Adam Serwer

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens weighs in: “It was not merely to do justice and avenge Sept. 11,” but “to remove an enemy who had been trying every day to attack the United States,” Justice Stevens said at a dinner in Chicago, according to former Stevens law clerk Diane Amann, a University of […]

Spencer Ackerman has a great idea: I don’t pretend that anything will produce an end to this new debate over torture. The fact that we’re debating torture diminishes our standing as a civilization. But moving beyond it: perhaps, after the actionable intelligence is drained from the bin Laden documents, it would be useful to reconvene […]

I know I’ve written about this a lot lately, but I’m just going to try and collect all the liberal arguments against the legality of killing Osama bin Laden in one place. I realize that killing bin Laden was popular, but as someone who believes that the fight against terrorism can and should be conducted […]

The Washington Times wonders how Obama can protect America if he’s not deliberately defiling Osama bin Laden‘s body: All of this highlights President Obama’s knee-jerk habit of kowtowing to Islam. By constantly emphasizing how bin Laden’s sea burial was in “conformance to Islamic requirements,” Obama officials communicated that the president is more concerned about placating […]

This is terrible: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — More than 80 paramilitary soldiers were killed when at least one suicide bomber blew himself up Friday morning at a military training center in northwest Pakistan, a commander of the Frontier Constabulary said. The bombing was the first major terrorist attack since the American raid in Abbottabad on May […]

Mitt Romney: I will never impose my awesome Massachusetts law on the nation. A new 9/11 commission. Pressuring Teen girls just might be a bad investment strategy. Today in specious inactivity/activity arguments. Greg Sargent on John McCain.

Matthew Yglesias flags this new political survey, which he suggests many whites now “see themselves as a persecuted, put-upon minority that happens to hold over 90 percent of political offices.” The researchers contacted a random national sample of 209 whites and 208 blacks, and asked them how much discrimination each group faced, on a scale […]

House Democrats who released a letter criticizing the new authorization against military force contained in the National Defense Authorization Act earlier this week are planning on introducing an amendment after the recess that they say would prevent Republicans from authorizing an open ended global “war on terror.” “From the perspective of congressional prerogative to declare […]

Florida State Rep. Adam Hasner, the RedState endorsed candidate for Florida Senate in 2012: The enemy has a name, and that name is Sharia-compliant Islam. Sharia compliant Islam is redundant, since while sharia is open to interpretation, all observant Muslims adhere to sharia. So Hasner might as well be saying that all observant Muslims are […]

The Washington Post today sheds some light on the role that Osama bin Laden continued to play as leader of al Qaeda: Bin Laden’s directions tended to be big-picture in nature, officials said, focusing more on broader objectives than on granular operational details. “I wouldn’t call it command and control” that bin Laden was exercising, […]