In The News

Picking up the Pieces

Nyier Abdou August 15, 2003
The man who killed 202 people in Bali last year and the man who blew up the Jakarta Marriot last week were both suicide bombers. Both men are also believed to be members of the Southeast Asian Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah, which is increasingly linked in ideology and tactics to Al-Qaeda. And, though experts maintain that JI is "home-grown and local," they also caution that it is...

Why the Jemaah Islamiah is Still Alive in Indonesia

Derwin Pereira August 13, 2003
The Indonesian government cannot directly attack Jemaah Islamiah, the infamous terrorist network responsible for the bombing of Jakarta's Marriot Hotel last week. Though the country supported the UN's blacklisting of the group and knows that members were responsible for the two bloodiest terror attacks in Indonesian history, officials remain reluctant to target the group as a whole....

Conservatives Protest Gay Bishop

Ryan Alexander August 6, 2003
Will the Anglican Church split now that the US branch has confirmed an openly gay man as a bishop? The most vocal threats warning of a schism in Anglican unity are coming from the conservative Anglican dioceses in Asia and Africa, where church membership is growing the most rapidly. The Anglican Church's leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is responding to the controversy by beseeching...

Warning to Megawati, message to U.S.

Derwin Pereira August 6, 2003
The terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiah, targeted the Jakarta branch of the American owned Marriot Hotel in their attack yesterday as a joint warning to the United States and Indonesia, says this article in Singapore's Straits Times. By targeting American interests on Indonesian soil, the group sent a powerful message to both countries that the network remained strong and that there would be...

US Vote Threatens Anglican Unity

Stephen Bates August 4, 2003
A decision today by the US Episcopal church could lead to a wave of dissension and split the worldwide Anglican church, says this article in the UK's Guardian. Yesterday, at the triennial general meeting of the US church, American lay and clergy representatives voted to approve the election of the church's first openly gay bishop. Earlier this year, openly gay Gene Robinson was elected...

Vatican Says Lawmakers Have Duty to Oppose Gay Marriage

Kirk Semple July 31, 2003
In North America and Europe, recognition of gay rights is slowly growing. Homosexual civil unions – which grant same sex couples the same rights and responsibilities of married couples – are legal in several European countries, including Germany, France, Sweden, and Denmark. Canada recently disposed of a ban on gay marriages; and the US Supreme Court recently struck down a long-standing Texas...

Is Iraq Becoming a New Vietnam? - Part Two

Timothy Carney July 16, 2003
Seen by a veteran US diplomat with long years in Indochina and a recent stint as an adviser in occupied Iraq, the scene in Saddam Hussein's former stronghold is worrisome but not hopeless. Timothy Carney notes the challenges before the provisional American authority and the issues that have fueled Iraqi discontent. Cultural insensitivity and the tactical clumsiness of a foreign occupying...