In The News

Is the Arab Reform Chorus Serious or Fraudulent?

Rami G. Khouri October 1, 2003
Rami G. Khouri, executive editor of Lebanon's Daily Star, argues that the 'guns and cash' provided by donor nations influence the rhetoric of Arab states. Whatever the foreign donor takes up as an important issue, the Arab state parrots in turn. For example, Middle Eastern governments have adopted the rhetoric of human rights reform, equitable development, and now the 'war on...

Politics in Command

Jonathan Schell September 29, 2003
In war, true victory means the achievement of an express political aim. Although Saddam Hussein has been toppled, the political objective of the American war in Iraq appears far from fulfilled. An author and journalist who has written extensively about war and peace, Jonathan Schell, says what should worry Washington more than the daily attacks on US troops is its failure to win the hearts and...

Foreign Religious Students on the Run

Hasan Mansoor September 26, 2003
The Pakistani Intelligence Agency raided two extremist religious seminaries this week and took 19 students of East Asian origin into custody for connections to groups acting against "the integrity of Pakistan." The students are currently being interrogated by a joint United States FBI-Pakistani team, and their visas have been revoked. "It is not a case of terrorism;" argues...

Connect the Dots

Thomas Friedman September 25, 2003
The US has refused to cut agricultural subsidies to its farmers for years, and it refused again at the recent WTO meeting in Cancún. Thomas Friedman laments that fact, arguing that a real connection exists between US hypocrisy on world trade issues and the roots of anti-American terrorism. Countries like Pakistan, mired in poverty, would produce fewer angry fundamentalists willing to bomb the...

Ability to Reason Vital in Fighting Terrorism

Kofi Annan September 23, 2003
At a conference on terrorism held today, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan argued that a clear, rational approach to dealing with terrorism is the only way to defeat it. "The rage we feel at terrorist attacks must not remove our ability to reason. If we are to defeat terrorism, it is our duty, and indeed our interest, to try to understand this deadly phenomenon, and carefully to...

Public Staggered by Costs but Wants to Stay the Course

September 23, 2003
Americans are increasingly open to a major UN role in postwar Iraq, with about half (51%) saying the US should give up some military control to the UN to get other countries to send more troops there. Growing support for an expanded UN role in Iraq comes amid growing public concern over mounting US casualties and the rising cost of the operation. According to a recent study by the Pew Research...

Attackers United by Piety in Plot to Strike Troops

Anthony Shadid September 20, 2003
Cassettes of a Syrian cleric, whose violent words used to be outlawed under Saddam Hussein's secular regime, sell freely on the post-war streets, and - more frighteningly - there's a growing audience willing to listen. Islamic extremism, which is denounced by most religious leaders as against the peaceful precepts of true Islam, is becoming increasingly appealing to angry Iraqis who...