Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Sachin is one of 50 college seniors selected nationally to pursue an
independent research project while traveling outside the United States
for one year after graduation. Sachin’s project is entitled “Power of
Hope: Exploring the Socio-Religious Influences in Hospice Care,” for
which he will travel to South Africa, India, and Thailand.

*****

The Dean’s office recently announced the resident assistant
assignments for the 2004-2005 academic year, as well as the alternate
appointments. The list is reproduced below.

Dana
LL Anand Vaidya ’05
1st Natalie Dunphy ’05
2nd Alexander Fishman ’05
3rd Win Ling Chia ’06

Hallowell
LL Tanya Aydelott ’05
1st Katherine Athanasiades ’05
2nd Zachariah Michielli ’06
3rd Brian Nolan ’05

Mary Lyons
LL M. Jawaad Hussain ’05
1st Wee Jhong Chua ’06
2nd Rhiannon Graybill ’06
3rd Olivia Toro ’05

Mertz
1N Emily Allen ’05
1S David Gentry ’05
2N Tim Chryssikos ’05
2S Sarah Goldberg ’05
3N Stephen Holt ’05
3S Jeremy Cristol ’05

Palmer
Jared Leiderman ’05

Parrish West
3rd Jesse Young ’05
4th Paul Maurizio ’05

Parrish East
3rd Jyoti Gupta ’05
4th Omolola (Lola) Irele ’05

Pittenger
1st Valerie Maulbeck ’06
2nd Andrew Gisselquist ’05
3rd Tanya Hahnel ’05

Roberts
Heidi Fieselmann ’06

Strath Haven
Bryan Lantz ’06

Wharton West
1st Marie Mark ’05
2nd Gabriel Rogers ’05
3rd Justin Durand ’05

Wharton Central
1st Emiliano Rodriguez
2nd Valerie Marone ’05
3rd Katharine Schlesinger ’05

Wharton East
1st Jacob Wallace ’05
2nd Megan Bartges ’05
3rd Jiaxun (Josh) Zhou ’05

Willets
LL John Egan ’06
1N Myra Vallianos ’05
1S George Petel ’05
2N Emily Conlon ’06
2S Paul Thibodeau ’06
3N Jason Lee ’06
3S Debra Farrelly ’06

Woolman/Whittier
Meika Hashimoto ’05

Worth/Lodges
K Sookyoung Lee ’05
L Adam Gerber ’05

New Dorm
1st Stephanie Losq ’05
2nd Josepth Raciti ’05
3rd J. Martin Griffith ’05

Alternates
Benjamin Camp ’05
Kristin Davis ’06
Randy Goldstein ’05
Jonathan Greenberg ’06
David Luong ’06
Emily Remus ’06
Jennifer Stevenson ’06

*****

*Spanish police investigating last week’s Madrid bombings have found
a link between suspected attackers and the founder of the radical
Kurdish Islamist terrorist group Ansar al-Islam. They believe that six
Moroccans are behind the Madrid railway bombings, and have found
evidence linking one of the suspects to Ansar al-Islam founder Mullah
Krekar and his brother Khalid Ahmed, both of whom live in Norway. A
second likely connection between the Madrid bombing suspect and Ansar
is through a Moroccan man already in custody in Spain over the Sept 11
attacks in the United States. The man in custody, Imad Barakat Yarkas,
the presumed head of the so-called ‘Spanish cell’ of Al-Qaeda,
allegedly asked Ahmed to help an unknown Islamic sympathizer procure a
visa to Norway. This is not the first time Krekar, who has lived in
Norway since 1991, has been accused of having links to ‘terrorists’.
Krekar has claimed that he has not led Ansar al-Islam since May 2002,
but the authorities in Norway allege that he has continued to be
active, both as the spiritual and actual leader of the group, and that
he has been involved in organizing suicide attacks in northern Iraq.

*The US military says it has released 23 Afghans and three
Pakistanis from its prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay in
Cuba. The men had been flown back to their homelands aboard US
aircraft. The Pentagon did not explain why the 26 had been freed but
said each case had been reviewed separately to determine whether a
prisoner was of further intelligence value or posed a threat to the
United States. ‘The circumstances in which detainees are apprehended
can be ambiguous, and many of them are highly skilled in concealing the
truth,’ a Pentagon statement said. ‘The process of evaluation and
detention is not free of risk – at least one detainee has gone back to
the fight after being released.’ More than 600 are still in detention
in Cuba.

*The Thai Cabinet, meeting under heavy security in the
violence-plagued south yesterday, announced projects worth 12 billion
baht (US$500 million) to boost the economy and address security
problems in the region. Locals were cautiously optimistic about the
package of security, education, industry and infrastructure projects,
as well as tax holidays and soft loans to develop the mostly Muslim
provinces of Satun, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. The Cabinet decided
that martial law would continue. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said
the violence stemmed from separatists linked to a ‘network of
international terrorists’, discrimination against locals by the state
authorities and conflict among local politicians and added that he
might consider shutting down bars and nightclubs in the region as they
violated Islamic principles. Analysts have been skeptical of the
development plan, saying while the rate of poverty is high, violence
has more to do with cultural issues. Cooperation between government
agencies has also been patchy. Local leaders have been calling for a
softer government approach, as increasing enforcement has alienated
local people further.

*Israeli forces have launched a fresh air attack on the Gaza Strip,
killing two Palestinians and wounding 12. Israeli officials said
missiles hit targets from the Palestinian militant group, Islamic
Jihad. It was the latest assault following a double suicide bombing in
the Israeli port city of Ashdod on Sunday that killed 10 Israelis.
Israel’s security cabinet has approved an army plan to step up action
against Palestinian militants. Sunday’s attack was carried out by two
teenagers from Gaza. They were the first suicide bombers to come out of
the fenced-in Gaza Strip and strike targets within Israel since the
start of the current Palestinian uprising more than three years ago. In
the latest operation on Tuesday, witnesses reported that the Israeli
military helicopter fired three missiles into a building in the
north-west of Gaza City. Islamic Jihad said one of the dead belonged to
its military wing, but that another militant had survived the attack.
About a dozen people were also injured in the strike. Islamic Jihad
vowed revenge for the attacks. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat
denounced the air strike. After the bombing, the Israeli Prime
Minister, Ariel Sharon, cancelled a meeting with Palestinian Prime
Minister Ahmed Qurei, which had been tentatively set for this week.

*****

Blood Drive
Upper Tarble, throughout the day

Education Department Lecture: Looking Beyond Brown
Science Center 101, 4:00 p.m.

Lecture by Amina Wadud: “Inside the Gender Jihad”
Scheuer Room, 4:30 p.m.

Movie Screening: 2300 quai de commerce, 1080 bruxelles
LPAC Cinema, 7:00 p.m.

French Film Festival: Peut-etre
Kohlberg 115, 7:30 p.m.

SWIL Star Trek Episodes
Hicks 312, 9:00 p.m.

Feminist Majority Meeting
Parrish Parlours East, 9:00 p.m.

Film Society Presents: Ordet
Science Center 101, 10:00 p.m.
———-
Swarthmore Progressive Action Commitee (SPAC)’s Fair trade group is
sponsoring a letter-writing study break on Wednesday, March 17th from
8-10
pm in Parrish Parlours to lobby local senators about upcoming
legislation
concerning the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The
entire
campus is invited to learn more about CAFTA, about why SPAC opposes it,
and also to take
action against it in favor of fair trade alternatives.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

The men’s tennis team won two of their four matches last week in
their trip
to California. The trip was highlighted by Ben Rae ’04 and Jonathan
Reiss
’07, who went undefeated against all four of the pairs they faced in
3rd
doubles. Many others, including Brian Park ’06, Zac Rodd ’06, and
Justin
Durand ’05 came up with key victories and strong performances to
support the
#19-ranked Garnet against these other nationally ranked teams.

Match Results:

Swarthmore 10, UC Berkeley B 2
UC Santa Cruz (ranked 5th in Div. III) 7, Swarthmore 0
UC Davis 8, Swarthmore 1
Swarthmore 5, Sonoma State University 4

The Garnet return to action on March 27 when they host Washington
& Lee at
11:00 a.m.

*****

Yesterday’s softball doubleheader with Wilmington was rescheduled
due to the
snow. The two teams will square off at home on April 1 at 3:30 p.m. The
baseball team’s game at Neumann was also postponed, but no make-up date
has
been set as of yet.

*****

Today:
Baseball hosts Lincoln, 3:15 p.m.
Women’s tennis at Muhlenberg, 3:30 p.m.

Tomorrow:
Golf at University of the Sciences, 1:00 p.m.
Softball hosts Widener, 4:00 p.m.
Women’s lacrosse hosts Neumann, 5:00 pm.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists
somewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”
–Bill Watterson

*****

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