Outis

The crime of exposing the truth about Iraq by Glenn Greenwald

The irony of our situation is that we are better informed today than we have ever been. It’s like existentialism writ large.

What the Bilal Hussein detention reveals about the Bush administration

Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change: Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the Government Economics Service and Adviser to the Government on the economics of climate change and development, is delighted to present his report to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the Economics of Climate Change.

Prof. Marc Lynch:

As the American government has struggled to retool to act on this newfound understanding of the importance of engaging with the Arab media, Fernandez has been almost a one man show. Fernandez has conducted literally hundreds of interviews in Arabic with various Arab media outlets at a time when few American officials could be bothered or could perform effectively when they tried. In the first weeks of the Lebanon-Israel war, he was the only American official to appear on al-Jazeera, at a time when America desperately needed someone at least trying to defend it. What made him effective was not just his fluent Arabic, but that he is willing to argue, to get angry, to make jokes - in short, to offer a real human face and not just a grim diplomat reading from a script. He has established a strong reputation with Arab bookers and audiences not by “bashing America” but by being honest and candid, which has in turn made his defenses of American policy far more effective.

IslamonLine.net:

Mr. Fernandez was born in Havana, Cuba in 1958 and arrived in the United States as a refugee in 1959. He served in the US Army and Reserves from 1976 to 1981. He studied Arabic at the Defense Language Institute-Foreign Language Center from 1976 to 1977. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1981 with a BA in Middle East Studies. In 1983, he obtained an MA in Middle East Studies from the University of Arizona.

Radio Lab out of WNYC.

Highly recommended.