Free Republic

In the wake of the devastating earthquake, American eyes are again turned toward Haiti—something that only seems to happen when yet another disaster strikes, and never during the daily chaos and misery that plague the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I’ve spent a good deal of time in Haiti, reporting first on the repression under the Duvaliers, then on the rise of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's popular movement, and then on the 1991 military coup that brought him down. I was there during the period of the 1994 military intervention that restored Aristede to power. US interest in the country seemed...

Mondo Washingtonby James RidgewayBig Tent Falling Down Hypermilitary Bush reign pushes conservative coalition to the edgeNovember 2nd, 2004 11:10 AM WASHINGTON, D.C.—Casting a cold eye to the future, one can observe developing fissures within the conservative political movement. The tensions have always been there, with libertarian-minded Republicans bucking for a free market and less government and right-wing Christians calling for a strong federal presence even in the bedroom. By logic, the two sides ought to be at one another's throats, not breaking bread at the same table. Yet that's how they've remained, however warily, held together since the Reagan era...

Posted May 28th, 2002 6:15 PMvillagevoice.com exclusive Mondo Washingtonby James Ridgeway U.S. Ignored Warnings From French key point in unraveling why the FBI failed to follow up leads on Al Qaeda terrorism now centers on the Bureau's contemptuously brushing aside warnings from French intelligence a few days before 9-11. In a footnote to her May 21, 2002, letter to FBI director Robert Mueller, Coleen Rowley, the director of the FBI's Minneapolis office, cryptically alluded to the FBI supervising agent in Washington being given info on the so-called 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, by the French last summer, but choosing not to...