http://harpers.org/rss/index.xml Harper's Magazine: Founded June 1850. en-us Copyright Harper's Magazine Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:07:49 -0400 http://www.harpers.org/media/image/Harpers_305x100.gif http://harpers.org http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006512 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006512 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:21:13 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006511 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006511 Ken Silverstein Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:28:11 -0400 From The Plum Line: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006510 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006510 Ken Silverstein Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:46:14 -0400 From an email sent out this afternoon by Bellwether Consulting Group, which raises money for Republicans: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006508 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006508 Ken Silverstein Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:37:01 -0400 Writing for the majority in the Citizens United v. FEC case, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy stated: “The appearance of influence or access, furthermore, will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy.” . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006509 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006509 Scott Horton Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:19:22 -0400 Few Washington developments in recent weeks establish the parameters of “change you can believe in” better than this: following the resignation of Phil Carter, the White House is reportedly prepared to tap William Lietzau as the new deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs. Lietzau served as an aide to William J. Haynes II, the David Addington protégé who was Donald Rumsfeld’s lawyer at the Pentagon. In this role, he played a central role in creating a harsh new environment for prisoners taken in the war on terror, including the crafting of rules for a military commission that were subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/WeeklyReview2010-02-09 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/WeeklyReview2010-02-09 Theodore Ross Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0400 Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, came out in support of allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. “No matter how I look at this issue,“ Mullen testified before Congress, ”I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.” U.S. Department of Defense The Reuters news service withdrew a report that President Barack Obama was “backdooring” the American middle class with hidden taxes, Christian Science Monitor White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apologized to Sarah Palin for using the term “fucking retarded,” USA Today U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan conceded that Hurricane Katrina was probably not “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans,” Washington Post and James Clyburn, the House majority whip, dismissed fiscal restraint as a viable national economic policy. “We're not going to save our way out of this recession,” he said. “We've got to spend.” The Hill via Drudge Underwear Bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab provided federal authorities with actionable intelligence without having been tortured and despite having been offered some of the basic protections of the American legal system. CNN and KYW Radio U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair warned that “malicious cyber activity” was menacing the nation, NY Times and the federal government was hoarding the genetic information of American newborns. CNN In Afghanistan's Helmand Province, the Taliban were ambushing the American military using “ancient signaling techniques”; three people were killed and 17 wounded in a suicide-bomb attack in Kandahar, and a drone strike killed 29 presumed terrorists in northwestern Pakistan, where the Taliban were stalking American soldiers and their hired mercenaries. “We know the movement of U.S. Marines and Blackwater guys,” said a spokesman for the group. “We have prepared suicide bombers to go after them.” NY Times BBC News CNN CNN General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, insisted that the surge was making “significant progress.” NY Times Americans were drinking more cheap booze. USA Today . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006506 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006506 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:08:33 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006505 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006505 Scott Horton Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:18:36 -0400 Andrew Sullivan addresses “The Guantánamo ‘Suicides’” in the Sunday Times: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006504 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006504 Scott Horton Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:51:40 -0400 One of the great bugaboos of the Bush era was the notion of talking with the enemy. Once a group was defined as an enemy, even the mildest hint of a contact would meet with torrents of indignation. When the definition of the “enemy” went into soft focus, as various parties that might or might not have some ties to Al Qaeda were added, this approach was particularly troublesome. It made it difficult to divide and conquer—to peel off groups on the periphery in order to make the foe weaker and less stable. During the campaign, Barack Obama articulated this fairly obvious critique of Bush-era “War on Terror” policy, and his administration seemed set to pursue a more subtle approach. Talking with the enemy might be on the agenda. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006458 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006458 Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:06:03 -0400 Мороз и солнце; день чудесный! 
 Еще ты дремлешь, друг прелестный, 
 Пора, красавица, проснись: 
 Отркрой сомкнуты негой взоры 
 Навстречу северной Авроры, 
 Звездою севера явись! Вечор, ты помнишь, вьюга злилась, 
 На мутном небе мгла носилась; 
 Луна, как бледное пятно, 
 Сквозь тучи мрачные желтела, 
 И ты печальная сидела— 
 А нынче… погляди в окно: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006460 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006460 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:56:56 -0400 The longer I live–especially now when I clearly feel the approach of death–the more I feel moved to express what I feel more strongly than anything else, and what in my opinion is of immense importance, namely, what we call the renunciation of all opposition by force, which really simply means the doctrine of the law of love unperverted by sophistries. Love, or in other words the striving of men’s souls towards unity and the submissive behaviour to one another that results therefrom, represents the highest and indeed the only law of life, as every man knows and feels in the depths of his heart (and as we see most clearly in children), and knows until he becomes involved in the lying net of worldly thoughts. This law was announced by all the philosophies–Indian as well as Chinese, and Jewish, Greek and Roman. Most clearly, I think, was it announced by Christ, who said explicitly that on it hang all the Law and the Prophets. More than that, foreseeing the distortion that has hindered its recognition and may always hinder it, he specially indicated the danger of a misrepresentation that presents itself to men living by worldly interests–namely, that they may claim a right to defend their interests by force or, as he expressed it, to repay blow by blow and recover stolen property by force, etc., etc. He knew, as all reasonable men must do, that any employment of force is incompatible with love as the highest law of life, and that as soon as the use of force appears permissible even in a single case, the law itself is immediately negatived. The whole of Christian civilization, outwardly so splendid, has grown up on this strange and flagrant–partly intentional but chiefly unconscious–misunderstanding and contradiction. At bottom, however, the law of love is, and can be, no longer valid if defence by force is set up beside it. And if once the law of love is not valid, then there remains no law except the right of might. In that state Christendom has lived for 1,900 years. Certainly men have always let themselves be guided by force as the main principle of their social order. The difference between the Christian and all other nations is only this: that in Christianity the law of love had been more clearly and definitely given than in any other religion, and that its adherents solemnly recognized it. Yet despite this they deemed the use of force to be permissible, and based their lives on violence–so that the life of the Christian nations presents a greater contradiction between what they believe and the principle on which their lives are built: a contradiction between love which should pre scribe the law of conduct, and the employment of force, recognized under various forms–such as governments, courts of justice, and armies, which are accepted as necessary and esteemed. This contradiction increased with the development of the spiritual life of Christianity and in recent years has reached the utmost tension. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006491 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006491 Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:14:20 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006493 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006493 Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:12:40 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006487 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006487 Scott Horton Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:15:56 -0400 No wannabe totalitarian regime in the world is quite so ripe for ridicule as North Korea. I traveled there some years back and marveled over the Ryugyong Hotel, a 105-story monstrosity nicknamed the “hotel of doom.” Due to gross design and construction flaws, it’s sat unoccupied in downtown Pyongyang for two decades. It captures the regime perfectly: monolithic and impressive from a distance, laughable up close and fundamentally unhinged in concept, it teeters there awaiting the day when it is inevitably imploded to make space for something better attuned to reality. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006490 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006490 Scott Horton Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:58:59 -0400 Jane Mayer’s feature on Attorney General Eric Holder is just up at the New Yorker website. She presents Holder as at the center of the controversy surrounding counterterrorism policy, under attack from Republicans close to Dick Cheney and relating with difficulty to a White House intent on appeasing Republican critics. Here’s a sample: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006486 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006486 Scott Horton Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:51:31 -0400 Of special interest is the way Seton Hall meticulously unpacks the DOD claim about the “100 interviews” that supposedly refute the testimony in Harper’s Magazine. First, the timing is wrong: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006489 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006489 Mr. Fish Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:27:01 -0400 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/08/0082595 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/08/0082595 Ben Austen Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:25:59 -0400 Bill Londrigan was a researcher with the AFL-CIO’s building-trades division when, in 1986, Toyota broke ground for its first fully owned U.S. assembly plant, on a tract of Kentucky farmland twelve miles north of Lexington. Honda and Nissan had recently opened their own non-union facilities in the United States, and organized labor feared the consequences of losing further ground in the auto industry. Londrigan was part of the contingent sent from Washington to prevail upon Toyota to hire union builders; he ended up staying on in the Bluegrass Region, and in 1999 he was elected president of Kentucky’s AFL-CIO. When I visited Londrigan late last winter at the union’s state offices—two rooms in a storefront three miles from downtown Frankfort—he flipped across his desk a booklet that he had prepared for the battle with Toyota two decades earlier. The pamphlet detailed the scope of the vertically integrated supply chains, called keiretsu, that Japanese car companies had brought with them to America from Japan and that some believe violate U.S. antitrust laws. On its cover was a black dragon hovering ominously above the middle United States. Londrigan guided me to a specific passage and then began to read it aloud. “The euphoric welcome Japanese keiretsu factories receive when they announce their locations in American towns and counties is reminiscent of the Trojans’ joy when they first viewed the Trojan Horse. The historical warning that sad episode produced—‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts’—seems to be lost on this generation of Americans, or has at least escaped the attention of U.S. economic development officials.” . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006466 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006466 Scott Horton Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:12:19 -0400 2. Do deaths in the context of confinement in prison raise any special concerns for a medical examiner conducting an autopsy? . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006485 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006485 Scott Horton Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:12:00 -0400 I continue to think that Syria might yet offer a platform for some fairly modest foreign policy advances for the Obama Administration in the Middle East. But that’s far from certain. Seymour Hersh offers some fascinating snippets from a long conversation with Syrian President Bashar Assad, including this one: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006483 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006483 Ken Silverstein Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:47:34 -0400 The senate is holding hearings and issuing a report today that shows how a number of corrupt African officials — and their American enablers — used the U.S. banking systems to launder vast amounts of money. A good chunk of the report builds on revelations made here last November about Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, son of the dictator of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006482 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006482 Ken Silverstein Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:45:10 -0400 From The Onion: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006481 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006481 Scott Horton Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:12:01 -0400 The American political landscape is heavily populated with fake debates—hot-button issues designed to rile people up, but which are not likely to have any real impact on policy. One of the best examples of this in modern times is the fake rage over trying terrorists in federal courts and the procedures that followed the arrest of the “panty-bomber” Abdulmutallab. The simple fact is that the policies of the Bush and Obama Administrations have been essentially indistinguishable, and the rhetorical war is little more than political demagoguery. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006480 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006480 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:33:17 -0400 . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006478 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006478 Ken Silverstein Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:47:41 -0400 From ProPublica: . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006477 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006477 Ken Silverstein Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:39:22 -0400 A bizarre congressional hearing yesterday, as Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister, Kanat Saudabayev, testified before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is co-chaired by Congressmen Benjamin Cardin and Alcee Hastings. The Kazakh government is forever trying to give the impression that President Nursultan Nazarbaev is keen on democratic reforms, even though human rights groups and the media find no evidence to support that. “Rather than loosen its hold on media, internet is being increasingly censored,” Peter Zalmayev of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative told me. “Rather than cooperate with civil society to improve its laws, the government continues to throw its critics in prison.” . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/0082747 http://harpers.org/archive/2009/12/0082747 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:10:52 -0400 From September 23 proceedings in the case of Robert Melia, a police officer from Moorestown, New Jersey, who was videotaped engaging in sexual acts with calves in Southampton, New Jersey, in 2006. In 2008, Melia was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting three girls over a period of five years; he was also charged with animal cruelty for the 2006 incident. Mark Catanzaro is the lawyer for the defense; Kevin Morgan is an assistant prosecutor for Burlington County. Superior Court Judge James Morley dismissed the animal-cruelty charge. . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006476 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006476 Scott Horton Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:25:09 -0400 Location: Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C. Event Date: February 11, 2010 Event Time: 5:30–7:30 p.m. Speakers: Matthew Alexander, Richard Cizik, Elizabeth MacKenzie Biedell, Morton H. Halperin, Scott Horton . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006471 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006471 Scott Horton Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:31:50 -0400 2. What specific arrangements were made for a secondary autopsy? Was the body sent directly there by the Americans, or was it transferred from Yemen first? . . . http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006468 http://harpers.org/archive/2010/02/hbc-90006468 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:00:10 -0400 . . .