In The News

Al Qaeda Near Biological, Chemical Arms Production

Barton Gellman March 23, 2003
The global terrorist network al Qaeda has much more detailed plans to develop chemical and biological weapons than US investigators knew, says this report in the Washington Post. Interrogations of recently-arrested Khalid Sheik Mohammed, known as "the Brain" within al Qaeda, have yielded plans to produce anthrax and cyanide, among other agents. Although it has not yet been confirmed...

Iraq War: Big Tasks and Narrow Window

March 20, 2003
The coming war in Iraq will be complicated by the absence of a UN mandate, forcing the US military to take over administering the country. The pressure of the American electoral calendar may also prevent the Iraq war from opening a door to a Middle East peace settlement. In an interview in London with YaleGlobal Online editor Nayan Chanda, the Director of the International Institute for...

Hussein Was Target of Bombing

Walter Pincus March 20, 2003
Worldwide anti-war protests could soon become moot, if Saddam Hussein was indeed taken out on the first strikes on Baghdad. According to the Washington Post, US intelligence officials believe that Saddam Hussein was still inside a compound struck by bombs yesterday. Whether he was injured or killed, no one is certain, but intercepted communications indicated that medical personnel were called to...

Asia Braces for Iraq War Fallout

March 18, 2003
From Afghanistan to Australia, countries across Asia are preparing for the effects of a US war on Iraq that is expected to begin any day now. Anti-war protests in Australia are on a scale not seen since that country sent troops to help the US in Vietnam. In other countries, worries run the gamut from stock market disasters to rage and terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists. – YaleGlobal

Why North Korea is Different

John R. Bolton March 6, 2003
U.S. Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton writes in this week's Far Eastern Economic Review on the difference between Iraq and North Korea, and why they deserve different responses from the United States and its allies. Mr. Bolton says that while the US has "run all conceivable diplomatic and economic options to their logical conclusion without a modicum of success" in Iraq, in...

U.S.-N.K. Tension Unlikely to Lead to War, Experts Say

Seo Hyun-jin March 6, 2003
Talking in Seoul, experts on Korean politics proclaimed that North Korea’s interception of a US reconnaissance plane was a pre-negotiation effort designed to pressure Washington. North Korea, said one analyst, is hoping to begin talks with the US before Washington enters into a war in Iraq. – YaleGlobal

2 Companies Pay Penalties for Improving China Rockets

Jeff Gerth March 6, 2003
Two months after the US State Department accused Hughes Electronics Corporation and Boeing Satellite Systems of 123 violations of export laws in connection with the Chinese data transfers in the 1990's, the two firms agreed to pay a record $32 million in penalties to settle the charges. Because the technology used in launching civilian rockets is similar to that used in launching missiles,...