in the violence in Sudan's Darfur provinces. And as the bloodshed continues, genocide scholar Ben Kiernan writes, members of the international community – who may actually have the influence to halt the killings and prosecute the perpetrators – have been preoccupied with semantic and jurisdictional wrangling. Kiernan provides an historical background to the...

Fakes!

Frederik Balfour February 2, 2005
Counterfeiting is a criminal activity that costs the global economy billions every year. The manufacturers of fake goods have become increasingly professional, their wares often indistinguishable from the real things. And by slipping counterfeit products – or parts of products – into the supply chain at different stages, they have slipped seamlessly into the world market. China is central to...

Germany's "Project Cleanup" Could Deport Hundreds of Radical Muslims

Markus Deggerich February 1, 2005
With the passage of a tougher immigration law, Germany is waging its own kind of pre-emptive strike in the war against terror: It will now have the ability to deport people suspected of possibly committing a terrorist act in the future. The burden of proof for deportation will employ a lower standard than the current one. As one government official said, "The fact that someone spent time...

Militant Imams Under Scrutiny Across Europe

Lowell Bergman January 25, 2005
On Sunday, German police arrested a man they accused of recruiting for the Iraqi insurgency. The police are confident that larger networks of recruitment and smuggling to Iraq will soon be discovered in Germany. Across Europe, security forces - often working with the United States - are stepping up arrests and surveillance of militant Muslims, in the belief that recruitment from Europe to Iraq is...

Quality Drugs, by the Kilo

Paul McGeough January 13, 2005
Three years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, the country's narcotics industry is booming. Last year, 87 percent of the world's opium originated from the Afghan trade, and the United Nations has recently warned that the country - trading about US $2.8 billion in drugs - is becoming a "narco-state." And thus, despite the West's tough talk about eliminating the...

Business is Blooming

Peter Willems December 8, 2004
A recent United Nations report shows that Afghanistan's poppy production is reaching worrisome new heights. As newly-inaugurated president Hamid Karzai steps into the spotlight, the problems of opium growth continue to increase. The effort to stop the drug trade has been hampered by local infighting, governmental corruption, and an unsuccessful attempt to wean farmers off the profitable, but...

Peacekeeping Forces Power Agenda

Ian Black December 2, 2004
As NATO relinquishes its peacekeeping duties in Bosnia this week, the EU will step into the role, launching the most ambitious peacekeeping mission yet undertaken by the body. In Bosnia, the EU will attempt to crack down on organized crime while dangling the prospect of future Union membership as an incentive for internal reform. With a major effort underway to amp up its defense capabilities,...