- Making News: Turkey Stalls on Decision to Let US Troops Land
With troop transports and cargo ships waiting off shore, the US has been pressing Turkey to agree to become a staging area for possible war on Iraq. Yesterday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the agreement should happen today, but today is over in Turkey, and there-s still no deal. Semih Idiz, columnist for Turkey-s leading liberal daily, Aksam, explains the delay as Turkey being -once bitten, twice shy.- - Reporter's Notebook: Powell Attends Inauguration, Sends Message to Both Koreas
As North Korea-s Kim Jong Il gears up his nuclear program and threatens a -pre-emptive strike,- South Korea has chosen a new leader with little experience in international affairs. Roh Moo Hyun will succeed Kim Dae Jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his -sunshine policy- of trying to open relations with the North. Don Oberdorfer, journalist-in-residence at Johns Hopkins- School of Advanced International Studies, last visited North Korea in November.
The Ashcroft Justice Department and Patriot Act II
In the aftermath of September 11, Congress passed the Patriot Act, which gave Attorney General John Ashcroft sweeping new powers to investigate and prosecute suspected terrorists. Now, a proposed expansion of the act has been leaked. Ashcroft, who favors states- rights and limited government, is a fundamentalist Christian conservative for whom the law is a tool of good versus evil. His Justice Department has intervened against state legalization of marijuana and assisted suicide, and claimed such broad powers in the war on terror that critics claim the Bill of Rights is in real danger. Is Ashcroft safeguarding liberty or shackling it with a social agenda? We look at the implications for civil liberties and homeland security with a national pollster, legal experts, and former officials and a historian of the Justice Department.