IBRA delays proving too costly

IBRA delays proving too costly

James Castle xxx Jakarta

One of the most frequently heard excuses for not selling IBRA assets or privatizing Indonesia's state-owned enterprises is that weak economic conditions for the offering prices will be "too low".

2. Azzam -- What is terrorism and what is not?

2 X 28 36pt Bodoni

Freedom fighters, terrorists: What's the difference?

Dr. Azzam Tamimi Director, Institute of Islamic Political Thought, London

Those who claim to be experts on terrorism are simply liars and/or fortune hunters.

It is not true that you can study terrorism or observe it. You simply cannot talk academically about a rather subjective concept that is usually employed to camouflage complex phenomena the study of which does not, at the given time and location, seem to interest the users of the term "terrorism".

3. War -- Truth as the first casualty of war 2 X 28 36pt Bodoni

When war changes the rules, the first casualty is truth

Peter Preston Guardian News Service London

So it begins. The flashes of light in the night sky, the distant explosions, the appearance of a "relentless" George Bush talking command and control. We slowly remember what war is like; but we need to remember, too, that truth is the first casualty of conflict, that the briefers, bureaucrats and politicians who act as reasonably "reliable sources" in peace are operating now under different house rules. That they have become wholly unreliable by design.