THE GLOBAL BEAT-RESOURCES FOR THE GLOBAL JOURNALIST

SAUDI ARABIA PULLS MONEY FROM U.S. ACCOUNTS
Analysts estimate that Saudis have withdrawn anywhere from $1`00 billion to $200 billion in investments from the U.S. as a reaction to anti-Saudi sentiments in Wshington. The exodus of Saudi funds is likely to pick up pace after the suit filed by 9/11 survivors. By The Financial Times, August 20, 2002

THE ARAB VIEW: BASHING SAUDI ARABIA
The suit being brought by 9/11 families and survivors against Riyadh may be well intentioned, but the long term impact will be to add a veneer of legitimacy to the ranting of Muslim extremists in Saudi Arabia. That is exactly the outcome that Osama Bin Laden hoped for.
By Abdul Qader Tash, Senior columnist, Arab News, Al Madina newspapers, in the Arab View, August 2002.

CNN SHOWS PROOF OF AL QAEDA CHEMICAL WEAPONS TESTS
The victim is a captive canine who stares trustingly at his executioners before succumbing to an excruciating death on camera. Videos of Al Qaeda's ventures into chemical weapons research are now viewable over the internet thanks to CNN, who managed a scoop that had apparently eluded the CIA. Jonathan Tucker, an expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, suggests that the gas shown on the tapes may actually have been a crude binary concoction involving cyanide gas--its main attraction: it can be used by almost anyone. By Nick Robertson, CNN.com, August 19, 2002

CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGED AFGHAN MURDERS OF CAPTURED PRISONERS
Newsweek's report that Afghanisdtan's Northern Alliance sealed captured Afghan prisoners into container trucks and then let them die of asphyxiation has created a firestorm in international news reports. The BBC pulls together a series of corroborating reports and British film director Jamie Doran, who also covered the story, cites one witness as reporting that an American officer told the Afghans to get the containers out of site before a satellite photographed them. The BBC, August 19, 2002.

RUNNING OUT OF WATER
More than half the world's population will suffer water shortages in the next 25 years, according to the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. Greenhouse gas emissions and another 2 billion people will make life even more risky. UN Summit Website, August 16-September 4, 2002.

COPING WITH THE ECO DISASTER THAT IS ALREADY THERE
Just about everyone knows the story of the Aral Sea, formerly the world's fourth largest inland body of water which shrank to a third of its size thanks to aggressive irrigation projects concocted by the former Soviet Union. The Russians wanted to grow more cotton, and they succeeded briefly, but at a gruesome price. Roughly 80% of the two million inhabitants of Uzbekistan's dessicated province of Karakalpakstan now suffer from diseases ranging from kidney failure to mysterious neurological breakdowns. A handful of American scientists using advanced computer software for river management are now providing Central Asia tools necessary to contain the damage. The $24 million financing is at least partly due to increased U.S. interest in Central Asia following 9/11. By Jeff Howe in Wired Magazine, September 10, 2002

COMMERCIALIZING H2O IS NOT A GOOD IDEA
Privatization works in other sectors, so why not privatize the distribution of water? The Nation argues in a cover story that applying market forces to something so essential to life itself is likely to have unforeseen and not very pleasant consequences. By Maude Barlowe and Tony Clarke in The Nation, September 2, 2002

RUSSIA SHOWS ITS FLAG IN THE CASPIAN
The 75 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in the Caspian Sea promise to be even greater than the North Sea oil finds. Russian naval maneuvers in the Caspian last week involved 60 ships, 30 aircraft, some 10,000 sailors, and they left little doubt about who has the biggest force in the region. Iran, which has been forbidden from keeping naval forces in the area since Tsarist times, is now considering turning its ports into naval bases. By Sergei Blagov, Asia Times, August 15, 2002

A TRIAL MADE FOR SHOWCASING CONFLICTING POLITICAL AGENDAS
Former Palestinian militia leader Marwan Barghouti's trial in Israel provides an opportunity for grandstanding on both sides. Israel wants to show that the Palestinian Authority has done little to stop terrorism. Barghouti wants to cement his status as an outspoken leader who may one day replace Arafat. Even Barghouti, however, is starting to see that Palestinian violence has only managed to open the door to equal violence from Ariel Sharon. By Graham Usher in Al-Ahram, August 19, 2002

BACK WHEN SADDAM WAS STILL AN ALLY
It may have slipped the memory lately, but during the Iran-Iraq War, some 60 U.S. Army intelligence officers helped Iraq plan its offensives against Iranian forces on the embattled Fao Peninsula. Recently uncovered documents make it clear that the U.S. knew that Iraqis were using poison gas in combat. Despite abundant indications of Iraqi chemical warfare violations, the Pentagon saw no insurmountable reason not to help Saddam. By Patrick Tyler in The New York Times, August 18, 2002

A BIG 'THANK YOU' TO BUSH FROM BIN LADEN
Abdeljabbar Adwan, a Palestinian analyst writing in Beirut's Daily Star, points out that Osama Bin Laden's fate has been entangled with that of the Bush family for several decades--almost always to Bin Laden's profit. When George Bush Sr. headed the CIA under Reagan, the agency trusted Osama among others to distribute funds to anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan, including those who would eventually become the Taleban. These days, Abdeljabbar argues, Bin laden has other reasons for feeling gratitude. Washington's careless bashing of those Arab countries who previously took enormous domestic political risks to support the U.S. has done more to achieve Osama's ultimate objective of destroying U.S. power in the Middle East than anything Al Qaeda could have hoped for. By Abdeljabbar Adwan in The Daily Star, Beirut.

NOW IT'S CRUISE MISSILES
The latest menace to draw the attention of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is missiles. Some 81 countries now have roughly 70,000 cruise missiles in their arsenals. Most are ship-based. The Pentagon is most concerned about missiles that can hit targets on land, and these are produced by only a few industrialized countries. Still, it's reasonable to expect that Rumsfeld will want more funding to counter the threat. By Bradley Graham in the Washington Post, August 18, 2002

THE BOMB WASHINGTON DECIDED TO IGNORE
The population explosion may ultimately cause more damage through famine, territorial wars, disease and abandoned children than any threat from Iraq or al-Qaeda, yet President Bush cut off funding to the UN Population fund in July. Bush's reason was alleged abuses in China's program to control its own population despite the fact that the administration's own investigation concluded that no link exists. Ironically, Washington's policies may be accelerating coercion in birth control programs in other countries. By Jodi L. Jacobson and Rupsa Mallik, Center for Health and Gender Equity August 14, 2002

REJECTED BY WASHINGTON, IRAN SEARCHES ALLIES IN ITS OWN NEIGHBORHOOD
In the last few weeks, Iran has sent delegations to Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Bahrain. The objective: make new friends and protect itself against encirclement by the Bush administration. By Ardeshir Moaveni in Eurasianet.org, August 19, 2002.