Identifying last Saturday's suicide bombers in Bali is

Identifying last Saturday's suicide bombers in Bali is obviously essential. The more detail we have on them as individuals the better the composite portrait of potential terrorists. But intelligence cannot always save us from anonymous attackers whose names have never appeared on any intelligence agency's watch list.

While the Indonesian government is not keen on closing JI down, lest this somehow offend ordinary Muslims, the nation's elite police and military are obviously committed to catching terrorists. But the situation in The Philippines is not so certain.

Manila's military seems unable, or unwilling, to break up these long-established insurgency and terror training networks. The attitude of The Philippines government, cursed with a corrupt civil service and faltering economy, towards terror is also relaxed.

It is hard to argue with the assessment in a recent International Crisis Group report that the Philippines is the weak link in Southeast Asia's struggle to trammel terror. For as long as JI, its allies and offshoots train troops in The Philippines, the region is at risk from suicide bombers, sent to their death from safe havens there. This is a war Canberra and Jakarta need help to fight. While the terror track from The Philippines is clear, the bombings will continue. -- The Australian, Canberra

Terrorist warnings

All too predictably, following the suicide bombings that killed 22 people in the Indonesian tourist resort island of Bali Saturday, warnings are now being raised about terrorist attacks in the Philippines.

A recent police intelligence report is even more specific about the threats. It says that the Abu Sayyaf is sending women on bombing missions to Metro Manila and four cities in Mindanao.

Instead of merely issuing warnings, our security officials ought to focus on doing the many things that would attack the problem of terrorism at its roots.

For instance, they should sit down with their counterparts from Indonesia and Malaysia to find out how they can stop the exchange of terrorism know-how, resources and personnel.

Congress should also pass an anti-terrorism law, minus those highly repressive and ambiguous provisions that could be invoked to persecute the political adversaries of the administration.

But first, they should learn to use intelligence information intelligently and not to mistake talk for action. -- Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila

Iraq Slips Away

Iraq stands less than 10 days away from a momentous vote on a new constitution, the first of a series of events that in the next several months will make or break the U.S.-backed attempt to unite the country under a new political system. A successful exit for U.S. troops, or a deepening military quagmire, hangs in the balance. Yet serious discussion of the Iraqi political process in Washington seems to have faded to a whisper.

There are many flaws in the proposed constitution, but the most serious is its facilitation of a de facto partition of Iraq into several mini-states.

Iraq is risking a civil war, and Americans are not likely to support the further sacrifice of lives in defense of a Shiite Islamic republic, or a rump state of Kurdistan. -- The Washington Post, Washington DC