ScandaloUS Current Events

Not much time to write (with my LSAT in precisely one week!), but a few quick things you should be alerted to, if you are not already:

1. There is new Human Rights Watch report detailing prisoner abuse in Iraq (here is the summary, with a link to the full report). I feel like there's not a lot to say that hasn't already been said about this issue, but the persistent failure of certain conscentious military officials to get the attention of their superiors until they talk to HRW and the Senate (!) say a lot about the attentiveness, values, and hierarchy of our military system in the US. I also think that it's interesting that this report was not published in Arabic (it says a lot about who the audience is, and also who it is not!).

2. (related to 1 -- a theme, a Vield Chunk leitmotif?) The Department of Defense has blocked military officials who, as part of their work on the Able Danger project in 2000, identified at a very early date certain key terror suspects who later blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (and was forbidden to pass along the information to the FBI), and the Senate, who is conducting the hearing, is a little disappointed. The umbrella excuse of not wanting to publicly reveal key intel sources/findings has been used by the DoD to defend its position, but I'm wondering how that justifies not letting ANY testimony? It's not like the military officials/experts, once in the room, HAVE to answer EVERY question -- saying: "I cannot answer for reasons of national security" would be a lot better than not showing up at all. Thanks, DoD. (here is the NYTimes article, thanks to Hawk Barbie)

3. Interesting scandal brewing with Musharraf AND the Washington Post regarding? You guessed it! Musharraf's plat du jour -- the theme of his 2005 year -- RAPE! The WP published Mushu's comments about women using rape as an excuse to make money and get visas to go to North America, and (after being confronted by Canada but not, of course, the US) Musharraf claimed to be misquoted by the paper. In its defense, the Post then published online the entire 9 minute interview, unedited, in which Musharraf makes the comments. Oops. (check it out)

Quick congrats to the Juiciest Med Student in Brooklyn, who, as we knew all along, is destined to one day be one of the foremost infectious disease experts in NYC. As she put it in a recent email to me: "Can't you see me becoming an expert in HIV and working in a gay men's health clinic? It would be the one place where, as a doctor, I could wear Prada shoes and be appreciated for it." I couldn't agree more. She is intelligent, passionate, committed, and totally fab, and congrats to her for rocking her infectious disease exam last week!!

VC