Western governments are bracing for more attacks on their citizens here, possibly in the next few weeks, with the potential targets ranging from commercial ships to almost any place where Westerners gather, diplomats and Indonesian officials said in interviews over the last several days.
MUMBAI, India — As Prasan Dhanur prepared his 13-foot boat on Wednesday evening for a hard night of fishing, he saw something strange.
A black inflatable lifeboat equipped with a brand new Yamaha outboard motor threaded its way among the small, wooden fishing boats at anchor and pulled up to the slum’s concrete pier. Read more »
“Muslims have occasionally been subject to hideous communal slaughter. More than 2,000 died in a pogrom in the state of Gujarat in 2002, for which the perpetrators have never been brought to justice.“
The Economist
Nov 27th 2008
From The Economist print edition
TERROR has stalked Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, all too many times before. In 1993 more than 250 people died in a series of bomb attacks, seen as reprisals for the demolition by Hindu fanatics of the mosque at Ayodhya. In 2003, more than 50 people were killed by two car bombs, including one just outside the Taj Mahal hotel, next to the monumental tourist attraction, the “Gateway of India”. And in 2006 over 180 people were killed in seven separate explosions at railway stations and on commuter trains. But the latest atrocity—or rather co-ordinated series of atrocities (see article)—is something new to the city. It has alarming implications not just for India, but for the entire international fight against terrorism. Read more »
It now is highly likely that the United States will face several quarters of negative growth to be followed by several years of low growth. Less and less are we hearing of V- or U-shaped economic recoveries. The immediate future looks like an L: sharp contraction followed by not much in the way of a quick rebound.
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By Michel Chossudovsky |
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Global Research, November 13, 2008 |
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Three Islamic militants were executed on November 9th for their alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings that resulted in the death of 202 people.
The official version of events was that the bombings were sponsored by Al Qaeda and carried out by members of an affiliate Islamic organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). |
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By Yousuf Nazar
THE election of Barack Obama is a historic turning point for the US. The son of a black Muslim immigrant from Kenya, an underprivileged child born of a mixed marriage, raised in a broken home and a Washington outsider Obama represents an emerging post-race, post-gender, younger and more diverse America.
But that is so far as the optimism can go. Forty seven per cent of the voters still went with John McCain. That is, despite George Bush’s catastrophic presidency and the economic meltdown, a large number of Americans supported a 72-year-old white male Republican who strongly supported the invasion of Iraq and did not offer any plan for economic recovery.
By Yousuf Nazar
Given that the current account deficit is now likely to continue to shrink for the next several months, the month-on-month core inflation rate has fallen every month since May 2008, the fuel subsidies (the principal cause of deterioration in the fiscal position) have been withdrawn, and the manufacturing production is falling, the balance of risk in Pakistan’s economic outlook has shifted from inflation to growth. Do the IMF and Pakistani officials, who are negotiating the package, understand this? Have they taken into account these recent developments and trends, and their policy implications? Read more »
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PolicyWatch #1421: Special Forum Report
Building the Global Counterterrorism Network
On October 24, 2008, Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Vickers addressed a Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute as part of the Institute’s 2007-2008 counterterrorism lecture series. The U.S. Senate confirmed Mr. Vickers as assistant secretary of defense (special operations/low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities) on July 23, 2007. The following is a rapporteur’s summary of his remarks. Although much work still remains on the counterterrorism front, the past seven years have seen notable achievements. The Philippines and the area of Southeast Asia referred to as the “terrorist transit triangle” have seen considerable success against Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah. In the Middle East, the tide turned against al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula in 2003, and al-Qaeda in Iraq is now only “a whisper of what it used to be.” Moreover, although there have been many plots, no attacks have occurred on the U.S. homeland since September 11, 2001. |
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