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