Weekly Review

Russian president Vladimir Putin gave a speech about the Chechen hostage debacle and declared that Russia will attack terrorists wherever they may be (“I stress, wherever they may be located”), suggesting that the Bush Doctrine, which disregards traditional principles of national sovereignty, has become the new international norm. Read More

Former senators Warren Rudman and Gary Hart warned in a new report that the federal government has done virtually nothing to secure the nation against terrorist attack. Power plants, refineries, and transportation infrastructure are still unprotected; local police, firefighters, and other emergency personnel are almost as unprepared for… Read More

North Korea admitted that it has resumed work on its nuclear arms-program; the United States retaliated by formally withdrawing from a 1994 arms-control agreement, which will immediately stop annual shipments of 500,000 tons of fuel oil to North Korea. Bush Administration officials accused Pakistan of giving the North… Read More

President George W. Bush claimed in a speech that Saddam Hussein could attack America “on any given day”; he accused Hussein of harboring terrorists, stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, and using such weapons on his own people. “Neither the United States of America nor the world… Read More

Senator Robert Torricelli of New Jersey withdrew from the November election after new evidence emerged that he had accepted “improper gifts” from a contributor; Torricelli said that he did not want to jeopardize Democratic control of the Senate. A new poll found that most Americans are opposed to invading… Read More

A federal district judge in Vermont ruled that the Federal death Penalty Act of 1994 is unconstitutional because it violates the right to due process and the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses; in July, a federal judge in New York also declared the law unconstitutional, saying it… Read More

President George W. Bush challenged the United Nations to prove that it is “a force for good and peace” and not “an ineffective debating society”; he said that America must overthrow Saddam Hussein because “it’s time for us to secure the peace”; and he demanded that… Read More

Federal authorities placed the United States on “orange alert” and American embassies in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia were closed after an Al Qaeda prisoner claimed that terror attacks were scheduled for the September 11 anniversary. The New York Lottery’s evening number came up 9-1-1 on… Read More

President George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair got together at Camp David to talk about Iraq; at a news conference both men cited a satellite photo showing recent construction activity at an old Iraqi nuclear site as evidence that they must invade Iraq now. Read More

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that President Bush had not yet decided whether to invade Iraq and that it was important for Americans to “engage in a somewhat elevated, thoughtful discussion about what free people ought to do given the circumstances of the 21st century.” Secretary… Read More

After reviewing the devastation caused by the biggest wildfire in Oregon’s history, President George W. Bush announced his plan to protect 190 million acres of national forest land by allowing more logging to do away with flammable old trees and by protecting the timber industry from… Read More

The European Union told countries that hope someday to join the organization that they should refuse to sign agreements with the United States promising never to turn over American soldiers to the International Criminal Court. American officials were upset. “We’re not applying any pressure on countries to… Read More

The Bush Administration warned foreign diplomats that their countries could lose all military aid unless they pledge never to turn over American soldiers to the International Criminal Court. A spokesman for Representative Tom DeLay, who wrote the provision of the antiterrorism law that authorizes such threats, said that… Read More

Judge Gladys Kessler of Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Bush Administration has no right to withhold the identities of people it has detained as part of the September 11 investigation, and she gave the government 15 days to release the names. “The first priority of… Read More

Israel used an American-made F-16 to drop a one-ton laser-guided bomb on a densely populated residential area in Gaza City, killing a prominent Hamas leader and 14 others, nine of them children. President George W. Bush, who is currently preparing for his month-long vacation, described the move… Read More

Three days after Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan blamed “infectious greed” for the faltering of the stock market but declared the economy essentially sound, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 400 points, completing a two-week period during which it lost 15 percent of its value. President George… Read More

Scientists succeeded in constructing a live polio virus from scratch using ingredients that are publicly available. It was pointed out that making a virus such as smallpox from scratch would be much more difficult. Ted Williams, a famous baseball player who died last week, was hung upside down and… Read More

A judge in Manhattan ruled that the federal death penalty is unconstitutional; the judge wrote that the number of exonerations due to DNA evidence demonstrated that there is an “undue risk of executing innocent people” and that capital punishment thus violates the constitutional right to due process. The… Read More

President George W. Bush said that he would not support the creation of a Palestinian state until the Palestinian people get rid of Yasir Arafat. Bush sketched his vision of a Palestinian state, a vision that included an independent legislature and judiciary and other democratic institutions; Bush… Read More

The Supreme Court of the United States decided that it was no longer okay to execute retarded people, because a “national consensus” has emerged that such judicial killings are cruel and unusual punishment and are thus, in light of “evolving standards of decency,” prohibited by the Eighth… Read More

President George W. Bush announced a “new doctrine” according to which the United States will permit itself to launch preemptive attacks on countries and organizations that have or might have weapons of mass destruction. Bush Administration officials were reportedly annoyed with Attorney General John Ashcroft for… Read More

President Bush, who continued to insist that he has “seen no evidence to date that indicates that this country could have prevented the [September 11] attack,” nonetheless called for a new cabinet-level agency for domestic security. The proposal combines 22 federal agencies into one but leaves the C.I.A. and… Read More

Robert S. Mueller, the director of the F.B.I., admitted that the bureau might have been able to prevent the September 11 attacks if it had responded appropriately to a variety of intelligence reports. Mueller announced that he was creating an Office of Intelligence as part of a major redesign… Read More

President Bush made his first visit to Germany, where he gave a speech at the Reichstag in Berlin, compared terrorists to Nazis, and enjoyed apple strudel and ice cream with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, told German television that the German government needs to educate… Read More

President George W. Bush announced that the United States and Russia will sign a new arms-control treaty that will reduce both countries’ nuclear arsenals by two thirds. The weapons will not be destroyed, however, but simply put in storage. It was reported that an F.B.I. agent… Read More

The House Appropriations Committee passed a measure authorizing the President to use force to free any American detained by the new International Criminal Court, which Tom DeLay, the majority whip from Texas, called a “rump” and a “rogue” court. After noticing that some members of the committee… Read More

The Bush Administration made history by “unsigning” the treaty that created the International Criminal Court, which has been signed and ratified by almost every major democracy in the world, and by renouncing any and all obligations to cooperate with the court. The Administration also said that it will not… Read More

The Pope apologized to victims of pedophile priests and said there was no place in the Church for priests who abuse children, but he also noted that the power of Christian conversion must not be underestimated. American cardinals indicated that they definitely wanted to have a way… Read More

White House officials admitted that senior members of the Bush Administration met with the Venezuelan coup plotters in the weeks before they attempted to overthrow President Hugo Chávez. Some officials claimed that they had discouraged the plotters, others that they had encouraged them. One, asked if the Administration recognized… Read More

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela was deposed in a coup led by several generals and the country’s business elite. An interim government was established under the leadership of Pedro Carmona Estanga, the head of a major business association. Latin American leaders denounced the “interruption of the constitutional order.” American… Read More