http://harpers.org/rss/index.xml A Harper's Magazine Weblog en-us Copyright Harper's Magazine Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:13:12 -0400 http://www.harpers.org/media/image/Harpers_305x100.gif http://harpers.org http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006121 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006121 Scott Horton Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:12:51 -0400 On today’s Frost Over the World, I discuss with Sir David Frost and Glenn Sulmasy the Obama Administration’s plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a group of related defendants in federal court in Manhattan. Watch it through the Internet video link here. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006115 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006115 Scott Horton Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:15:19 -0400 A little more than six years ago, Lt. Col. Dominic “Rocky” Baragona was on his way home. He had a long journey ahead, but he was looking forward to it. Colonel Baragona was serving in Iraq, and his tour was up. He had just spoken with his father by satellite phone, telling him that he’d be in Kuwait the next day to board his flight back, “unless something stupid happens.” Hours later, something stupid happened. A private truck carrying supplies on a U.S. military contract careened three lanes across a highway and struck the humvee in which Colonel Baragona was traveling. He died in a gruesome traffic accident. After an investigation, the military concluded that the incident involved serious negligence by the contractor but no criminal wrongdoing. Colonel Baragona’s family filed suit against the Kuwaiti contractor in federal court in Georgia. They secured a default judgment, and then the contractor came back to court to reopen the case. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006103 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006103 Scott Horton Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:43:20 -0400 Former Bush Administration Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey addressed the Federalist Society only hours after his successor, Eric Holder, announced his plan to bring a group of Guantánamo prisoners up on federal charges in Manhattan. He offered harsh words, claiming that the trials would prove a “circus.” Such attacks on the nation’s criminal justice system have become routine on the political right. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90005947 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90005947 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:11:55 -0400 They flee from me that sometime did me seek With naked foot, stalking in my chamber. I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek, That now are wild and do not remember That sometime they put themself in danger To take bread at my hand; and now they range, Busily seeking with a continual change. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006053 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006053 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:38:08 -0400 If we were like angels, blameless and freely able to exercise perfect self-control, we would not need rules or regulations. Why, then, do we have so many laws and statutes? Because of man’s wickedness, for he is constantly overflowing with evil; this is why a remedy is required. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006087 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006087 Scott Horton Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:39:40 -0400 Tomorrow at Pace University, I’ll be giving the Blaine Sloan Lecture on International Law, in conjunction with the Pace International Law Review Symposium. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006086 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006086 Scott Horton Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:31:21 -0400 Establishing a valuable precedent in a case involving unlawful surveillance and botched state secrets claims, the Justice Department has named its price. Wired reports: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006085 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006085 Scott Horton Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:52:10 -0400 CBS News reports that on January 23—days after Barack Obama’s inauguration, but before his designated senior team had taken charge at the Justice Department—federal prosecutors in Indiana issued a subpoena to IndyMedia, a Philadelphia-based Internet news service. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006074 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006074 Scott Horton Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:03:29 -0400 On Wednesday, November 11, at 12:15, I will be giving a guest lecture at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. The event is open to the public. Details here. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006073 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006073 Scott Horton Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:10:10 -0400 Last week the Supreme Court heard argument in a case that seeks to establish a rule of accountability for prosecutors who run amok. It arises from a gross injustice. In 1977, Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee were arrested for the murder of John Schweer, a retired police officer in Council Bluffs, Iowa. They were convicted and spent 25 years in prison. Then it came out that they were innocent of the crime, and that the prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence and cajoled and possibly offered money to a witness to give bogus testimony. Harrington and McGhee are now seeking compensation from the prosecutors under a federal statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, but they’re running smack into the doctrine of prosecutorial immunity. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006047 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006047 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:06:36 -0400 O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst! O lieb, so lang du lieben magst! Die Stunde kommt, die Stunde kommt, Wo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst! . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90005853 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90005853 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:45:03 -0400 Die Revolution muß aufhören, und die Republik muß anfangen.—In unsern Staatsgrundsätzen muß das Recht an die Stelle der Pflicht, das Wohlbefinden an die der Tugend und die Notwehr an die der Strafe treten. Jeder muß sich geltend machen und seine Natur durchsetzen können. Er mag nun vernünftig oder unvernünftig, gebildet oder ungebildet, gut oder böse sein, das geht den Staat nichts an. Wir alle sind Narren, es hat keiner das Recht, einem andern seine eigentümliche Narrheit aufzudrängen.—Jeder muß in seiner Art genießen können, jedoch so, daß keiner auf Unkosten eines andern genießen oder ihn in seinem eigentümlichen Genuß stören darf. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006040 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006040 Scott Horton Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:40:06 -0400 I discuss the CIA’s use of drones, the legal and policy issues, and the points of friction between the CIA and the Defense Department in an interview today at GQ. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006039 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006039 Scott Horton Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:38:48 -0400 I discuss an Italian court’s recent conviction of 23 American officials on kidnapping and assault charges stemming from a 2003 extraordinary rendition operation with DemocracyNow’s Amy Goodman and the Italian prosecutor, Armando Spataro, below: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006031 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006031 Scott Horton Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:04:00 -0400 An Italian court hearing criminal charges against 26 American officials and a smaller group of Italians arising out of a CIA extraordinary rendition has ruled today. The case relates to the CIA’s snatching of a Muslim cleric known as Abu Omar off the streets of Milan in 2003. He was whisked off to Egypt, where he was tortured before being released. Italian prosecutors noted that the American action botched a prosecution they had prepared against Abu Omar for participation in a terrorist conspiracy. Here’s a summary of the court’s decision from Reuters: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006030 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006030 Scott Horton Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:29:53 -0400 From the apex of the national security apparatus, he arranged for the torture of alleged terrorists and their sympathizers, and for the “disappearance” of hundreds and perhaps thousands of others. He then assumed office as president and began a rearguard struggle to defend state actors from liability for these acts. His lawyers spun doctrines of immunity, and believed that legal protections like statutes of limitations and wide grants of amnesty would block any efforts at accountability. For good measure, they sorted carefully through state records, destroying documents that might inculpate senior government figures. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006029 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006029 Scott Horton Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:53:29 -0400 Today, political bloviators of all shapes and sizes will rush to explain the dramatic, nation-rattling and long-term consequences of elections in which a tiny fraction of the voters turned out, mostly driven by local issues. But the elections team at the Daily Show beats them to it, giving the definitive interpretation (before the votes were tallied, of course): . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006024 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006024 Scott Horton Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:57:55 -0400 “When the history of this distinguished court is written, today’s majority decision will be viewed with dismay,” writes Guido Calabresi, the former Yale Law dean and a man widely viewed as the most illustrious living member of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He is lodging his dissent in a 7-4 decision of the en banc court concluding that a Canadian software engineer named Maher Arar has no right to sue government officials. What has Calabresi so worked up? . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006019 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006019 Scott Horton Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:09:11 -0400 What sort of privacy do you expect when you send an email? As Americans increasingly rely on the Internet for communication, Justice Department lawyers increasingly argue that Americans have no right to privacy there—notwithstanding repeated congressional efforts to bolster these rights. A recent case out of Oregon shows how the privacy expectation associated with emails and other Internet communications is being frittered away. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006017 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006017 Scott Horton Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:50:23 -0400 In the prosecution that led to the conviction of former Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, Patrick Fitzgerald famously spoke of a “cloud over the vice president.” His remarks suggested that, while no charges had been pressed against Cheney, the vice president was considered an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to out covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. When, after a long struggle to protect Cheney from “embarrassment,” the Justice Department complied with a court order to disclose the FBI agents’ notes of the interview that Fitzgerald conducted with Cheney in 2004, the reason for these comments became clear. The cloud over Dick Cheney seems to be more of a fog bank engulfing him, however, and the fog is of Cheney’s making. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006018 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006018 Scott Horton Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:20:10 -0400 In the 2008 presidential campaign, both Barack Obama and Joe Biden criticized the Bush Administration’s historically unprecedented invocation of state security concerns to block lawsuits challenging the legality of its surveillance. They promised new procedures that would “tighten up” the “problem” of overreaching claims of secrecy. In time, the Justice Department instituted a new review policy, setting internal standards, requiring a high-level internal review, and promising to present a packet for in camera review by the judge involved who would make the final call. That sounded good, and the suggestion that the government would abide by a judge’s review was more accommodating than the posture Bush-era attorneys general assumed—insisting that judges shouldn’t be in this business at all, since only officers of the executive branch had a good feel for such matters. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90005837 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90005837 Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:29:05 -0400 Ved, que sobre una cumbre De aquel anfitëatro cavernoso. Del sol de ocaso á la encendida lumbre Descubre alzado un pálido Coloso, Que eran los Pirinéos Basa humilde á sus miembros gigantëos. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90006008 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90006008 Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:11:58 -0400 ἀλλ’, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ, ποτὲ ἀκούσας τι πιστεύω τούτῳ: ὡς ἄρα Λεόντιος ὁ Ἀγλα ωνος ἀνιὼν ἐκ Πειραιῶς ὑπὸ τὸ βόρειον τεῖχος ἐκτός, αἰσθόμενος νεκροὺς παρὰ τῷ δημίῳ κειμένους, ἅμα μὲν ἰδεῖν ἐπιθυμοῖ, ἅμα δὲ αὖ δυσχεραίνοι καὶ ἀποτρέποι ἑαυτόν, καὶ τέως μὲν μάχοιτό τε καὶ παρακαλύπτοιτο, κρατούμενος δ’ οὖν ὑπὸ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας, διελκύσας τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, προσδραμὼν πρὸς τοὺς νεκρούς, “ἰδοὺ ὑμῖν,” ἔφη, “ὦ κακοδαίμονες, ἐμπλήσθητε τοῦ καλοῦ θεάματος.” . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90006011 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90006011 Scott Horton Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:36:54 -0400 When a critical assessment of the Bush-era “War on Terror” is undertaken, a vital chapter will focus on U.S. relations with Pakistan. President Bush labeled the nation “a major non-NATO ally” in order to qualify it for military programs. He then lavished Pervez Musharraf’s dictatorship with billions in aid designed to beef up its ability to engage the Taliban and Al Qaeda, only to see most of this money diverted into secret military programs designed to address Pakistani security qualms about India. Future historians may well conclude that the Bush team were played for patsies by Pakistan’s military, with Interservice Intelligence (ISI) in the lead. There is increasingly solid evidence that the ISI consciously thwarted the United States–facilitating the escape of key Al Qaeda and Taliban leadership figures from Afghanistan and sheltering them in Pakistan’s rugged Northwest Frontier Province. In their place, Pakistani authorities streamed hundreds of perfectly innocent people into American hands, filling the special detention center that Bush built at Guantánamo with chaff rather than the leadership figures the Americans were seeking. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90006010 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90006010 Scott Horton Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:01:23 -0400 White House communications director Anita Dunn recently claimed that Fox News was “more a wing of the Republican Party.” “They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And that’s fine,” Dunn continued. “But let’s not pretend they’re a news network the way CNN is.” Fox News president and G.O.P. heavyweight Roger Ailes must have sensed an opening. Fox instantly proceeded to pick a food fight over the remarks, and network news broadcasters rushed to Fox’s defense. Now a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll suggests that the public may well see things the way Dunn does: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005999 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005999 Scott Horton Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:05:38 -0400 When the New York Times disclosed yesterday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s black sheep brother, Ahmed Wali, was on the payroll of the CIA, Congressional leaders were quick to note that this was the first they had learned of the agency’s relationship with a man widely thought to be at the center of Afghan drug smuggling operations, and they demanded a briefing. And House intelligence committee member Jan Schakowsky was also quick to make note of what seemed to her an increasingly familiar pattern: Congressional leaders learn about CIA operations from the press. Their complaints to the agency meet with a familiar retort, Schakowsky said: “We’ve been meaning to brief you about that…” . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005987 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005987 Scott Horton Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:10:20 -0400 As a war correspondent, Mark Danner knows few equals. He writes with a literary flair, and he has an abiding focus on the plight of civilians rather than the strategies of generals. He brought us the death squads of El Salvador, the civil strife of Haiti, and the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia, and he took us on an extensive tour of Iraq’s infamous prison, Abu Ghraib. His work moves seamlessly from the war theater to the work of policy formation and implementation. I put six questions to Danner about his new book, Stripping Bare the Body, in which he surveys American efforts at nation-building from the last twenty-five years. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005996 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005996 Scott Horton Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:07:27 -0400 When he was seeking reelection in 2006, Joe Lieberman campaigned as a supporter of healthcare reform and expressed his support for “universal healthcare.” When the rubber hit the road, however, Lieberman emerged as a frontline warrior for the healthcare industry in its efforts to block reform. Yesterday, he not only noted his opposition to the very modest public option contained in the legislation that Majority Leader Harry Reid put forward, he also stated that he would cross the aisles to support a Republican filibuster. Should we be surprised? No. Lieberman has long been one of the industry’s favorite players on the hill, accepting more than $1 million in campaign contributions from the insurance industry and more than $600,000 from pharmaceuticals and related healthcare-products companies. But his ties run deeper than that. His wife Hadassah previously worked for two lobbying firms, Hill & Knowlton and APCO, handling matters for their healthcare and pharmaceuticals clients. Throughout the 2006 campaign, Lieberman pointedly refused to discuss the scope of his wife’s engagement for the healthcare industry or even the specific clients for whom she was working. But there seems to have been plenty of opportunity for synergy with Lieberman’s work in Congress. Joe Conason noted: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005991 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005991 Scott Horton Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:19:54 -0400 Judgment on Guantánamo: Why the Seton Hall Studies Exposed the Ugly Truth, and How to Wind It Up . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005992 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005992 Scott Horton Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:37:12 -0400 Last fall Anita Alvarez was elected to a tough slot. As state’s attorney for Cook County, she took the helm of one of the nation’s foremost prosecutorial teams, and also a crew whose performance over the last couple of decades has inspired a crisis of confidence. In Chicago, claims of torture and mistreatment of prisoners have been rampant, and slowly and steadily documented. Similarly, it seems that prosecutors and police, who have amassed enviable conviction statistics, got there by gaming the system. In case after case, the evidence has shown that innocent people were arrested and railroaded through the court system. The mountain of wrongly procured convictions ultimately led an Illinois governor with a reputation as a law-and-order Republican to impose a moratorium on the death penalty. “We have now freed more people than we have put to death under our system,” said Governor George Ryan in a 2001 interview with CNN. “There is a flaw in the system, without question, and it needs to be studied.” . . .