Torture at Guantánamo? “On a couple of occassions [sic], I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. Most times they had urinated or defacated [sic] on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On […]

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Judge Not—A month after the release of a detailed memorandum on torture, written in August 2002 by federal appeals court Judge Jay Bybee when he directed the Bush administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was visibly angry. Leahy chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. At a May 13 subcommittee hearing, he said he […]

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Bomb Iran?—Swine flu kept the story off the front pages of American newspapers, but the Israeli press is engaged in a robust public debate over the prospect of an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. That line of discussion continues in the Israeli press. “As far as Netanyahu is concerned, a decisive […]

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THERE IS ONE NUMBER TO KEEP IN MIND as Congressional Republicans drone on with their protest of the “Democrat” majority’s decision to fast-track a final vote on health care reform. Zero. That’s how many House Republicans voted for the Obama administration’s budget on April 29, the day after Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter announced he was […]

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CONGRESSMAN HENRY B. GONZÁLEZ once asked me if I could name the largest transfer of wealth in our country’s history. I stumbled through a couple of New Deal acronyms and had moved on to the defense budget when González stopped me. “Mortgage lending,” he said. González was a liberal Democrat from San Antonio who chaired […]

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