In The News

Iraq Black Hole: The $2 Trillion War

Craig Lambert May 18, 2006
Before the US invaded Iraq, the Pentagon and the US Office of Management and Budget estimated that the war could cost up to $60 billion and that Iraqi oil revenues would cover the costs. The Congressional Budget Office now estimates the war will cost $500 million. However, Harvard and Columbia professors have teamed up to prepare a true cost-benefit analysis based on government sources – and...

Pakistan’s Obedient Son

Susanne Koelbl May 17, 2006
Both the US and Afghanistan pressure Pakistan to capture suspected terrorists hiding along its borders. Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai once had strong ties, but the relationship is unraveling over the issue. Meanwhile warlords challenge Musharraf’s authority and promote domestic unrest, motivated by the desire for control of Pakistan’s rich natural...

Al Qaeda Talking Heads

Fawaz A. Gerges May 11, 2006
Just after Iraqi leaders chose a new prime minister and president, the leaders of Al Qaeda – Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – hurriedly released a series of statements to the media. The media blitz represents the most concerted effort to date by Al Qaeda leadership to articulate its investment in the ongoing conflict in Iraq – and suggests that a viable government,...

Japanese Discovery of Democracy

Masaru Tamamoto May 10, 2006
Political, economic, military and historical forces can put civilizations into conflict, but also create a basis for affinity. Japan portrays its own democracy and China’s single-party Communist rule as diametrically opposed, thus qualifying China’s economic success and accounting for recent chilly diplomatic relations. Yet the high-profile WWII history question, thrown into relief by the...

How Not to Fight Terrorism

David Cole May 9, 2006
The high-profile trial of Zacarias Moussaoui has concluded, and the result, after four years, is a life sentence – which Moussaoui was prepared to accept when the proceedings began. In the intervening years, the US government sought to prove that Moussaoui was the 20th hijacker set to participate in the 9/11 attacks and blocked his access, with questionable legality, to witnesses and other...

A Setback for Democracy

Dilip Hiro May 4, 2006
Before the US-led invasion of Iraq, states throughout the Middle East had been loosening some controls, particularly in the economic and communication spheres. Increasing internet use and lively broadcasts from Aljazeera satellite TV gradually encouraged economic and political debate. But increasing debate did not automatically lead to representative government or elections. As chaos reigns in...

World Bank Falsified Information on Malaria Treatment, The Lancet

Christian Nordqvist April 28, 2006
The World Bank has been accused of wasting funds on useless malaria treatment and falsifying treatment results. The major aid organization that provides loan and resources for ending poverty retorts that the accusation is unfounded. The accusation first appeared in the UK medical journal "Lancet," written by a Canadian physician and UN consultant who argues that the World Bank approach...