The Terror Presidency

The Book I so want to read now; Jack Goldsmith’s The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration.

In October 2003, President Bush appointed Goldsmith, a self-described conservative who proudly proclaims that he is not a civil libertarian, head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, thus making him chief adviser to the president about the legality of presidential actions. Ten months later, Goldsmith resigned because he could not endorse the unlawful policies the administration had implemented in the war on terror.

Shortly after taking office, Goldsmith reviewed a series of highly confidential opinions written by his predecessors in the Bush administration that defended the legality of “some of the most sensitive counterterrorism operations in the government.” To Goldsmith’s shock and dismay, he found that some of these opinions “were deeply flawed: sloppily reasoned, overbroad, and incautious in asserting extraordinary constitutional authorities on behalf of the President.” What was going on?

Continue reading this review…..

Another review from International Herald Tribune reads,

As Goldsmith recounts in his chilling new book, “The Terror Presidency,” he and his Justice Department colleagues (in consultation with lawyers from the State Department, the Defense Department, the CIA and the National Security Council) reached a consensus in 2003 that the Fourth Geneva Convention (which governs the duties of an occupying power and the treatment of civilians) affords protection to all Iraqis, including those who are terrorists. When he delivered this decision to the White House, he recalls, Addington exploded: ” ‘The president has already decided that terrorists do not receive Geneva Convention protections,’ he barked. ‘You cannot question his decision.’ “

There has been a lot of criticism of the way the Bush Adminisration is running and managing its War on Terror program. I would like to read this book to learn more about it. The reviews make it seem very interesting. 🙂

India shining

The Times of India cartoon below aptly describes the title of my post.

Truly we are shining. Newspapers report that the ten richest people in the Country have increased their net worth by 51% in the past seven months. That amounts to roughly $ 41.2 Billion. And yes, people still die.

Capitalism seems to have taken a new course in this Country. the rich become richer and the poor don’t seem to be a priority anymore. The left seems to have become a shadow party and the Congress’s AAM AADMI seems to be the rich man who wants to make his millions.

Traffic jams still occur; the cities still have bad infrastructure. I still hate Bombay because of the traveling hassles. So the question is; Where does all the money go? Surely not only into the pockets of the top 10. 🙂