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Civil liberties in America A needless victory for terrorAug 29th 2002 From The Economist print edition Too many freedoms have been eroded in America since September 11th ";WE HAVE entered a new type of war. It's a war against people who hate freedom... People who love freedom will join with us... We're fighting for liberty and freedom..."; George Bush was no doubt sincere when he spoke those words, a few days after the dreadful attacks of last September 11th. But if truth is always the first casualty of war, and patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, then...

WASHINGTON, DC From The Economist print edition No recent president has been so close to corporate America. Can George Bush possibly bite the hand that has fed him for so long? THERE he was -- America's first president with an MBA, the man who loves to boast about his business background, whose presidential campaign raised unprecedented sums from corporate wallets and whose cabinet is stuffed with chief executives -- standing before 700 pinstriped Titans in a New York hotel ballroom, dressing them down. Faith in the integrity of American business leaders was being undermined, George Bush said fiercely, by executives...

Gary Endelman practices immigration law at BP Amoco Corporation. The opinions expressed in this column are purely personal and do not represent the views or beliefs of BP Amoco Corporation in any way. This article is copyrighted by ILW.COM and is reprinted with permission. You can read other articles by Mr. Endelman, and subscribe to future articles at www.ilw.com There is an ongoing civil war within the Republican Party that will decide the future of immigration policy during the Bush Years. If the pro-immigration faction wins, we can expect President Bush to continue to press for reforms where he...

Vice President Dick Cheney has thrown down the gauntlet. He has refused to give the General Accounting Office the very limited information they have requested about the work of his energy task force. (GAO, created in 1921 during the Harding Administration, has from its inception been an independent and nonpartisan agency of the Congress, charged with studying the programs and expenditures of the federal government.) Cheney says he is refusing to provide information to the Congress as a matter of principle. He told the Today Show that he wants to "protect the ability of the president and the vice ...

From The Economist print editionThe Republicans look likely to retain the old curmudgeon's seat, but a maverick Democrat could still cause an upset APUnrepeatable AN OLD South Carolina quip says that the state's graveyards are jammed with politicians who had hoped to succeed Strom Thurmond. Now that the frail 99-year-old Republican is at last planning to retire, you might have expected a rush of politicians trying to fill his shoes. In fact, only two have done so. For the Republicans, the lone candidate is a 46-year-old congressman, Lindsey Graham. A conservative lawyer from the north-western corner of the state, he ...

From The Economist print editionIn November, America goes back to the polls. The first of three pieces concludes that national issues may matter less than local ones THIS week marks the formal start of elephant- and donkey-hunting season, otherwise known as an election year. On January 23rd, Congress reconvened with its usual stack of unfinished business. On January 29th, George Bush's state-of-the-union speech will outline the issues facing his administration (the unspoken one being: how can we defeat Democrats at the election?). His proposed budget for next year appears a week later. And the hunting season builds up to November ...

THE Red Army's orgy of rape in the dying days of Nazi Germany was conducted on a much greater scale than previously suspected, according to a new book by the military historian Anthony Beevor. Beevor, the author of the best-selling Stalingrad, says advancing Soviet troops raped large numbers of Russian and Polish women held in concentration camps, as well as millions of Germans. The extent of the Red Army's indiscipline and depravity emerged as the author studied Soviet archives for his forthcoming book Berlin, to be published in April by Viking. Beevor - who was educated at Sandhurst and served ...

Every white bigot's favourite black NEW YORKERS are all too familiar with his pompadour hair and pyrotechnic polemics. He materialises miraculously at the first whiff of racial trouble. He is an omnipresent figure on news broadcasts and talk shows. He has even been immortalised in one of the great novels about the city, Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities", as the unforgettable Reverend Bacon. Can Al Sharpton go on to prove, as the song has it, that if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere? Can he turn himself into a fully-fledged national politician? ...

AN Algerian pilot facing extradition for allegedly training the September 11 hijackers will be freed unless the Americans produce more evidence against him, a magistrate said yesterday. Lotfi Raissi, 27, who wept throughout his latest English court appearance, has spent 16 weeks in custody on minor holding charges while the FBI tries to build a conspiracy to murder case. American investigators claim that he was a "lead instructor" to at least one of the men who flew the airliners into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. But, despite more than six court appearances, they have yet to present ...

The mood of America What September 11th really wrought Jan 10th 2002 | WASHINGTON, DC From The Economist print editionAmerica is getting back to normal after September 11th, partisan bickering and all. But the attacks may change politics in ways its politicians have not yet grasped IN ONE of the greatest political speeches, his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln argued that the civil war then raging was remaking American society despite the expectations and wishes of its leaders. "Neither party," he said, "expected for the war the magnitude or duration which it has already attained. Each looked for an ...

Lexington Treasonous reflections Dec 13th 2001 From The Economist print editionAmericans -- particularly George Bush -- shouldn't make excuses for John Walker Get article backgroundA CHIEF justice, John Marshall, once said that treason is the crime that can most "excite and agitate the passions of men". He forgot to add that, in America at least, the passion it does most to agitate is that for obfuscation. John Walker, a Californian airhead turned Taliban fighter, is a traitor by any reasonable definition of the word. He was found fighting alongside the Taliban with an AK-47 in his hand; he took ...