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Max Boot prescribes a new imperial detentions policy in the Washington Post: Successful counterinsurgency operations require locking up suspects based on a lower level of evidence — often based on…

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Hinüber wall ich, Und jede Pein Wird einst ein Stachel Der Wollust seyn. Noch wenig Zeiten, So bin ich los, Und liege trunken Der Lieb’ im Schoos. Unendliches Leben Wogt…

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Hâst dû dich selben liep, sô hâst dû alle menschen liep als dich selben. Die wile dû einen einigen menschen minner liep hâst dan dich selben, dû gewünne dich selben…

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Listen to Puer natus in Bethlehem by Michael Praetorius from the Polyhymnia caduceatrix et Panegyrica (1613-17) and the Musae Sioniae VI (1609) in a performance by the Gabrieli Consort. The…

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently noted that, although one might assume that the Bill of Rights follows and limits the conduct of American officials wherever they go, “that is not…

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Farnaz Fassihi of the Wall Street Journal reports on the mysterious death of Ramin Pourandarjani, a heroic young doctor who defied authorities by refusing to sign death certificates to cover…

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My friend Aram Roston’s article in the current Playboy introduces us to the Count Cagliostro of the Bush years. The weeks before Christmas brought no hint of terror. But by…

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The likely location of a CIA black site in Lithuania was first the subject of speculation in a piece that ran at this site, “Inside the World of Dusty Foggo.”…

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The twentieth anniversary of Andrei Sakharov’s death was not forgotten in Russia. But it’s distressing to note how it was remembered. A television special ran on Russian state television celebrating…

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Rereading Hermann Hesse’s futuristic novel Das Glasperlenspiel (translated as Magister Ludi or The Glass Bead Game), I am struck by the character of the magister musicæ, the music master. This…

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Ach liebste laß vns eilen Wir haben Zeit: Es schadet das verweilen Uns beyderseit. Der Edlen schönheit Gaben Fliehn fuß für fuß: Daß alles was wir haben Verschwinden muß. Der…

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Le monde juge bien des choses, car il est dans l’ignorance naturelle qui est le vrai siège de l’homme. Les sciences ont deux extrémités qui se touchent, la première est…

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On Tuesday, Federal Judge Cormac Carney (an All Pac-10 wide receiver for UCLA before George W. Bush appointed him to the bench) dropped a bombshell in the Broadcom case pending…

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Last week, a twenty-seven-year-old murder mystery was solved, grabbing headlines around the world. Former Chilean President Eduardo Frei died under mysterious circumstances in 1982, at the age of 71, as…

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Jack Bauer and the Cheney Doctrine meet a mysterious bearded man caught delivering suspicious packages:…

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Yesterday I discussed the the Jeppesen DataPlan case involving the extraordinary renditions program. As that case was being argued, Justice Department lawyers also appeared before the chief district court judge…

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The Holder Justice Department continued its quest to keep the Bush Administration’s program of extraordinary renditions out of the public eye with oral argument before the en banc Ninth Circuit…

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I was in Europe meeting with a crowd of academics and NATO officers when Barack Obama delivered his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Oslo. I had the impression that his…

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The mounting disclosures surrounding Blackwater and its extralegal relationships with the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command demonstrate ably the privileged role of private security contractors in…

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Sometimes one reads or hears about a crisis of rational thought—that rational thought is impotent when confronted by the complexity and irrationality of human life. I am convinced that such…

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Per me si va ne la città dolente, per me si va ne l’etterno dolore, per me si va tra la perduta gente. Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore: fecemi…

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L’inferno dei viventi non è qualcosa che sarà; se ce n’è uno, è quello che è già qui, l’inferno che abitiamo tutti i giorni, che formiamo stando insieme. Due modi…

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James Risen and Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times continue the disclosures about Blackwater Worldwide, now called Xe Services: Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of…

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The Supreme Court heard a group of appeals on Monday that included convicted press baron Conrad Black, convicted Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, and Bruce Weyrauch, an Alaskan legislator facing a…

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Christopher Soghoian is a graduate student at Indiana University busily working on his Ph.D. dissertation addressing public policy issues relating to surveillance. In the course of his work he discovered…

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Last night, I discussed the Seton Hall review of a military investigation into three suspicious deaths at Gitmo with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC: Visit msnbc.com for…

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On June 10, 2006, the Pentagon announced that three prisoners held at Guantánamo’s Camp Delta had committed suicide. But senior Bush Administration officials quickly went one step further: violating the…

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The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our…

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