In The News

Pentagon Prepares a Futures Market on Terror Attacks

Carl Hulse July 29, 2003
A bizarre new strategy in the war on terrorism is emerging from the headquarters of the US military. The Pentagon is creating an online futures market to predict the likelihood of terrorist attacks and assassinations. With the explicit aim of predicting the effects of US involvement in the Middle East, the program's website will begin registering traders on Aug. 1, and trading will begin...

Painted into a Corner

Omayma Abdel-Latif July 25, 2003
The exclusion of Muqtada Al-Sadr, the 32-year-old activist who enjoys a large following among sections of the Iraqi Shi’ites, from the US-sponsored Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) has sparked massive demonstrations protesting the legitimacy of US occupation in the country. Although Shi’ite Muslims, the majority in Iraq, want political representation, they, along with the Sunnis, worry that IGC’s...

Jump in Piracy Attacks Off Bintan

David Boey July 24, 2003
Pirates are not confined to history or storybooks alone, as modern-day ships also face uncertainty on the high seas. According to a new report released by the International Maritime Bureau, violent pirate attacks have reached an all-time high. Some 234 incidents have been reported so far this year, more than a quarter of them occurring in the waters off the Indonesian island of Bintan. Other...

Take Mexico Instead

Abdel-Moneim Said July 21, 2003
If colonial ambitions are really the reason America invaded Iraq, why did it choose such a far-flung and relatively resource poor country, asks Egyptian political scholar Abdel-Moneim Said. Why not invade Mexico or Canada? They're closer, wealthier, and just as poor a military match for the superpower. According to Said, America would have every reason to invade these countries if it only...

Two Top Hong Kong Ministers Resign

Mary Kwang July 17, 2003
Coming on the heels of massive street protests, two of Hong Kong's top appointed officials resigned yesterday. The Security Secretary and the Financial Secretary said they were leaving office as soon as possible. Both officials were targets of angry protests over a proposed sedition law that threatened to restrict Hong Kong people's rights of assembly and free speech. Protestors have...

Nuclear Doubts in the House

July 16, 2003
During the Cold War, fear deterred the United States and the Soviet Union from all-out nuclear warfare, and today it makes the prevention of nuclear conflict a chief objective of American foreign policy. However, according to this opinion in The New York Times, a new bill in the US House of Representatives threatens to lower the psychological threshold for nuclear war, a particularly risky...

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...