The Weekly Standard
by Charles Krauthammer

During the last few weeks in Washington the pieties about torture have lain so thick in the air that it has been impossible to have a reasoned discussion. The McCain amendment that would ban 'cruel, inhuman, or degrading' treatment of any prisoner by any agent of the United States sailed through the Senate by a vote of 90-9. The Washington establishment remains stunned that nine such retrograde, morally inert persons -- let alone senators -- could be found in this noble capital. Now, John McCain has great moral authority on this issue, having heroically borne torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese. McCain has made fine arguments in defense of his position. And McCain is acting out of the deep and honorable conviction that what he is proposing is not only right but is in the best interest of the United States. His position deserves respect. But that does not mean, as seems to be the assumption in Washington today, that a critical analysis of his 'no torture, ever' policy is beyond the pale...(for publication 12/05/05)

http://tinyurl.com/cg423


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Salon
by James Norton

11/28/05

Book review: "History can be a truly explosive force when it's connected tightly to contemporary events. The linkage of Islam, terrorism and the war in Iraq has a deep and vivid history with the potential to hit the American public like a roadside bomb, but it has gone largely untold, emerging only in bits and pieces -- until now. 'Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam' digs up the knotty roots of Islamist violence, exhuming the deep, dirty story behind the 'war on terror'...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112805E.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The American Spectator
by Jed Babbin

11/28/05

As hard as it is to think of Ted Kennedy as a political visionary, his April 2004 statement that 'Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam,' was way before its time. In the last presidential election year Kennedy started down a path that would have been political suicide for Kerry. But Kerry's approach -- feigning support for real action against terrorism -- lost. The Dems will not make the same mistake in 2008. The architects of our defeat in Vietnam have dusted off their old plans and are adopting them to Iraq. They are working hard to make Kennedy's statement come true. The whole Democrat menagerie has embarked on a campaign to Vietnamize Iraq: to make it a demonstrable defeat and by so doing regain the White House regardless of the consequences. If they succeed, Iraq will become a far greater failure than Vietnam was because the stakes are much higher abroad and at home. The next presidential election will, like the last one, be a referendum on Iraq. And if Iraq is a failure, the Democrats will be a success...

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=9071


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Price of Liberty
by Lady Liberty

11/28/05

We talk about politics. We talk about polls. We talk about a lot of things that are politically motivated, affected, or otherwise part and parcel of politics. And yet, much as our discussions about the weather, there's little we actually do about it. Few undertake activism; fewer still run for election. The one relatively easy thing that we can still do is vote. But plenty of people who are eligible don't do that, either. For instance, in the most recent elections, only about 40% of the people in my county turned up at the polls. Local officials were touting that as being pretty good. As far as I'm concerned, it means over half of the registered voters here didn't bother...

http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/05/11/28/ladylib.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Papers Please
by staff

11/24/05

Meet Deborah Davis. She's a 50 year-old mother of four who lives and works in Denver, Colorado. Her kids are all grown-up: her middle son is a soldier fighting in Iraq. She leads an ordinary, middle class life. You probably never would have heard of Deb Davis if it weren't for her belief in the U.S. Constitution. One morning in late September 2005, Deb was riding the public bus to work. She was minding her own business, reading a book and planning for work, when a security guard got on this public bus and demanded that every passenger show their ID. Deb, having done nothing wrong, declined. The guard called in federal cops, and she was arrested and charged with federal criminal misdemeanors after refusing to show ID on demand.On the 9th of December 2005, Deborah Davis will be arraigned in U.S. District Court in a case that will determine whether Deb and the rest of us live in a free society, or in a country where we must show 'papers' whenever a cop demands them...

http://www.papersplease.org/davis/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Indianapolis Star

11/27/05

A second Time magazine reporter has agreed to cooperate in the CIA leak case and will testify about her discussions with Karl Rove's attorney, a sign that prosecutors are still exploring charges against the White House aide. Viveca Novak, a reporter in Time's Washington bureau, is cooperating with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003, the magazine reported in its Dec. 5 issue. Novak specifically has been asked to testify under oath about conversations she had with Rove attorney Robert Luskin starting in May 2004, the magazine reported...

http://tinyurl.com/bfvhr


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Forbes

11/28/05

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has warned that any European Union nation found to have allowed secret CIA prison camps to operate on their soil could have their EU voting rights suspended. ... Meanwhile the US was coming under mounting pressure to explain reports of secret stopovers at European airports by CIA planes allegedly carrying terror suspects to covert prison camps...

http://tinyurl.com/cjux8


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

With a lack of moral justification, as US soldiers return from Iraq they struggle to come to terms with the psychological ramifications of the war they have endured.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112705G.shtml

Federal investigators are scrutinizing a $10,000 donation made five years ago by SunCruz Casinos to a Republican campaign committee on behalf of an Ohio congressman.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112705E.shtml

Demonstrations continued Saturday as approximately 200 anti-war protesters joined Cindy Sheehan on a private lot outside President George W. Bush's hometown ranch, laughing at a Bush impersonator and crying while listening to relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112705D.shtml