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Archive: Jun 2007

Setting the Stage for the Next War

If you’re not concerned about the prospects for another war in the Middle East in the near future, consider that you may be a sleepwalker. There is every reason to…

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Their Men in Washington

The July issue of Harper’s features a brilliant exposé piece by DC Editor Ken Silverstein (the author of the Washington Babylon blog at this site) entitled “Their Men in Washington.”…

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Media Alert: NPR’s All Things Considered

I’ll be discussing my article from the July issue of Harper’s, “State of Exception: Bush’s War on the Rule of Law” on the weekend edition of NPR’s All Things Considered.…

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Mercer Evades Testimony in Justice Probe

Let’s see. It’s Friday afternoon, after the close for the evening news feed. Time for the latest bad-news-please-bury from the Department of Justice. Today’s headline: Acting Associate Attorney General William…

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The “Enemy Combatant” Fraud

A key aspect of the legal architecture of the “war on terror” crafted by the Bush Administration involves labeling all persons seized and held as “terrorist detainees” (look at the…

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Media Alert–Bill Moyers Journal

I’ll be appearing on Bill Moyers Journal tonight, Friday, June 22, to discuss lobbying in general and “Their Men in Washington”, my article in the July Harper’s, in particular. You…

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Self-Transcendence, Education, and the Thinking Machine

In 1798, the brightest and yet most fleeting star among the German Romanticists, Novalis, wrote that “the highest duty of education is to overcome the transcendental Self, to be at…

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Cheney’s National Security State

Writing in his masterwork Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in 1922, Max Weber showed that the “bureaucratic class” (Beamtentum) manipulated state secrets in order to undermine democratic institutions. By wielding security classifications,…

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Bush in the Mid-Twenties

Newsweek’s new poll has Bush at 26%, but now we’ve reached something new: the average of all major polls (including the perennial Republican outliers that give Bush a 10-point bump)…

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Main Justice: McNulty Says He Knew Nothing…

Funny, isn’t it? Alberto Gonzales, Hans von Spakovsky, Will Moschella, Brad Schlozman, and now Paul J. McNulty. When they are questioned by Congress about the key decisions that were made…

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U.S. Attorneys Scandal – Minneapolis

Today, former Minneapolis U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger was on Capitol Hill talking about how he got on Rove’s list of U.S. attorneys to be fired and addressing a series of…

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Brad Schlozman’s “Good Americans”

At the core of the complex of scandals swirling around the Department of Justice now is a process of Gleichschaltung, namely a careful review of career staff to purge all…

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What Does Putin Want?

Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB (Free Press, $27.00) The murder of Alexander Litvinenko stole headlines…

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Letter to the Editor

To the Editor, Harper’s Magazine I request your attention to Harper’s Internet “No Comment” piece by Mr Scott Horton, published June 7, 2007. It was well below accepted journalistic standards,…

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Hoffmann on Fantasy and Life

I believe that the base of the heavenly ladder, upon which we seek to ascend into higher regions, has to be fastened to our life, so that everyone may be…

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Palace Fit for a Viceroy

Heavy security, large-scale architecture, and riverfront real estate–these hallmarks of diplomatic compounds are evident in such locations as the UN Headquarters in New York. But imagine that the UN took…

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Dr. Johnson and Slavery

An academic reader writes quoting from “Cultivating Our Garden”: ”Johnson, whose attitudes towards slavery proved a prickly embarrassment to his biographers”? The guy who shocked the table at Oxford by…

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Come September

Andrew Sullivan points to an important interview this morning in the (London) Times with General Petraeus which includes, among other things, a discussion about the time tables. Your mission sounds…

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The Imperial Presidency and the Law

Sidney Blumenthal writes about the implosion of the Bush Administration’s state-of-exception legal regime. In private, Bush Administration sub-Cabinet officials who have been instrumental in formulating and sustaining the legal “war…

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The Hostage Drama in Iran and Iraq

A dangerous game of chicken is being played out today in Iran and Iraq. It involves political figures whose behavior pattern comes closer to that of elementary school children than…

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Write Congress to Right Justice

The Judiciary Committee wants your help in investigating Justice Department misconduct. Yesterday, I appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in connection with legislation proposed to extend the scope of the…

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Contracting for Torture

Who are James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen? Evidently the Senate Armed Service Committee is very eager to learn more about Mitchell and Jessen and the role they played in the…

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Re-open the Abu Ghraib Investigation

The dean of the Pentagon press corps, Joe Galloway, says that in light of the disclosures this week of Secretary Rumsfeld’s lies about the Abu Ghraib investigation and how it…

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Johnson on the Humane Treatment of Prisoners

That charity is best of which the consequences are most extensive: the relief of enemies has a tendency to unite mankind in fraternal affection; to soften the acrimony of adverse…

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Six Questions for David Ignatius about Body of Lies

David Ignatius is a columnist for the Washington Post and co-hosts, PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues at washingtonpost.com. He is the author of six novels, including Agents of…

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Cultivating Our Garden

Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759) Voltaire, Candide, ou l’optimisme (1759) Samuel Johnson “Great minds think alike” goes the cliché. But indeed, history is full of…

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France on the Majesty of Law

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. That is one…

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Providing Accountability for Private Military Contractors: Testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on June 19, 2007

Chairman Scott, Ranking Member Forbes, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to speak with you today about this important subject. My name is Scott Horton. I…

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