Ms. Anne Applebaum is shocked – shocked! – at conservatives' blasé attitude toward torture. Don't they know that attorney general-designate Alberto Gonzales wrote memos seeking ways to legally immunize U.S. government officials from prosecution under the War...
In Surprise Move, Realist Gets Nod for Rice’s Deputy
Ending weeks of sometimes fevered speculation, Bush administration officials confirmed Thursday that secretary of state-designate Condoleezza Rice's deputy at the State Department will be a confirmed Atlanticist and arch-realist, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)...
Faint Hopes for Peace
Ever since Yasser Arafat's death, there has been a certain air of anticipation about the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace – or at least something resembling a settlement, even a formal cease-fire, that will end the current relatively active hostilities. If...
Trickle of Abuse Reports Becoming a Torrent
NEW YORK - Even as the alleged ringleader of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal faces court-martial Friday, human rights groups are questioning whether his case is really the "aberration" the Pentagon claims. "The trial of Charles Graner is a first...
Civil Rights Groups Voice Concerns About Gonzales
Expressing concerns about attorney general-designate Alberto Gonzales' commitment to due process and the rule of law, a coalition of some 50 civil rights and labor groups called Wednesday for the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct a "searching and thorough...
American Gothic: Self-Portrait With Shackles
Here we are, because time has some of the qualities of a tsunami, deposited in 2005, whether we like it or not. As the year changed, nature trumped the Bush administration in an appropriately, if horrifyingly Biblical, way, with a preemptive strike against shorelines...
Meanwhile, Back in Iraq…
While the world's attention has been focused for the past 10 days on the catastrophic tsunamis in South Asia and the subsequent relief efforts, the situation for the United States and its dwindling number of allies in Iraq appears to have worsened. The administration...
What Kind of People Have We Become?
We are more than 225 religious leaders from a wide diversity of backgrounds. Notable within our ranks are many Latino and Latina leaders who are more concerned to oppose torture than to applaud appointing a Hispanic to the cabinet. Whatever our backgrounds, we all...
It’s Worse Than Illegal
The following remarks were delivered at a press conference for Veterans for Common Sense. My professional credentials are in intelligence, but I believe the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for attorney general is first and foremost a moral issue, so I will address it...
Ignorance and Illogic About Iraq
As 2005 proceeds, I predict that the mess in Iraq will depart from American consciousness, overtaken by the media's fixation on Michael Jackson. The lack of knowledge about events on the ground in Iraq is stunning. With no end yet in sight, let's ponder the...