Cheney Calls Interrogation Inquiry ‘Political’

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/us/politics/31cheney.html?hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 5:16 PM
Subject: re: Cheney Calls Interrogation Inquiry ‘Political’
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Dick Cheney proceeds from a false conception that the agents, officers and contractors of the C.I.A. are answerable only to guidelines promulgated by the Executive branch, and not to laws duly enacted by our legislation. This is not and has never been the American system of government. It is a continuation of his 35-yr campaign to seize all powers for an imperial executive.   Asserting that no man is above the law is not a partisan assault. It is the duty of our Executive.

Barry Levine

The C.I.A. in Double Jeopardy

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/opinion/30finder.html?_r=1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 6:40 AM
Subject: re: The C.I.A. in Double Jeopardy
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Even before the United States were the United States, we had values and standards. In 1775, George Washington charged his men: "Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]. . . I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause... for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country."

These values are still our values, now enshrined in our statutory law.  Joseph Finder turns our system of government on it's head, making a set of "guidelines" propagated in the Executive branch trump the law, duly enacted by our Legislature, in accordance with our Constitution.  It is to the law that every American in answerable, and it is the sworn duty of the President of the United States to "see that the Law is faithfully executed".

Barry Levine

Democrats Eye Maine Senator for a Health Vote

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/health/policy/29snowe.html?hpw

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 8:42 PM
Subject: re: Democrats Eye Maine Senator for a Health Vote
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Senator Snowe is a popular Republican senator in a region where Republican leaders are increasingly rare because her loyalty is to her constituents, rather than to her party.  In passing president Obama's stimulus  bill, she--with senator Collins--brought $10billion dollars to Maine's ship-building industry. That stimulus money had to create jobs somewhere, and she took the opportunity to serve the people of Maine.  The American people cannot afford to continue the Gingrich era of hyper partisanship. If senator Snowe isn't permitted to serve her people within "the party of No", she knows knows that she will be more than welcome across the aisle.

Barry Levine

Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/us/politics/24detain.html?hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Subject: re: Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases
To: letters@nytimes.com

- Hide quoted text -

To the Editor:

   For too long, the Obama administration has views the torture issue as a backwards-looking distraction from its forward-looking foreign policy goals.  To compartmentalize thus is to ignore the power of our example in the world. As long as it is perceived that the U.S. tortures or countenances torture, we will never win the allies we need to establish a free and sovereign Afghanistan. Without those allies, we're stuck in a quagmire.  Our foreign policy is hostage to our perception, and our perception rests on our seeing that our laws are faithfully executed. Prosecuting torturers seems a fine place to start.

Barry Levine

Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/us/politics/24detain.html?_r=1&hp

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 8:48 AM
Subject: re: Justice Dept. Report Advises Pursuing C.I.A. Abuse Cases
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Until now, we have treated reports of detainee deaths and reports of torture as two different stories. Now that the extent of an inquiry is being discussed, we must be clear.  It is not yet demonstrated that the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation techniques" are non-lethal. When our military or our C.I.A. take custody of a prisoner, they are accountable--minimally to the Red Cross--for that prisoner's life. 

   This is not about looking back or looking forward.  The abuse or extra-judicial killing of detainees is a war crime.  If it is perceived that the U.S. commits or countenances war crimes, we will never win the allies we need to leave Afghanistan in peace.

Barry Levine

Report Shows Tight C.I.A. Control on Interrogations

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/us/26prison.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 9:43 AM
Subject: re: Report Shows Tight C.I.A. Control on Interrogations
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

The U.S. Constitution enumerates the sources of the laws by which we are governed. It permits no exception in which the guidelines of the department of Justice, or of the C.I.A.--no matter how minutely detailed--supersede our treaty obligations and our statutory laws. We look to Attorney General Holder to faithfully execute the law which forbids torture. If the C.I.A. guidelines violate that law, their authors should also be investigated.

Barry Levine

Report Provides New Details on C.I.A. Prisoner Abuse

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/us/politics/23cia.html?scp=1&sq=report%20provides%20new%20details%20on%20C.I.A.%20prisoner%20abuse&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 8:57 AM
Subject: re: Report Provides New Details on C.I.A. Prisoner Abuse
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

As long as president Obama insists "that C.I.A. officers who adhered to Justice Department interrogation guidelines should escape prosecution", we need to be in his face. No one in the Department of Justice has or had the authority to violate our treaty obligations, or our statutes. Professor Obama taught that no man is above the law. If president Obama has forgotten this, we will have to remind him.

Barry Levine

In Brazil, Paying Farmers to Let the Trees Stand

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/science/earth/22degrees.html?ref=todayspaper

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 9:38 AM
Subject: re: In Brazil, Paying Farmers to Let the Trees Stand
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

As urgent as it is to stop deforestation, we must keep track of what it can accomplish. If the world went "carbon neutral" today, and if we restored the world's forests to their state in 1800, we would still have a greenhouse gas problem. We have spent 200 years pumping carbon from fossil reserves into the atmosphere and oceans, and we need to recapture that carbon. With our current technology, that means letting plants fix carbon from the atmosphere as cellulose, and then sequestering that cellulose in forms that won't get back to the atmosphere, either as biochar or as anthropogenic peat.

Barry Levine

C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/us/21intel.html?scp=3&sq=james-risen&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Subject: re: C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

Should we be comforted that an agent of the C.I.A, and not a contractor fires the hellfire missiles from our drones in Afghanistan? Since he is not a uniformed member of our military, such an agent is an "unlawful combatant". That makes the U.S. a "state sponsor of terrorism". There is enough wrong with this world to keep the employees of our department of Justice busy for several lifetimes. There is no place in their mission for playing soldier.

Barry Levine

Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=super-rich%20hits&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 8:37 AM
Subject: re: Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

The pool of unemployed Wall Street bankers who were getting multi-million dollar compensation a year or two ago should put to rest the myth that such pay packages are necessary to get and keep talented investment bankers. These guys have real expenses; make 'em an offer. But let them compete in the real market of supply and demand, not in the fantasy world of other people's money.

Barry Levine

C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help to Kill Jihadists

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/us/20intel.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=outsiders%20were%20hired%20as%20C.I.A.%20planned&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 9:50 AM
Subject: re: C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help to Kill Jihadists
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

It now emerges that the Bush administration contracted out for assassins to dodge an executive order barring the C.I.A. from such work, and brought in C.I.A. torturers to dodge an Army Field Manual prohibition against such conduct by our soldiers. In each case, the motive was not to advance our war aims, but to evade the law. How much more evidence is needed to build a case that the Bush Administration orchestrated a pattern of criminal activity subject to prosecution under RICO statutes?

Barry Levine

The Greenback Effect

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/opinion/19buffett.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20greenback%20effect&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Subject: re: The Greenback Effect
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

Warren Buffet warns that cheap money policies can come at high costs, and I'd be a fool to dismiss his analysis. He goes too far however in arguing that the current Fed policy is unprecedented. To do this, he has to exclude data from the years 1942-1946. These were exactly the years in which the U.S. finally escaped the Great Depression. FDR had boldly initiated deficit spending in 1933, but the Depression surged back when he tried to balance the budget for his next election campaign. Only when we put three million men in uniform and undertook to arm the free world--on a wave of deficit spending--did we emerge from the Great Depression and emerge as the driving economic engine of the world. We all hope that the world can be pulled from the current economic crisis without the widepread loss of life of 1942-1946. It would be reckless to discard the data from these years to score a rhetorical point.

Barry Levine

The Swiss Menace

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/opinion/17krugman.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20swiss%20menace&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Subject: re: The Swiss Menace
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

If we mean to use the force of law to coerce the transfer of wealth from healthcare consumers to an insurer, that insurer must be public. Such a government taking for private profit would not be in the public interest.

Barry Levine

‘Public Option’ in Health Plan May Be Dropped

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/health/policy/17talkshows.html?_r=1&hp

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 9:37 PM
Subject: re: ‘Public Option’ in Health Plan May Be Dropped
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

As long as private health insurance companies compete to insure the young and the healthy and to exclude those with actual healthcare needs, anyone writing those policies will carry a disproportionate share of America's healthcare costs. It may be impossible to legislate real healthcare reform until we first reform campaign finance and the gerrymandering of congressional districts. Still, any bill without a robust Public Option should face a presidential veto. At least the office of the president should be beyond the influence of the insurance lobby.

Barry Levine

Iraq’s Sunnis

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/opinion/14fri1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Iraq's%20sunnis&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 9:17 AM
Subject: re: Iraq’s Sunnis
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

To say that Washington "did almost nothing to restrain" the Baghdad government in its discrimination against Sunnis is technically correct, but dishonest. "Debaathification" was L. Paul Bremer's announced policy, barring Sunnis from office in both the government and the army. More recently, the Bush administration diverted interested Sunnis into the Awakening Counsels, thereby further purifying the Iraqi army along sectarian lines. If there is to be a peaceful unified sovereign Iraq, it must have non-sectarian national institutions. As long as the government and army are perceived as Shiite bastions, the American occupying army will be needed to forestall civil war.

Barry Levine

The Earth Is Warming? Adjust the Thermostat

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/science/11tier.html?scp=1&sq=adjust%20the%20thermostat&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Subject: re: The Earth Is Warming? Adjust the Thermostat
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

If we define the problem as atmospheric warming, then reducing the planet's albedo or reducing greenhouse gases may be equivalent strategies. Alas, 200yrs of CO2 dumped into our atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution is causing both atmospheric warming and acidification of our oceans. Reducing our albedo may serve only to make a dead planet more comfortable if we don't address the acidification problem as well. Sequestering gigatons of carbon (e.g. as biochar) promises to address both problems.

Barry Levine

The Two-State Solution Doesn’t Solve Anything

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/opinion/11malley.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=two%20state%20solution%20doesn't&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 8:44 AM
Subject: re: The Two-State Solution Doesn’t Solve Anything
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

After the second world war, the world map was redrawn to accommodate national self-determination of peoples. While the Israelis were early riders on this wave, it was not theirs alone; it is enshrined in the charter of the United Nations. To question this principal in the case of Israel and not of the other new states of the twentieth century seems strangely pointed.

Barry Levine

U.S. to Hunt Down Afghan Drug Lords Tied to Taliban

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/world/asia/10afghan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=afghan%20drug%20chieftans&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 7:59 AM
Subject: re: U.S. to Hunt Down Afghan Drug Lords Tied to Taliban
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

Act now on this special offer! For a limited time only, the U.S. military will execute a hit on your rivals in the drug business! Just submit two affidavits attesting that the target is a bad man, and you can own his share of the lucrative opium trade! Offer not valid outside Afghanistan; restrictions may apply.

Barry Levine

70 Murders, Yet Close to Going Free in Pakistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/world/asia/06justice.html?scp=1&sq=close%20to%20going%20free&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 11:03 AM
Subject: re: 70 Murders, Yet Close to Going Free in Pakistan
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

The case of Malik Ishaq illuminates in miniature why establishing the rule of law must head all our diplomatic efforts around the world. A similar failing of law enforcement leaves Moqtada al-Sadr at large in Iraq, despite his role in the murder of his rival Sayyid Abdul Majid al-Khoei. Until the Iraqi government finds the spine to charge him and try him, neither Kurds nor Sunnis should believe that this government administers justice to all alike. There is no prospect of a free, peaceful, united and sovereign Iraq until all groups there can expect the rule of law.

Barry Levine

To Fight Cancer, Know the Enemy

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/opinion/06watson.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=know%20the%20enemy&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 10:50 AM
Subject: re: To Fight Cancer, Know the Enemy
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

As professor Watson points out "the inherent genetic instability of most cancer cells" is a great challenge. It means that the cancer which--in its youth--might have been destroyed by one drug targetting one driver can shrug off the same drug if treatment is delayed. This must shape strategy both in treating cancers and in researching new therapies. Currently, a novel anti-cancer therapy will be tried first in patients who have already failed established treatments. This means that their cancers are old, tough and probably use many drivers. In the last ten years we have probably discarded several drug candidates that would have been efficacious--even life-saving--in simple cancers, because they were defeated in this toughest clinical population.

Barry Levine

U.S. Adviser’s Blunt Memo on Iraq: Time ‘to Go Home’

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/world/middleeast/31adviser.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=declare%20victory&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 7:23 AM
Subject: re: U.S. Adviser’s Blunt Memo on Iraq: Time ‘to Go Home’
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

General Reese errs if he characterized "Shiite political pressure" as an external threat to the proper function of the Iraqi army. Shiites are the Iraqi army, because the Bush administration diverted interested Sunnis to the Awakening movement. Now, this policy of Sectarian segregation is heating up, predictably, into the next round of civil war.

Barry Levine

Arrests of Sunni Leaders Rise in Baghdad

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/world/middleeast/30adhamiya.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=arrests%20of%20sunni%20leaders%20rise&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 9:04 AM
Subject: re: Arrests of Sunni Leaders Rise in Baghdad
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

Under cover of "the surge", the Bush administration changed strategy in Iraq, de-emphasizing building non-sectarian national institutions while arming and empowering sectarian forces. Now, the overwhelmingly-Shiite Iraqi army is eliminating the Sunni Awakening movement. The U.S. is not innocent in this new chapter of the Iraqi civil struggle. Soon we will be faced with the challenge to either remain to hold the lid on the violence, or withdraw from a new civil bloodbath.

Barry Levine

Supplements for Athletes Draw Alert From F.D.A.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/health/nutrition/29drug.html?scp=1&sq=warning%20by%20fda&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Subject: re: Supplements for Athletes Draw Alert From F.D.A.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

In 1994, Congress created a class of materials that are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration neither as foods nor as drugs. These "nutritional supplements" are now a multi-billion dollar industry with a powerful lobby. Congress made a mistake. Materials claiming medical benefit should be regulated as drugs. Anything else sold to be ingested should be regulated as food. This third category--however profitable--never made sense.

Barry Levine

Health Policy Is Carved Out at Table for 6 II

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/us/politics/28baucus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=table%20for%20six&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Subject: re: Health Policy Is Carved Out at Table for 6
To: letters@nytimes.com

To the Editor:

When six senators sit down to hammer out a healthcare reform bill, dare we ask how many lobbyists stand around them, whispering in their ears about their re-election warchests?

Health Policy Is Carved Out at Table for 6

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/us/politics/28baucus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=table%20for%20six&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Subject: re: Health Policy Is Carved Out at Table for 6
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

Like the "Montana grown" coffee, any "healthcare reform" coming out of this bipartisan cabal will have no honest claim to that name. Coffee could indeed be grown in Montana, but it would be hugely wasteful to do so in heated greenhouses. Likewise, a system run for the profit of the insurance companies and their stockholders can provide healthcare, but it cannot do so at an acceptable cost.

Barry Levine

The Other End of the Abu Ghraib Camera

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/opinion/25quinn.html?scp=1&sq=the%20other%20end%20of%20the%20abu&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 4:27 PM
Subject: re: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/opinion/25quinn.html?scp=1&sq=the%20other%20end%20of%20the%20abu&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 4:27 PM
Subject: re: The Other End of the Abu Ghraib Camera
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

If the goal is to preserve the dignity of the detainees and victims of Abu Ghraib, the technology is well-established to obscure their identities. Suppressing photos of torture and degrading and dehumanizing treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib entirely serves rather to obscure the crimes of the Bush administration. President Obama will find that if he persists in the cover up, he will eventually succeed in making these sins his own.

Barry Levine

To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

If the goal is to preserve the dignity of the detainees and victims of Abu Ghraib, the technology is well-established to obscure their identities. Suppressing photos of torture and degrading and dehumanizing treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib entirely serves rather to obscure the crimes of the Bush administration. President Obama will find that if he persists in the cover up, he will eventually succeed in making these sins his own.

Barry Levine

Warrantless Criticism

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/opinion/27hayden.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=warrantless%20criticism&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Subject: re:Warrantless Criticism
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

The FISA statute of 1978 prohibits wiretapping of U.S. Citizens without a court warrant; in urgent cases it provided that this warrant could be sought retroactively. This was the clear and controlling law at the time that the Bush administration began its illegal campaign of unreasonable search. Michael Hayden's misrepresentation of the is not merely transparently self-serving. It is an assault on our constitutional rights and on the rule of law.

Barry Levine