Adam Serwer

A while ago I wrote that Andy McCarthy‘s theory of a grand conspiracy between terrorists and civil-liberties lawyers to destroy the United States was complicated by the fact that many of those lawyers were observant, even Zionist Jews. This is by no means the only hole in McCarthy’s reasoning — which is, roughly, premised on […]

The decision to replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal with Gen. David Petraeus is getting support from a source that is not as unlikely as it might seem — Elisa Massimino of Human Rights First. Our national security and the successful completion of the U.S. mission there depend on depriving the enemy of legitimacy and building trust […]

Earlier this week, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl accused the Obama administration of “holding the border hostage,” saying that the White House wasn’t going to “secure the border” without Republican commitments to comprehensive immigration reform. At the time I pointed out that this was doubtful, both because of the already considerable federal resources devoted to the […]

Tupac Amaru Shakur‘s recording of the song “Dear Mama,” about a mother struggling with poverty and addiction to crack cocaine, is being preserved by the Library of Congress because of its “cultural significance.” Most of the people who might have been outraged by this are now devoting their full efforts to battling the “creeping influence […]

Calling it “the right thing for our mission in Afghanistan, for our military, and for our country,” President Barack Obama opted to replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal following the publication of a Rolling Stone article in which McChrystal and his inner circle made disparaging remarks about administration officials. The decision was necessary, as Noah Schactman writes, […]

The only reaction over at NRO to Faisal Shahzad‘s guilty plea is this brief post. And to think I was looking forward to an explanation for why Shahzad likely spending the rest of his life in jail was part of the grand plot against America formulated by terrorists and liberals. — A. Serwer

For some reason, when I was writing about the Supreme Court ruling outlawing juvenile life without parole for non-homicide offenses, I neglected to mention Andy McCarthy‘s reaction. What was it? Well naturally, McCarthy asked, did Justice Anthony Kennedy “consult the Sharia?”: The penalty for theft under Islamic law is the amputation of the right hand. […]

Today, Troy Davis gets his day in court. Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of a police officer, Mark MacPhail. Since his trial, seven of the nine witnesses have come forward and recanted, with several saying they were pressured by police into fingering Davis — one now points to the ninth witness as the […]

Other bloggers are weighing in on the potential implications of Gen. Stanley McChrystal‘s Rolling Stone profile on his command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan; I just want to highlight one brief portion of the profile. In anticipation of McChrystal’s confirmation hearings, his staff was concerned that he would be asked about abuses of Iraqi detainees […]

Yesterday, would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York City. He did so after waiving his Miranda rights, confessing in custody, and treating interrogators to what they claim are reams of “actionable intelligence.” As with Umar Abdulmutallab, the would-be underwear bomber, and Najibullah Zazi, the would-be subway bomber, […]