It is a telling reflection of the priorities of the last president that one of the few civil rights cases before the nation’s high court this year is a reverse discrimination case. It concerns a group of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who say they were unfairly denied promotion as a result of...
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Swine Flu Frenzy Has Washington Fighting Over Pork
Don’t expect even a brewing international flu crisis to silence partisan rancor inside the beltway. With hospitals in Mexico, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Israel, and the United States confirming that patients have contracted swine flu, lawmakers in Washington continue to lob accusations across the aisle.
Mounting Calls for Punishment in Firestorm Over CIA “Torture” Memos
The word torture has tripped awkwardly off tongues throughout Washington ever since the Obama administration’s release of legal memos justifying the CIA’s use of brutal interrogation measures. It isn’t news, of course, that the CIA was playing tough with terrorist suspects. But the lengthy memos included vivid details that belied earlier Bush administration claims...
Legendary Spy Charlie Allen Knows the CIA’s Secrets
For a young CIA analyst in the fall of 1962, it was a heady assignment. With President John F. Kennedy contemplating an invasion of Cuba to neutralize the threat of Soviet nuclear weapons on the island, the CIA began planning. At age 27, Charles Allen was a junior intelligence analyst tracking the names of...
Why the Government’s Ability to Protect Against Online Attacks Is Limited
When Sen. Bill Nelson asked who was responsible for hacking into one of the computers in his Capitol Hill office several times in February and March, government investigators responded that the attack originated in China. But when the Florida Democrat quizzed the head of U.S. Strategic Command during a hearing on cybersecurity about who...
