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March 4:
Although itself a secular separatist group, Sri Lanka's notorious
Tamil Tigers have developed both financial and operational links to
an array of Islamist radicals in recent years, according to a new
research paper published by the Israel's International Policy
Institute for Counterterrorism. The study,
reprinted in the
Asian Tribune, cites connections between the Tamil Tigers
and al-Qaeda, as well as a number of Asian terror groups such as the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf. The reasons for these
synergies, according to the report, is less about ideology than it
is about arms and money: "The links between the Islamist terrorist
groups and the LTTE are not driven by ideological compatibility, but
by the need to influence factors of pricing and convenience in the
informal arms market. In most cases the LTTE has developed links
with Islamist groups to organize consolidated purchasing
opportunities."
The New York Philharmonic's recent "peace mission" to Pyongyang has
restarted international speculation about the prospects for a
normalization of relations between the U.S. and North Korea. "The
success of last week's concert in Pyongyang by the New York
Philharmonic raises the prospect that the United States might start
normalizing relations with North Korea, possibly taking the first
formal steps before the end of the Bush presidency,"
writes the Los Angeles Times. And such a normalization is
indeed possible, says Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill.
But America's top Asian negotiator warns that it must be preceded by
the DPRK's disarmament: "We've told them we are not prepared to do
that until they give up their nuclear materials... We can begin the
process of discussing what we are going to do, whether we are going
to open embassies, that sort of thing... But we will not have
diplomatic relations with a nuclear North Korea."
March 7:
A daring raid by U.S. and Thai officials in Bangkok has apprehended
Viktor Bout, by some estimates the world’s most infamous
international arms dealer.
Defense News reports that Bout - who is accused of
helping to arm Liberia's Charles Taylor and transporting weaponry to
numerous conflict zones in the Middle East and Asia - was nabbed on
March 6th as part of an elaborate sting operation. He is charged
with conspiring to sell advanced weaponry, including surface-to-air
missiles and rocket launchers, to Columbia's FARC terrorist group.
The Bush administration has designated a prominent Bangladeshi
Islamist group as a foreign terrorist organization under U.S. law,
Reuters reports. Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami, whose leader signed
Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa, has been accused by the Bangladeshi
government of involvement in a 2004 attack that killed 23 people.
"Since then, HUJI-B has been implicated in a number of terrorist
attacks in Bangladesh and abroad," the State Department has
confirmed in an official statement posted on its website.
March 12:
As part of its efforts to expand domestic energy production, the
government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta has
launched an ambitious new nuclear initiative.
The Jakarta Post reports that the new plan entails
construction of four nuclear power plants over the seventeen years
in an effort to generate additional electricity. "If one nuclear
power plant can produce 1,200 megawatts of electricity, we need four
plants by 2025 to meet our demand," Kusmayanto Kadiman, Indonesia's
State Minister for Research and Technology, has confirmed to
reporters. The first such plant, to be located in Jepara, Central
Java, is currently projected to come online in the year 2016. |
