In The News

Nuclear Board Said to Rebuff Bush Over Iran

David E. Sanger November 20, 2003
The Bush Administration was rebuffed this week when the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, issued a resolution that condemned Iran’s covert development of a nuclear program but stopped short of recommending Security Council action against the country. US officials had pushed for a formal censure, but European countries on the agency’s board argued that UN...

Remarks by the President at Whitehall Palace

George W. Bush November 19, 2003
In London, President Bush spoke to members of Prime Minister Tony Blair's government about the progress of the coalition-led war in Iraq. He called upon the British to remain strong in their resolve, while acknowledging that many of Prime Minister Blair's constituents were against the war. Though the President never mentioned weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – his main selling...

Resurgent Taliban Threatens Afghan Stability, US Says

Steven R. Weisman November 19, 2003
The US-led forces that overthrew the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan two years ago still have a lot of work to do to secure the state. Though President Hamid Karzai, a pro-western Pashtun leader, is in office, local ethnic conflicts and power struggles continue to dominate the political arena. Despite devoting more than 16,000 soldiers and peacekeepers to the country, the US and its allies...

US Can't Rely Solely on Might

Joseph S. Nye, Jr. November 17, 2003
The privatization of war by transnational terrorists is the gravest threat of the twenty-first century, argues Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Nye believes that insofar as the source of threat is changing from large conventional states to rogue states and terrorist networks, the US should rely more on its soft power than its military might. "Soft...

US Agrees to International Control of Its Troops in Iraq

Leonard Doyle November 17, 2003
After much international and domestic criticism, it appears that the White House is ready to give up some direct control in Iraq. This article in the Independent reports that the during US President George W. Bush's visit to the UK the world should expect to hear that Washington is willing to allow international control of American troops in Iraq. While the details have not yet been...

Turkey Says Foreign Terrorists May Be Behind Suicide Blasts

Craig S. Smith November 17, 2003
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, a little-known group with ties to Al Qaeda, is taking responsibility for Sunday's coordinated bombings of two Jewish synagogues in Istanbul. The group has also claimed responsibility for the bombings of the UN headquarters in Iraq in August and of the Baghdad hotel used by the Iraqi Governing Council in October. Neither of the past claims has been substantiated...

Terrorists Have No Right to Speak for Arabs, Muslims

November 17, 2003
The bombings at two synagogues in Istanbul brought more condemnation to Arabs and Muslims, says this editorial in Lebanon's Daily Star. With such senseless carnage carried out in the name of Islam, the paper laments, the world will increasingly believe that violence is the favored form of expression by the Arab and Islamic worlds. Every reasonable Arab and Muslim should shout out their...