In The News

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...

Democracy Won, but do Americans Care?

Maggie Mitchell-Salem February 1, 2005
The largely successful democratic election in Iraq was made possible only by tens of thousands of deaths, both Iraqi and American. In the United States, many initial supporters of the war are growing increasingly wary of mounting costs and casualties, suggests this Daily Star commentary. This wariness comes as President Bush uses the elections to justify a continued US presence in Iraq and –...

Voting, Not Violence, is the Story for Arab Press

Hassan M. Fattah January 31, 2005
Yesterday's historic elections in Iraq proved, by many accounts, to be a relative success, but the story of the day may be the measured reaction of the Arab press. Popular news outlets Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, who have spent most of the last two years broadcasting images of violence to the Middle East and the rest of the world, took a step back from this type of coverage to provide...

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...

New Bush Policy Not to Affect Ties with Pakistan

Anwar Iqbal January 24, 2005
In his inauguration speech from last Thursday, President Bush echoed the theme of his first term in linking US foreign policy to the spread of freedom and democracy. Bush spoke forcefully throughout, declaring the end of tyranny to be the ultimate goal of the United States. Despite the tone of the speech, top Bush officials have assured foreign leaders that it marks no change in relations with...

Post-election America Is a Deeply Divided Nation

January 24, 2005
President George Bush’s inauguration last week ushered in a second term that seems poised for deep divisions in both the domestic and foreign arena. The Pew Research Center has released the results of polling about US public opinion in the wake of 9/11 and a highly contentious election. The survey showed a remarkably partisan voting population. Despite the tight race, the report concludes that...

Fried Rice

M.J. Akbar January 23, 2005
During her confirmation hearings with the Senate Foreign Relations committee last week, US Secretary of State nominee Condoleeza Rice said that the Bush administration had a “contingency plan” in the event of a coup in Pakistan. She implied that if something “happened” to President Pervez Musharraf, and “Islamic fundamentalists” obtained access to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, the United States...