Joseph Stalin

Article — From the January 2009 issue

Georgian roulette

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Mikheil Saakashvili beckons from the brink

By Peter Savodnik

Readings — From the December 2007 issue

A tsar is born

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New books — From the May 2004 issue

New books

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By John Leonard

Weekly Review — April 27, 2004, 12:00 am

Weekly Review

By Roger D. Hodge

Caricature of Louis IV, by Thackeray. 1875. China announced that Hong Kong will not be allowed to elect its next leader in 2007, contrary to the city’s Basic Law, which was enacted when Britain turned over the territory in 1997; China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress said that an election would create social and economic instability. Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s current chief executive, called on the people to remain “calm and rational.”BBCThe Bush Administration continued to insist that sovereignty will be turned over to an Iraqi government on June 30 but revealed for the first time that the …

Weekly Review — April 6, 2004, 12:00 am

Weekly Review

By Roger D. Hodge

A Small Family. Killing Ground. Four American mercenaries employed by Blackwater Security Consulting were pulled from their vehicles in Fallujah, Iraq, hacked to death, burned, and dragged through the streets; the remains of two were then hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River along with a sign that said “Fallujah is the cemetery for Americans.”BBC“Despite an uptick in local engagements,” said General Mark Kimmit at a press briefing a few hours later, “the overall area of operations remains relatively stable with negligible impact on the coalition’s ability to continue progress in governance, economic development, and restoration of essential services.”New …

Weekly Review — August 5, 2003, 12:00 am

Weekly Review

By Bill Wasik

President George W. Bush refused to declassify the twenty-eight pages of Congress’s September 11 report that pertained to Saudi Arabia, despite calls to do so by members of Congress and by the Saudi government itself, which said it intended to rebut the contents.New York TimesAccording to those who have read it, the redacted section lays out far more financial connections between the September 11 hijackers, fifteen of whom were Saudi, and the Saudi government than had been previously revealed.The most specific allegations concerned Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi man who had provided funds and assistance to two of the hijackers in …

Weekly Review — November 7, 2000, 12:00 am

Weekly Review

By Roger D. Hodge

The Mexican government was upset about a Mexican citizen on death row whom Texas failed to notify of his right under the Vienna Convention to contact his government’s embassy; the Mexican government did not find out about his arrest until a year after he was condemned.Germany has sued the United States in the World Court over a similar case involving two brothers executed last year in Arizona.A fifteen-year-old boy with a loaded 9mm pistol took a pregnant teacher and eighteen other children hostage in a Dallas school; police saved the day.Governor George W. Bush admitted that he was convicted in …

illustration — From the January 1993 issue