For Holder, New Congress Means New Headaches

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/us/politics/31holder.html?scp=1&sq=for%20Attorney%20General,%20New%20Congress%20means%20new%20headaches&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 11:25 AM
Subject: re: For Holder, New Congress Means New Headaches
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Attorney General Eric Holder--alone in this Democratic administration--has cause to welcome the new Congress.  For two years, he has been the lonely linchpin in the cover-up of Bush-era crimes. Now he will be able to point to partisans in the House of Representatives who wish to protect those who tortured and those who wiretapped illegally.  Given the American electorate's short attention span, he may even convince someone by 2012.

Barry Levine

Rights Groups Tie Pakistan to Militants’ Disappearances

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/world/asia/30disappear.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=disappearances%20tied%20to%20Pakistan%20are%20worr%20to%20U.S.&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 9:03 AM
Subject: re: Rights Groups Tie Pakistan to Militants’ Disappearances
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Since it was proclaimed nine years ago the "Global War on Terror" has provided carte blanche to governments around the world to liquidate annoying opponents.  If it is only in Pakistan that these make news, perhaps it is because we don't have reporters in Chechnya, Tibet, Xinjiang, Peru...A few governments joined the U.S. in the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. A rather different list has found it convenient to embrace the "Global War on Terror" to bolster their own repressive regimes at home.

Barry Levine

Some Israelis Question Benefits for Ultra-Religious

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/world/middleeast/29israel.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 10:44 AM
Subject: re: Some Israelis Question Benefits for Ultra-Religious
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Rabbi Ansellem--like Adam Smith--has grasped what David ben-Gurion did not. The incentives are the system. An open-ended guarantee of money to those who don't work stimulates an endless stream of those not working. Ben-Gurion felt he could afford to pension off 400 scholars of what he thought was the last generation of haredim. Israel today needs a workforce like any other developed nation.

Barry Levine

Taliban Fighters Appear Blunted in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/world/asia/27policy.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 9:10 AM
Subject: re: Taliban Fighters Appear Blunted in Afghanistan
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   On page one, we learn that the Haqqani network has been stymied. On page six, those who read the rest of the article learn that this same group has instead been staging successful assaults against remote American outposts. Perhaps Secretary Gates is satisfied that the carnage is now beyond the range of the news cameras. Will we declare "victory" just because our sons and brothers are now dying in more obscurity?

Barry Levine

Ending the War to End All Wars

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/opinion/26macmillan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=ending%20the%20war&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 26, 2010 at 9:38 AM
Subject: re: Ending the War to End All Wars
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

     Would that WWI were over!   Now that Germany has retired its debt from the war, only the accounts of the U.S. remain to be settled. We have not yet repaid the principal borrowed from the Federal Reserve for that venture. For the better part of a century--through boom times and bust--the U.S. has lived as a debtor to an agency of its own creation.  I'm sure it's convenient to the bankers to keep Uncle Sam on such a leash; it remains an enduring embarrassment to the People.

Barry Levine

Jailed Afghan Drug Lord Was Informer on U.S. Payroll

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/world/asia/12drugs.html?_r=1&hp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 7:58 AM
Subject: re: Jailed Afghan Drug Lord Was Informer on U.S. Payroll
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   In January 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the United States. At that time, he signalled that some things would remain unchanged by keeping Robert Gates on the Federal payroll as Secretary of Defense. Now he signals that some things are changing by taking Juma Khan off the same payroll.  Of course, when a government has been paying a druglord, it can't just fire him. Khan must be silenced. If he won't make a deal, he will be killed to protect our "state secrets".   That's what it means to project American power around the world. it is a ponderous burden.

Barry Levine

Officials pressed Germans on kidnapping by C.I.A.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/world/europe/09wikileaks-elmasri.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=officials%20pressed%20Germans&st=cse

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 9:22 AM
Subject: re: Officials pressed Germans on kidnapping by C.I.A.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

  If you or I were kidnapped and tortured while on holiday, we would expect our government to move heaven and earth to free us. If we were then dumped without identification or money by a rural roadside in a strange country, we would ask our government to get us home and to pursue the perpetrators. The German government kept faith with Khaled el-Masri. Now we learn that the Bush administration interceded to obstruct justice and to intimidate prosecutors from pursuing the kidnappers. These would be grave crimes if committed in the United States. Perhaps, for the U.S. government, they're just part of the game. Or perhaps our C.I.A. is not answerable to any law.

Barry Levine

Suit Over Targeted Killings Is Thrown Out

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/middleeast/08killing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=suit%20over%20targeted%20killings%20is%20thrown%20out&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 9:51 AM
Subject: re: Suit Over Targeted Killings Is Thrown Out
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Judge John D. Bates is shocking callous to say that "Mr. Awlaki could pursue [his Fifth Amendment Rights to due process of law] himself if he surrendered to American authorities". Anwar al-Awlaki has not been charged with any crime by the U.S. government.  Judge Bates himself has ruled that he is utterly alone in the world.  To rule that al-Awlaki's father didn't have standing to challenge the kill-order, judge Bates had to conclude that the father would suffer no tangible damage if his son were killed.

  If this is the level of law, order and civilization that we propose to bring to Iraq, to Afghanistan and perhaps to Yemen, the locals should resist us tooth and nail.

Barry Levine

Cables Depict Afghan Graft, Starting at Top

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/world/asia/03wikileaks-corruption.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=corruption%20afghanistan&st=cse&scp=1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Sat, Dec 4, 2010 at 6:51 PM
Subject: re: Cables Depict Afghan Graft, Starting at Top
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
   In Afghanistan, president Obama must always ask: "[is] root[ing]
out corruption, at the risk of further alienating Mr. Karzai, really
worth it?" Anyone who remembers America's foreign policy follies of
the 20th century must answer that it is.  Any day that the U.S. is
seen to be tolerating and supporting a corrupt regime is a day on
which we earn more enemies than we can kill or co-opt. That's a game
that we can never win. It's not worth another cent or another life.
Barry Levine