Volume 56, Number 15 · October 8, 2009
Entangled Giant
by Garry Wills
Some were dismayed to see how quickly the Obama people grabbed at the powers, the secrecy, the unaccountability that had led George W. Bush into such opprobrium. Even in areas outside national security, the Obama administration quickly came to resemble Bush's. A White House official told Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, "It's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
The Torture Memos: The Case Against the Lawyers
by David Cole
While the memos from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel released on August 24 have received less attention than the details of brutal treatment recorded by the CIA inspector general, these memos are the real "smoking gun" in the torture controversy. They reveal that the OLC lawyers contorted the law to authorize precisely what it was designed to forbid. They make clear that true accountability cannot stop at the CIA interrogators, but must extend up the chain of authority, to the lawyers and Cabinet officers who approved the "enhanced interrogation techniques" in the first place.
The Powers of Dr. Johnson
by Andrew O'Hagan
Samuel Johnson could never have been described as nice. He lacked good manners, an easy disposition, a sunny outlook, a helpful quality, an open spirit, a selfless gene, a handsome gait, or a general willingness to put his best foot forward in greeting others. If niceness was the only category known to posterity, we would long since have lost Johnson to the scrofulous regions of inky squalor, for he could be alarmingly rude.
The Afghanistan Impasse
by Ahmed Rashid
There were hundreds of foreign observers to watch Afghans go to the polls on August 20. Both UN officials and a European Union delegation were assigned months ago to make sure it would be a creditable election. In fact, for the US and its NATO partners, most of this year has been taken up with preparing for the elections and trying to ensure sufficient security for them. Yet the entire Western community in Afghanistan was caught napping by the widespread fraud. How could the rigging have happened?
- Pakistan on the Brink (June 11, 2009)
Deception Over Lockerbie?
by Malise Ruthven
The Scottish government has robustly denied claims that business interests or pressures from the UK government had any part in its decision to release Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber. Yet at stake were contracts for oil and gas exploration worth up to £15 billion for British Petroleum (BP), as well as plans to open a London office of the Libyan Investment Authority, a sovereign fund with £83 billion to invest.
Plus: Joyce Carol Oates on Shirley Jackson, Jeremy Waldron on Anthony Appiah's Experiments in Ethics, Joshua Hammer on Fordlandia, Christian Caryl on Pixar's magic, and more.
