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Archive: Sep 2007

Weekly Review

President George W. Bush attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Sydney, where he gave a speech referring to APEC as OPEC and thanking Australian Prime Minister John Howard for…

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There’s No News in the ‘Birmingham News’

The Russian newspaper Pravda, which laughingly means “truth,” used to have a banner under the masthead that read “Organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet…

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Leura Canary’s Stonewalling is Exposed

Congressman Artur Davis has just issued a press release making clear for the first time that the Department of Justice is defying the House Judiciary Committee’s probe into misconduct in…

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Exposing a Corrupt Prosecution and Trial in Alabama

In Oakdale Federal Detention Center in central Louisiana sits America’s most prominent political prisoner: former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to serve 7 years…

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Osama bin Forgotten

If there is one image that summarizes the gross ineptitude of the Bush Administration’s counterterrorism policy, its tendency to crass partisan manipulation, its indifference to the threat presented—so long as…

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Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shatter’d…

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Terence on Caring for Humanity

Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto. I am a man; and nothing which concerns humankind can be a matter of indifference to me. —Publius Terentius Afer, Heauton Timoroumenos…

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Media Alert

Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central, 5 p.m. Pacific time, Scott Horton will be interviewed by the University of Victoria/CFUV’s Chris Cook on FM 104.3, Victoria, B.C. It…

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General Hayden Flunks an Interrogation Test

CIA Director Michael Hayden came to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Friday afternoon to deliver remarks and to field some questions. It quickly became apparent that…

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Jackson on the Prosecutor’s Calling

If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick…

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The Alice Martin Perjury Inquiry

Update, April 22, 2008: Harper’s was informed on April 17, 2008 that the perjury investigation against Alice Martin was concluded on November 28, 2007, with a finding by the Department…

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The Floundering Department of Justice

Just a few smaller pieces that came up in the course of the week that I didn’t get into dealing with. (A busy week, hence fewer posts). Federal Prosecutors: Once…

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The Federal Prosecutor: A calling betrayed

The federal prosecutor is a vital part of our democracy. The role has, in a sense, been the most critical building block upon which the American democracy has rested, for…

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Diderot on the Philosopher as a Musical Instrument

The philosopher instrument is sentient; he’s at the same time the musician and the instrument. Sentient, he has a momentary consciousness of the sound he is rendering; animal, he remembers…

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U.S. Attorneys Scandal–Los Angeles and San Diego

When the U.S. attorneys scandal first surfaced, concerns came to focus very quickly on criminal investigations into a group of close friends among the California G.O.P. Congressional delegation. The case…

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A Letter to the Editors of the Washington Post

Dear Editors: You employ one of the most gifted group of reporters in the newspaper industry. But I’m puzzled. You don’t really seem to appreciate the resources you’ve got or…

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U.S. Attorneys Scandal–Milwaukee

At present the House Judiciary Committee has picked two cases for closer scrutiny. Both are cases in which the telltale signs of political manipulation can be found right on the…

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Gogol describes the Inspector General’s Mission

GOVERNOR. I had a sort of presentiment of it. Last night I kept dreaming of two rats–regular monsters! Upon my word, I never saw the likes of them–black and supernaturally…

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The Unpredictable Past of George W. Bush

George W. Bush, it would seem, is the first president to have a completely unpredictable past. The Bush Administration now finds itself committed to an effort to sell its “Surge”…

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Brontë on Convention and Morality

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not…

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Terror Arrests in Germany

Big news in the world, but you wouldn’t know it from our papers and broadcast media. Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung reports: Terror in Germany: Investigations focus on 8 Terror suspects According…

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Something Other Than Democracy (Updated)

Update: Several readers have emailed to say that I was unkind to Kessler, and that his book is more nuanced in its discussion of Hamas and Hezbollah than what ran…

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Team Chertoff and the Art of Political Prosecution

Current and former Justice Department officials I have interviewed have consistently identified Michael Chertoff, his successor Alice Fisher, and his protégé Noel Hillman, as figures with a strong interest in…

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Benjamin’s Second Historical Thesis and Hofmannsthal’s ‘On the Transitory’

Walter Benjamin is a figure in vogue among post-modernists in American academia. I’ve been to a number of conferences at which speakers quote his works, usually followed by a grating…

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Hofmannsthal’s ‘On the Transitory: I-IV’

Poems in Terza Rima I On the Transitory I still feel her breath upon my cheeks How can it be, that these close days Are gone, gone for ever, completely…

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Benjamin on the Philosophy of History

‘One of the most peculiar characteristics of human nature,’ writes Lotze, ‘is. . . alongside so much selfishness in specific circumstances, the lack of jealousy which the present displays toward…

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Speaking From Experience, Part II: Former CIA official expects war with Iran

Until recently, I thought the odds that the United States would attack Iran were less than fifty-fifty, but the chances of a military confrontation are clearly growing (as my colleague…

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