It’s touching how diligently pundits and politicians of the non-fact-based reality persuasion try to rewrite the record of George W. Bush. For example: Tea Party Nation head Judson Phillips “said that the death of Osama bin Laden happened in spite of President Obama.” (Right Wing Watch 5/2/11) “Bush’s persistence was palpable and set the tone for the intelligence community tasked with bringing bin Laden to justice. (Dan Balz, Washington Post 5/2/11)
To make such statements one must ignore the opportunity before 9/11. “The Bush administration now had in its hands what one participant called ‘the holy grail’ of a three-year quest by the U.S. government – a tool that could kill bin Laden within minutes of finding him. The CIA planned and practiced the operation. But...
The four writers Bernardo Atxaga of Spain, Assaf Gavron of Israel, Atiq Rahimi of France, Afghanistan and I wonder where else, and Filip Florian of Romania met in the cool confines of Scandinavia House and discussed in depth the sources of their inspiration.
It was a bit surprising at first to see these four male writers, flanked by their translators, all young women and the moderator Susan K, but the translators more than held their own.
Assaf Gavron, the one writer without a translator, began by reading from his novel CROCATTACK that begins on a bus. A woman has become suspicious of another rider and tries to engage the protagonist in seeing the other rider as a threat. Gavron's point was that...
“Abbiamo parlato di religione, di politica, anche di sesso!”Prometteva bene il racconto di Daniele Mastrogiacomo, l’ex corrispondente di guerra “arrestato” dai Talebani nel Marzo del 2007 e rilasciato dopo due settimane di trasferimenti forzati e di convulse trattative.Purtroppo, invece di darci almeno qualche assaggio di cosa i suoi carcerieri Talebani gli chiedevano...
