Month: January 2005

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 Crimes Act? Perhaps, she suggests, they don’t remember Abu Ghraib? But of course they remember it all too … Continue reading “Gonzales and the Torture Cult”

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) Robert Zoellick. The decision was surprising to foreign-policy analysts here not only because Zoellick, by agreeing to take the post, will lose … Continue reading “In Surprise Move, Realist Gets Nod for Rice’s Deputy”

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 Arafat himself was the major obstacle to negotiations, as somebody neither the Israeli government nor … Continue reading “Faint Hopes for Peace”

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 step toward accountability, but no one should confuse it with the end of the … Continue reading “Trickle of Abuse Reports Becoming a Torrent”

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 review" of the nominee’s record and positions in confirmation hearings that begin Thursday. In a three-page … Continue reading “Civil Rights Groups Voice Concerns About Gonzales”

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 jammed with rich tourists and poor peasants alike. And even in … Continue reading “American Gothic: Self-Portrait With Shackles”

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 of President George W. Bush and its supporters continue to insist … Continue reading “Meanwhile, Back in Iraq…”

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 agree that this appointment should be concerned with the content of … Continue reading “What Kind of People Have We Become?”

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 from a moral perspective. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, … Continue reading “It’s Worse Than Illegal”

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 consequences of the Iraq war so far: (1) over 1,300 … Continue reading “Ignorance and Illogic About Iraq”