In The News

Interviews Deter Thousands of Chinese Brides

Cody Yiu February 5, 2004
In September, the Taiwanese government began interviewing Chinese citizens attempting to enter Taiwan on marriage visas. The program has successfully identified hundreds of fake marriages, and may have made the job of Chinese "snakeheads", or people smugglers, more difficult. Many snakeheads traffic in young girls, who have a harder time passing the entrance interviews. Some snakeheads...

Not Everyone Got It Wrong on Iraq's Weapons

Scott Ritter February 5, 2004
For years, Scott Ritter, chief UN inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, has maintained that Iraq's nuclear weapons program was defunct. Current evidence from David Kay's investigation suggests that Ritter was right. Yet Kay stated in his report on the Iraqi Survey Group's progress that "we were all wrong," ignoring the differing opinions of many UN workers. In this...

Khan, Scapegoat or Magician Extraordinary?

Ayaz Amir February 5, 2004
Dr. A. Q. Khan, the 'father' of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, publicly admitted that he traded weapons secrets to multiple nations in "good faith". President Musharraf immediately pardoned Khan, who is considered a national hero. By staging a neat ending to Pakistan's nuclear weapons problem, author Ayaz Amir argues that the government hopes America and other...

Six-Way Nuclear Talk Prospects Unclear

Seo Hyun-jin February 4, 2004
North Korea's announcement that it is willing to proceed with six-way talks on its nuclear program is no guarantee that progress will be made when its representatives meet with those of the US and other countries in Beijing later this month. This article in The Korea Herald says that the future of the talks and Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development program depends on the resolution...

For Bush, a Tactical Retreat on Iraq

Dana Milbank February 2, 2004
Without going as far as to admit being wrong, US President George W. Bush has agreed to create an independent review committee to investigate US intelligence failures in Iraq. Last week David Kay, the former US chief weapons inspector in Iraq, said that there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction before the US attacked Saddam Hussein's government and called for an independent...

Key Pakistani Is Said to Admit Atom Transfers

David Rohde February 2, 2004
Pakistan's official inquiry into the transfer of nuclear technology has yielded its most substantial finding yet. The founder of the country's nuclear weapons program, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted on Sunday that he had worked with Libya, North Korea, and Iran to help develop those countries' nuclear programs. The scientist said he had helped facilitate the transfer of designs...

As It Wields Power Abroad, U.S. Outsources Law and Order Work

Andrew Higgins February 2, 2004
The US seems unwilling to face the hardships of maintaining a police force in Iraq. Instead, it has delegated the charge of keeping order to DynCorp, a multinational police contractor headquartered in California. DynCorp was subcontracted by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL, a division of the US State Department. Since 1994, the INL has dispatched...