Have We Lowered Our Guard Against Terror?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 5th, 2010 4:31 am by HL
Have We Lowered Our Guard Against Terror?
Timothy Noah, Slate
The scene of the Times Square bomb scareFaisal Shahzad, the Pakistan-born American citizen arrested on suspicion of being Times Square's would-be May Day bomber, did not act alone. Reportedly he's told authorities he received bomb training in Waziristan, a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold. In Pakistan, a man named Muhammad Rehan, who was seen with Shahzad on a recent visit, has been arrested; Rehan's mosque is reportedly linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed, the same al-Qaida affiliate that five young Muslim Americans from Alexandria, Va., contacted in Pakistan this past December, leading…
Border-First Hallucinations
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The notion that the first thing to do is “secure the border” between the United States and Mexico — and only then worry about comprehensive immigration reform — falls somewhere between hopeful fantasy and cynical cop-out. It's a good sound bite but would be a ridiculous policy.Fact-based analysis is increasingly out of fashion, however, and so the border-first hallucination has become popular among politicians and pundits reacting to Arizona's new “breathing while Latino” law. The measure, which has sparked angry protests nationwide, orders…
A Whirlwind Tour of the British Campaign
Jacob Weisberg, Slate
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg In London last week for a hack's holiday, I was asked several times: Do Americans care about the British election? The truthful answer is no, we don't, mainly because we haven't developed a relationship with any of the candidates. Unlike the Blair-Clinton years, there is no fraternal bond between New Labor and the Democrats. Unlike the Blair-Bush years, there's no prayerful union between prime minister and president.What's more, it's difficult to argue that America should care who wins. The range of policies proposed by the…
