Adam Serwer

The Pentagon announced today that military commissions prosecutors at Gitmo have sworn charges against alleged U.S.S. Cole bomber Abd al Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al Nashiri. While Nashiri had been selected for military commissions prosecution from the beginning, ostensibly because the Cole was a military target, his trial had been delayed leading to complaints from conservatives […]

Yesterday, the White House held a meeting on immigration reform with activists, advocacy groups, and law-enforcement officers to discuss the way forward on immigration reform. Recently, Senate Democrats asked the administration to institute a formal process for allowing potential DREAM Act recipients to apply for “deferred action,” meaning, essentially, that they would be given a […]

Glenn Beck explains, in cartoon form, how early Zionist settlers who battled “those wacky Arabs” were just like the Jewish guys at your local New York Deli: First, Beck’s deli stereotypes are a few years out of date; the Jewish deli is an endangered institution. There are probably more Arabs in NYC who own delis […]

Egypt’s decision to amend its current constitution through referendum will have a great impact on shaping its transition to democracy. Many of the more liberal and secular forces opposed the amendments in part because they will lead to elections sooner rather than later, lending a distinct advantage to established groups like deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak‘s […]

State Department Spokesperson PJ Crowley resigned from the State Department last month after calling the detention conditions of alleged WikiLeaks leaker Pvt. Bradley Manning, which critics have called abusive, “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” Yesterday, the Pentagon announced they were moving Manning from the brig in the Marine base at Quantico to pretrial confinement in […]

Joshua Foust on Greg Mortenson. Indies want to raise taxes on top earners. Out profiles Glenn Greenwald. Marcy Wheeler on PJ Crowley.

I’m not sure I adequately got across my point in this morning’s post about conservatives accusing the Obama administration of scuttling a prosecution of CAIR. Not only is the accusation itself pure speculation, but the idea that the Obama administration is somehow taking it easy on Muslims is largely a function of conservative focus on […]

Donald Trump is the Republican Party’s Frankenstein. They could have come out early and said this birther nonsense was crazy. Instead they let it fester, and now the party elites are scrambling trying to convince their own base that it is actually crazy.

Earlier this week, Speaker John Boehner demanded that the Department of Justice foot the bill for defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in court. Now we know why Boehner wanted the money so badly–the House has retained former Bush II Solicitor General Paul Clement, and they’re paying his firm a lot of […]

Benji Sarlin reports that Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who famously called for a social issues “truce” angering social conservatives, is accepting an award from the Arab American Institute on for his “his broad record of public service.” A spokesman for AAI, Omar Tewfik, contrasted Daniels’ relationship with the Arab-American community with other potential candidates in […]