By Richard Cohen

Attorney General John Ashcroft does not read newspapers or watch TV news. Instead, he's briefed by aides. It's possible, then, that Ashcroft does not know that many people don't think of him anymore as the comforting head of the Justice Department but instead as the scariest man in government. I see him as the director of the Office of Homeland Insecurity.

Ever since Sept. 11, Ashcroft has functioned as the real-life equivalent of the prefect of police in "Casablanca" -- rounding up "the usual suspects" and, like him, doing so without the usual legal safeguards. Their exact number is not known nor are their names. They exist in an American gulag -- a term I use with purposeful exaggeration. This is serious stuff.

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By James Higdon

November 14, 2001—Those of us who spend any amount of time searching for information on the Internet have noticed that the number of conspiracy theories involving US government actions, in a wide variety of areas, have exploded off the charts. This is particularly true in matters evolving from September 11, 2001.

While conspiracy theories surrounding watershed events are not unusual, I believe that the extreme number of theories that we are currently experiencing derive from the fact that we are being provided with so little information from within our national borders that we have a need to answer our own questions. The mainstream press, trying to imbue a frat boy Napoleon with God-like virtue by selling all the stories that Karl Rove wants sold, and giving the press' civic responsibility as government watchdogs a pass, are failing to provide even enough lies to sustain us against the few facts that are able to leak out.. The "Fourth Estate," still apparently hampered by a few remaining ethics, has failed to become the efficient propaganda machine necessary to provide the bastard child with royal legitimacy.

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With Americans distracted by war, Republicans are trying to loot the public purse with a shameless "stimulus" plan.
By Joe Conason

At times like these, as Americans rediscover the big bad world out there, we often talk about the importance of convincing downtrodden peoples abroad of the benefits of democracy. This is a fine idea, of course, so long as we focus on the high-minded ideals of equality and liberty embodied in the Constitution, and don't call too much attention to the grubbier details of our system as it actually functions. Let's not mention last year's presidential election, for instance, when the guys who got fewer votes took office because so many ballots went uncounted.

And let's try to avoid the subject of the influence of money in democracy's homeland, too -- because our country's ruling elite looks far too much like the larcenous oligarchies that already rule those other benighted places. Whatever may have changed in Washington since Sept. 11, the fealty of our elected officials to moneyed interests remains the same. Only the rhetoric has changed, with greed masquerading as patriotism.

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by Jim Naureckas

IN JOURNALISM, it's called "burying the lead": A story starts off with what everyone already knows, while the real news - the most surprising, significant or never-been-told-before information - gets pushed down where people are less likely to see it.

That's what happened to the findings of the media study of the uncounted votes from last year's Florida presidential vote. A consortium of news outlets - including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Tribune Co. (Newsday's parent company), The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and CNN - spent nearly a year and $900,000 reexamining every disputed ballot.

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by George Monbiot

The armchair warriors have proved no more merciful in victory than the Northern Alliance. Yesterday's Sun gave two pages to an editorial entitled "Shame of the traitors: wrong, wrong, wrong ... the fools who said Allies faced disaster". Christopher Hitchens raised the moral and intellectual tone of the debate in the Guardian yesterday with this lofty sentiment: "Well, ha ha ha and yah, boo - It was ... obvious that defeat was impossible". Such magnanimity suggests that it is not Afghanistan which we have bombed into the stone age, but ourselves.

But almost everyone now agrees that this is the end of history, all over again. The skeptics have been routed as swiftly as the Taliban. George Bush and Tony Blair, with the help of their daisy cutters and cluster bombs, have ushered in a new, new world order, the long awaited golden age of democracy. But have the warriors of the west, both actual and virtual, really won? And if so, what precisely is the prize?

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by William Safire

WASHINGTON -- Misadvised by a frustrated and panic-stricken attorney general, a president of the United States has just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power to jail or execute aliens. Intimidated by terrorists and inflamed by a passion for rough justice, we are letting George W. Bush get away with the replacement of the American rule of law with military kangaroo courts.

In his infamous emergency order, Bush admits to dismissing "the principles of law and the rules of evidence" that undergird America's system of justice. He seizes the power to circumvent the courts and set up his own drumhead tribunals — panels of officers who will sit in judgment of non-citizens who the president need only claim "reason to believe" are members of terrorist organizations.

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Editorial

First, the Justice Department rounds up more than a thousand people and holds them without letting anybody know the charges against them, or even who is being held.

Then the State Department announces that it will slow the process for granting visas to men from Arab and Muslim countries.

But don't stop there. Why not violate the long-held principle that people in custody are entitled to private conversations with their attorneys?

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by Paul Vitello

"The president is paying no attention to this - and neither is the country." - Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman.

"Do people care anymore? I don't think they do." - William Daley, former Vice President Al Gore's campaign chairman.

They agree now, those two, and that seems good as far as it goes. But among us connoisseurs of disagreement, irrelevancy and lost causes - us kids in the back of the class, in other words, who never seemed to be in sync with the lesson plan - the recent review of uncounted Florida ballots in the 2000 presidential election was a stunner.

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by Ellen Goodman

LET ME SEE if I have this straight.

We have terrorists on the loose, anthrax wafting through the mail, and the Justice Department is in hot pursuit of ... terminally ill patients?

We have another plane crash to investigate, a network of foreign ''sleepers'' apparently eluding the FBI, and Attorney General John Ashcroft is taking aim at ... the state of Oregon?

What's going on here? The rest of us are worried about suicide bombers. He's worried about doctor-assisted suicide. Who is Ashcroft's public enemy No. 1: Oncologist bin Laden?

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by Arianna Huffington

On the way to my daughter's school this morning, I encountered the usual L.A. rush-hour road rally of elephantine sports utility vehicles, many flying American flags. Taking the cake was a massive SUV proudly sporting half a dozen -- one on each window and two on the bumper. My first thought was, how patriotic! My second was, how much more patriotic it would be to trade in the gas-guzzling leviathan for something that sips, rather than chugs, at the gas pump.

Which, thinking globally and acting locally, is precisely what I've decided to do with mine.

Though I don't consider myself an automotive fashionista, I must admit I followed the thundering herd of protective parents unable to resist the allure of what is basically a comfy Sherman tank. My SUV, a Lincoln Navigator, was, I was told, the safest way to transport my kids. And, as an added bonus, I could haul around a decent-sized Girl Scout troop.

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By WILLIAM SAFIRE

ASHINGTON -- Misadvised by a frustrated and panic-stricken attorney general, a president of the United States has just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power to jail or execute aliens. Intimidated by terrorists and inflamed by a passion for rough justice, we are letting George W. Bush get away with the replacement of the American rule of law with military kangaroo courts.

In his infamous emergency order, Bush admits to dismissing "the principles of law and the rules of evidence" that undergird America's system of justice. He seizes the power to circumvent the courts and set up his own drumhead tribunals — panels of officers who will sit in judgment of non-citizens who the president need only claim "reason to believe" are members of terrorist organizations.

Not content with his previous decision to permit police to eavesdrop on a suspect's conversations with an attorney, Bush now strips the alien accused of even the limited rights afforded by a court-martial.

His kangaroo court can conceal evidence by citing national security, make up its own rules, find a defendant guilty even if a third of the officers disagree, and execute the alien with no review by any civilian court.

No longer does the judicial branch and an independent jury stand between the government and the accused. In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system, non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls this Soviet-style abomination "a full and fair trial."

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By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, tightlipped before the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, has clammed up even more as it goes about hunting down those who would do America more harm.

In the process, advocates of government openness and civil liberties say the public's right to information and the freedoms of innocent people are being jeopardized.

Case in point: On Tuesday, Bush signed an order to allow trials by military tribunals for noncitizens accused of terrorism. The reasoning was that cases can be handled with greater speed and secrecy there than in civilian courts.

"This is the manner the president thought would be the best way to bring justice to those people who are combatants," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said. "These are not American citizens. They are combatants."

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by Stephanie Salter

THERE WAS an unintentionally ironic moment Monday as CNN's veteran news anchor, Aaron Brown, reacted to live footage of grieving relatives who'd come to Las American International airport in Santo Domingo to meet American Airlines Flight 587.

Said Brown, "This is so painful to watch."

Funny, I've been thinking the same thing of late about CNN itself.

Between the September 11 terrorist attacks and the so-called war in Afghanistan, a once-great news operation seems to be morphing into the Atlanta-based annex of the West Wing -- the real one in the White House, not the Emmy-winning series on CBS.

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