In The News

Security Measures May Not be Sand in the Wheels of Commerce

William Mougayar August 19, 2003
Seaports have been described as America's most vulnerable entry-point. Everyday, ships from around the world dock in American harbors and unload a vast array of cargo. Most inbound crates contain products from trusted trade partners. However, since September 11, concern has grown that the crates entering these under-regulated gateways could hold chemical, biological, or even nuclear...

Indonesia Interested in Interrogating Hambali

Febiola Desy Unidjaja August 18, 2003
US and Thai officials are in the midst of interrogating Hambali, the man believed to be the top operative of al Qaida in Asia, who they arrested last week in a joint operative. Hambali has not only been linked to the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington DC, but is also believed to be responsible for last year's Bali bombing and the destruction of the Jakarta Marriot two weeks ago...

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....

Jakarta Blast May Deter New Investors

John Burton August 7, 2003
Before this week's bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia's economy had been steadily recovering from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and foreign investors have been arriving in droves. Singaporean companies in particular have been attracted to the country because of increased political stability and a lack of ties to the US economy. The Indonesian government has courted...

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...

The Long Reach of King Cotton

August 5, 2003
Subsidies to American cotton growers are deflating prices on the global cotton market and causing great hardship for poor farmers in Africa, says this New York Times editorial. If the subsidies were removed, the paper argues, world prices would stabilize at levels that reflect real costs, African farmers would profit from their comparative advantage in cotton production, and the US would look...