Kenneth N. Luongo: on the need to control the world's increasing supply of loose nuclear material Nigel Chamberlain: on nuclear weapons discussions in Geneva Ian Urbina: on NYU professor Noah Feldman's struggle to promote Islamic democracy in Baghdad Ralph A. Cossa: on closing the gap with South Korea over the Pyongyang crisis Sean Howard: on giving the Pentagon a holiday so we can solve the world's real problems Jing-dong Yuan: on SARS as a politcal catalyst in China Anouar Boukhars: on the terrorist threat to democracy in Morocco

New York University

U.S. State Department's
Report on Patterns of Global Terrorism for 2002

The US State Department's Report on Patterns of Global Terrorism for 2001

Making the best of a troubled relationship

THE END OF THE ATLANTIC ALLIANCE?
President Bush tried to put on a cheery face at the G-8 summit, but relations between the U.S. and its most important European allies are in serious trouble, and they are not likely to improve soon. The Brookings Institution's Ivo Dalder argues that the root cause of the split comes from increasingly divergent world views. (Ivo Dalder, Brookings, Summer 2003)

UPROAR OVER THE "WALDORF TRANSCRIPTS"
Britain's Guardian newspaper reports that Colin Powell and British Foreign Minister Jack Straw expressed doubts about the validity of the intelligence they were being asked to disseminate during the last debates at the U.N. Security Council. The Guardian says it has a copy of the transcript of the conversation which allegedly took place in New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Copies have been circulating through Western European capitals. At stake is Washington's credibility. (Guardian, June 2, 2003)

DOUBTS ABOUT ALLEGED IRAQI MOBILE BIOLOGICAL WARFARE LABS
The Institute for Science and International Security has challenged CIA and DIA reports that three trucks discovered in Iraq were definitely being used to manufacture biological weapons. ISIS' point is that the CIA finding is largely based on negative logic, i.e. that the trucks were mobile labs because there is nothing else that they were likely to have been used for. ISIS recommends dispatching a team of international experts including some members of UNMOVIC to independently verify the evidence. (ISIS, June 2, 2003)
Also, read the full CIA-DIA Report on suspected Iraqi mobile biological weapons labs(May 28, 2003)

The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity memo to President Bush
A group of former CIA analysts and agents are concerned that intelligence estimates may have been "cooked" in order to promote policy agendas. (Dissident Voice, May 2, 2003)

IRAQ SURVEY GROUP MOVES FROM WMD TO WAR CRIMES
The Iraq Survey Group, which was originally formed to find Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction has now expanded its mission to look for evidence of Saddam's crimes against humanity. Stephen A. Cambone, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and Army Maj. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, Director for Operations, Defense Intelligence Agency, briefed reporters on the group's shifting mission.
(Dept. of Defense, May 31, 2003)

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists offers a timeline on the administration's troubled search for Sadam's elusive smoking gun.

HOW THE WAR AGAINST TERROR TURNED INTO THE WAR AGAINST IMMIGRANTS
While not admitting to having violated the law, the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General is refreshingly frank in a 239-page report analyzing the conduct of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the massive hunt for alleged terrorists after 9/11. The report's conclusion: bureaucratic inertia left a number of innocent people languishing in jails for months while systematic understaffing left them with little chance to prove their innocence. Often no distinction was made between serious suspects and immigrants who had no connection to suspect groups. The underlying theme seems to be that the perception of an external terrorist threat led a number of law enforcement officials to believe that it was alright to bend the law. As a result, innocent people were shackled, held in solitary confinement and physically and verbally abused. Report via the DOJ's website
(DOJ, June 2, 2003)
The report is also available through the ACLU's website

THE ORIGINAL, UNEDITED, PAUL WOLFOWITZ INTERVIEW IN VANITY FAIR
After Paul Wolfowitz' interview in Vanity Fair stirred considerable controversy the Pentagon decided to release an unedited text..."The truth is," Wolfowitz says,"that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction, as the core reason, but -- hold on one second..." This quote comes at the end of the long two-part phone session in which Wolfowitz also explains his 1992 defense policy document and his relationship to Alan Bloom and Albert Wohlstetter. (U.S. Defense Department, Released by Pentagon May 29, 2003).

DOES THE U.S. REALLY NEED A NEW GENERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
The Center for Defense Information's Bruce Blair points out that atomic "bunker buster" bombs might sound intriguing, but they are superfluous when conventional weapons can do the job. The issue is relevant when the U.S. is trying to convince emerging third world nuclear powers to hold off on their own nuclear development. The main winners in the new Pentagon approach are the National atomic labs who face a brain drain as further nuclear research becomes increasingly irrelevant.
(Bruce Blair, CDI in the Washington Post, May 25, 2003)

AND WHAT ABOUT THE RUSSIANS?
Washington has become so absorbed by the War on Terror that it tends to overlook the fact that the only political power that still has the means to annihilate the U.S. is Russia. No one thinks that Vladimir Putin wants to launch a war, but neglecting relations with Moscow dangerously increases the risk of an atomic accident or the black market sale of a nuclear warhead to terrorists, especially in light of Russia's economic woes. The RAND Corporation provides a full length report online detailing the increasing risks, and possible remedies.
(David E. Mosher, Lowell H. Schwartz, David R. Howell, Lynn E. Davis, RAND, June 2003)

THE FCC AND THE OLIGARCHS
The tsunami of email traffic condemning the relaxing of FCC rules over media ownership was so heavy that it shut down the FCC's telephone lines and email servers last Friday. Opponents to the changes included Ted Turner, John Malone and Barry Diller. FCC chairman Michael Powell acknowledged that he was aware that just about everyone is against allowing a handful of media conglomerates control both TV stations and newspapers across the United States, but he felt he had to move before the courts tossed out the entire system and left the U.S. media industry in a state of free fall anarchy. Why should anyone care? Conspiracy fear the concentration of so much media in a few hands will render the public dialogue vulnerable to control by a single political party or ideology, but the real threat may be more mundane. In the current climate of laissez-faire Reaganomics, the profit-line often counts more than political ideology. By opening media ownership to control by a few profit-hungry conglomerates, we're likely to see draconian cost-cutting and an increasingly banal cultural mix. The 1996 Telecommunications Act allowed one company, Clear Channel Communications, to swell to 1,200 radio stations--most of them broadcasting large chunks of identical programming. The Center for Public Integrity reports on Media lobbying with the FCC who held more than 70 closed-door meeting with media executives, while agreeing to meet only 5 times with consumer groups, and holding only one public hearing. (CPI, May 30, 2003)
Center for Public Integrity's Report on Media lobbying
FCC Chairman Michael Powell explains on the Lehrer Newshour
Senator Byron Dorgan (Dem-S.Dakota) does not agree

Senator Fritz Hollings denounces the change
Senator Fritz Hollings reacts to Monday's vote

Salon's Eric Boehler interviews former Clinton-era FCC Chairman Reed Hundt who sees the move as a rightwing GOP media powergrab

BURMA'S MILITARY JUNTA CRACKS DOWN ON DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI

After a clash between a pro-government group and National Democratic League supporters, shots were reportedly fired at Aung San Suu Kyi's car. Burma's ruling military junta is now holding Aung San Suu Kyi incommunicado in"protective custody." The burst of popular adoration which followed her release from years of captivity had apparently caught the military dictatorship off guard. (The BBC, June 3, 2003)

Free Burma Coalition offers an update and index of relevant links.

The Soros Open Society Foundation's Burma Project

Burma Daily (National League for Democracy)

Greg Hiller offers some stunning photographs of everyday life in Burma today (needs free Flash 6 viewer available from website)

and looking for new friends

SHARON PROMISES TO DISBAND ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS, ACKNOWLEDGES PALESTINIAN NEED FOR CONTIGUITY
After meeting with President Bush, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that Israel would abide by the law and disband illegal settlements. He added that Israel understood the palestinian concerns over having population areas contiguous, Rather than divided into disconnected cantons. The P.A.'s Abu Mazen promised to crackdown on Palestinian violence. (Ha'aretz, June 4, 2003)

THE DISMEMBERMENT OF PALESTINE?
Graham Usher, writing in Cairo's Al Ahram Weekly, argues that Sharon's new openness to the Bush peace roadmap is largely strategic. Sharon may indeed visualize a Palestinian state, but that entity is likely to consist of three separate cantons sealed off by high concrete security barriers that look a lot like a desert version of the Berlin Wall. As Usher sees it, Sharon plans to keep the land, while getting rid of the people. The effect will be the illusion of autonomy, but in fact a continued occupation. As Palestinian Authority Labor Minister, Ghassan Khatib puts it: "...the provisional state will be autonomy in effect but occupation in practice. Only it won't be called autonomy -- it will be called statehood and Israel would be let off the hook." (Graham Usher, Al Ahram Weekly, 29 May-June 4, 2003)

ARAFAT ABSENT, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
While he was not invited to the summit and Washington has consistently tried to sideline him, Yassir Arafat is still considered by many Arabs to be a crucial element in any successful peace solution.
(Arab News, June 3, 2003)

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