Eric Holder

After five years of trying to bring justice to those behind the financial crisis, the U.S. has little to show but a handful of harmless fines against Wall Street firms

The idea that torture might be used to obtain the information necessary to avert a terrorist attack was revived in the wake of 9/11. Alan Dershowitz was a proponent. Michael Kinsley attacked the thesis in 2005.

Under investigation in the U.K., Rupert Murdoch may well find that his toughest test will be in the U.S.

The grilling the former British PM is getting over invading Iraq suits the enemy just fine

Searching for answers and moral clarity in the torture debate

It did not take long for politics to resume its usual course following the moving funeral services for Sen. Edward Kennedy. On the Fox News Sunday show, former vice-president Dick Cheney threw another salvo at the Obama administration over Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to name a special prosecutor to investigate specific cases of torture by CIA. Cheney called John Dunham’s appointment an intolerable political act by Obama and claimed to be deeply offended by the decision. He added that Obama is pursuing a course that will make America more vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Holder’s decision is undoubtedly controversial, since many on the left would have preferred a full-blown investigation that would certainly have included Cheney. Those on the right—led principally by Cheney and, to a lesser degree, the congressional Republican leadership—counter that Dunham’s investigation will affect morale at the CIA and will make future administrations hesitant to take actions to safeguard American security.

Dahlia Lithwick skewers the tortured logic, so to speak, in U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to investigate only those low-level CIA operatives who exceeded the limits of the Office of the Legal Counsel torture memos, not the memos’ authors:

Lawrence Cannon, Nov. 20. “Mr. Khadr faces very serious charges. He is being held and it’s our government’s intention to follow and respect the process that’s in place and, of course, to respect American sovereignty on this issue.”