A team of 20 independent democracy experts from 15 countries and five continents has arrived in the United States in order to observe this year's presidential election campaign. The election monitors, who have been brought here by the San Francisco activist group...
India’s ‘PATRIOT Act’ Repealed
NEW DELHI - After snaring thousands of politicians, teenagers, politicians, journalists, members of minority communities but few terrorists, India, this week, repealed its "PATRIOT Act" introduced in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United...
Indonesia: US Underwriting Terrorism?
Behind a recent, highly controversial indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Bush administration is maneuvering to revive military ties with the Indonesian Army (TNI), one of the world's most oppressive institutions. In late June, U.S. Attorney General John...
Dalai Lama’s Overtures to Seek Tibet Solution
BEIJING - Two high-profile envoys of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, have arrived in China amidst hopes that their visit could lead to a substantive dialogue with the Chinese government after tentative behind-the-scenes contacts in recent months....
An End to Ambiguity: US Counter-Proliferation from Tel Aviv to Tehran
Iran's Nuclear Program In 2002 Iran announced plans to build six nuclear power stations. As a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran can buy and operate centrifuges and other equipment needed for enriching uranium as long as it only uses the...
Gossing Over the Record
"Have they all drunk the Kool-Aid?" asked a former CIA colleague, referring to the stampede to appoint a new director and radically restructure the intelligence community. The Kool-Aid allusion was to the "groupthink" that led disciples of...
Unfettered Iraqi Media Denies Being Biased
BAGHDAD - Since the fall of Saddam Hussein and his dictatorial regime last year, one of the clearest signs that a new Iraq is born is the flourishing media business. But their coverage, and that of international Arabic-language satellite channels such as al-Arabiya...
North Korea Nuke Mess Made by Bush
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) recognizes the "inalienable right" of all signatories to "the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information" related to the "use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." That...
Growing Consensus That Iraq Is Hopeless
After weeks of hurricanes and controversies over swift boats in Vietnam and Texas and Alabama National Guard records, Iraq is beginning to creep back onto the front pages, and the news is uniformly bad. Consider some of the headlines in major newspapers that appeared...
Spanish Tank Sale Called Off, but Colombia-Venezuela Tension Remains
CARACAS - Spain took a step aimed at smoothing relations between Bogota and Caracas by canceling the sale of 40 French-made AMX-30 tanks to the Colombian government. If the sale had gone through, the tanks' guns would likely have pointed toward the Venezuelan border....


