In The News

Ottoman Ghosts: Turkey in the Middle East

Matein Khalid October 5, 2006
The Turkish Parliament’s decision to send troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon is a milestone event, according to banker Matein Khalid. Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Turkey’s policies and politics have largely distanced the secularized country from the Arab world. On one hand, the Turkish prime minister refused to let the US use Turkish bases to invade...

Al Qaeda's Far-Reaching New Partner

Craig Whitlock October 5, 2006
Salafists are Islamic fundamentalists who advocate living by the original intent of the Koran, and since the 1990s, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) has pressed for a strict Islamic government in secular Algeria. GSPC splintered from a more radical group, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which killed thousands of Algerian civilians throughout the 1990s and insisted that any...

A Path to Global Disarmament

Hans Blix October 5, 2006
With North Korea threatening to test a nuclear weapon and openly blast its way into the nuclear club, the world is at a dangerous crossroads. The world community must craft careful responses to the states that are determined to become nuclear powers, writes Hans Blix, chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission. History has shown that incentives work better than threats. The...

US Spy Agencies Outsourcing Work

Greg Miller October 3, 2006
Since the 9/11 attacks, the US boosted budgets for intelligence work by $10 billion annually. As a result, government programs like the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Counterterrorism Center increasingly rely on contract workers. For example, two thirds of the contractors at the counterterrorism center manage computer systems. Some analysts express alarm at the trends toward...

Musharraf Denies Helping Al Qaeda

Kim Sengupta September 29, 2006
General Pervez Musharraf is furious over the leak of a report by a British Ministry of Defence think tank that suggests Pakistani intelligence forces colluded with Al Qaeda terrorists, including indirect support for extremists who targeted the UK. The report also described Pakistan, a state with nuclear weapons, as on “the edge of chaos.” UK Prime Minister Tony Blair assured the president that...

Sobering Conclusions on Why Jihad Has Spread

Karen DeYoung September 27, 2006
Statisticians caution that correlations don’t necessarily prove cause and effect. After the leak of a US intelligence document that bleakly points out the war in Iraq has rallied extremists globally, the US president did not argue with the consensus document from 16 intelligence agencies. Instead, he quickly declassified a few sections and insisted that the findings demonstrate US progress in...

The Jihad and the West – Part II

Mohammed Ayoob September 26, 2006
Jihad as armed struggle was associated with early expansion of Muslim territories and then took on a more defensive connotation in the 19th century, after Muslim nations were subjected to colonization by European powers. This two-part series explores the role of jihad in modern society, and the second article calls on Islamic scholars to consider dispensing with the term when it comes to...