Bruce Ivins: The Movie

It sounds like a very bad made-for-television movie: a mad scientist – a violent sociopath, a "nerd with a dark side," who had already tried to kill several people, is obsessed with pornography, and is fixated on a particular college sorority –...

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Backtalk, August 5, 2008

Living Through the Age of Denial in America Engelhardt covers a lot of territory, but he engages the reader with a crisp writing style and a stunning grasp of information. His conclusion, that Americans have been living through an Age of Denial, is, alas,...

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Preparing for War Through Negotiations?

The latest series of test missiles launched by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the northern part of the Persian Gulf and the eastern Hormuz Strait has fueled new concerns over a military conflict in the region. Despite apparent diplomatic progress between Tehran...

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The Security Blanket

A photographer friend of mine came to Chengdu in June to do a photo essay on a few topics of interest in Sichuan – Gong Fu in Ya An, Hakka in the suburbs of Chengdu, and of course the earthquake that had just devastated much of the province. At the airport in...

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A Hollow Man for
a Hollow Time

Ehud Olmert's resignation speech reached us on our way back from a demonstration. We were protesting the death of Ahmad Moussa, aged 10, who was murdered during a demonstration against the Separation Fence at Na'ilin village – the fence that robs the village of...

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‘When You Have to Leave America to Be Free’

Nearly three years after the U.S. government failed to convict Palestinian activist and former college professor Sami al-Arian of any charges in one of the most high-profile terrorism trials following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he continues to be held in federal...

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US Gets No Traction in the Middle East

More than five years after invading Iraq as a first step toward "transforming" the Middle East, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush seems to have lost its footing – let alone its unquestioned domination – throughout the region. The...

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From the Frying Pan…

Well, just about everybody in the U.S. hierarchy, from commanders on the ground to the Joint Chiefs to the CIA to Barack Obama to John McCain to members of both parties in Congress, seems to agree now. It's time for the United States to focus on Afghanistan and apply...

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