Israeli Premier Backs State for Palestinians, With Caveats New York Times By ISABEL KERSHNER June 14, 2009 The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday endorsed for the first time the principle of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but on condition that the state was demilitarized and that the Palestinians recognized Israel as the […]
As a follower of emptywheel‘s comments, I’ve usually skipped over her co-writer, bmaz. But this is a fine piece, to be read in full. I’m not sure about my thoughts about Jose Padilla himself. The case was so badly handled that his original "crime" kind of got lost in the shuffle. But there’s little question […]
Rorschach and Awe America’s coercive interrogation methods were reverse-engineered by two C.I.A. psychologists who had spent their careers training U.S. soldiers to endure Communist-style torture techniques. The spread of these tactics was fueled by a myth about a critical "black site" operation. by Katherine Eban Vanity Fair July 17, 2007 This article should be read […]
At the time, it seemed like a regular year. We’d been attacked in the previous September, and had gone to war with the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The war was going well, though we’d missed our chance to capture bin Laden. But there were fantastic movies [Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star […]
without guns, these are just two harmless old coots…
Bibi’s conditions The New ForeignPolicy.com 06/12/2009 The Washington Times’s Eli Lake reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will say in his speech this weekend that he is prepared to accept Palestinian statehood under the following conditions: Any Palestinian state must be demilitarized, without an air force, full-fledged army or heavy weapons. Palestinians may not […]
Here’s a shorter, more focused version of what Sheldon Whitehouse said on Rachel Maddow’s show last night. I guess we should’ve known it, but I, for one, didn’t. It makes perfect sense that a Congressional Committee investigating the Executive is not bound by Executive Privilege. That’s the lesson of the Watergate Hearings. So how can […]
Decline and Fall Donald Rumsfeld’s Dramatic End By Bradley Graham Washington Post june 14, 2009 Face time with the president is political gold in Washington, so Donald Rumsfeld moved quickly after taking charge at the Pentagon to secure weekly private meetings with President George W. Bush. Now, nearly six years and many meetings later, the […]
Confrontation Looming Talking Points Memo By Josh Marshall There’s been a lot of talk about how Prime Minister Netanyahu will respond to President Obama’s insistence on a settlement freeze and whether he’ll announce a new position in his upcoming security speech. This article in today’s Ha’aretz says Netanyahu has come up with his answer. And […]
On Rachel Maddow’s show this evening, my new favorite Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse was scheduled to talk about the Senate votes about transferring Gitmo prisoners to the US. But he went on to talk about the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s investigation of the Interrogations. He said that the Committee had not yet examined or agreed […]