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Showing posts from May 3, 2006

Good call on Moussaoui

As your blogstress writes, word comes that the jury in the case of Zacharias Moussaoui, a member of the 911 terrorist plot, has sentenced him to life in prison -- not death. This is a sage decision, even if it does provoke the U.S. right to rabid denouncements of the nation's judicial system. As has been long discussed, a death sentence for Moussaoui will make a martyr out of this hateful, and likely mentally ill, would-be terrorist. Today's decision is one in which justice surely wins.

Failing Afghanistan again

Anyone who's paid attention to the travails of the noble people of Afghanistan will not be surprised by today's New York Times report , by the indefatigable Carlotta Gall, of the Taliban's resurgence in that beleaguered nation. Of course, that would be a mere handful of Americans, since no one seems to care about the fate of the Afghans, who could be arguably credited with having ended the Cold War. From Carlotta Gall's report: In one of the most serious developments, some 200 Taliban have moved into the district of Panjwai, only a 20-minute drive from the capital of the south, Kandahar, Mr. Karzai's home city. The police and coalition forces clashed with them two weeks ago, yet the Taliban returned, walking in the villages openly with their weapons, and sitting under the trees eating mulberries, according to a resident of the district. The resident, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said the Taliban had been demanding food, lodging and the Muslim t

National security spying discussion
on Diane Rehm

As she gets her late start at today's posting, your blogstress is listening to a most interesting discussion on today's edition of The Diane Rehm Show , a show syndicated to NPR affiliates, on the massive levels of spying focused on "U.S. persons," a category that includes U.S. citizens and others who are in the country legally. Today's show (click on the above link and click on appropriate player in the left-hand sidebar to listen to live stream) features David Cole (the Georgetown University law professor, not the Washington, D.C., guitar virtuoso), former Reagan administration Justice Department official Lee Casey, and Robert Block , the Wall Street Journal journalist who last week reported on the Defense Department's data-mining expeditions against Americans. The audio will be posted online at about noontime, EDT.