Harper's has posted a piece about Guy Fawkes and explains three lessons we should take from his plot to blow up Parliament:

1) Torture never works and is always wrong
2) Beware the government that rules by fear
3) A government that stereotypes is unjust

Quoted: Today Guy Fawkes is increasingly viewed as the heroic figure prepared to stand against an unjust and oppressive state, as a martyr and a victim of torture. What are the lessons of Guy Fawkes Day for 2007?

Quoted: Spy on 'em, torture 'em, lock 'em up. Is this what America stands for?

Those who do not learn history are condemned to repeat it...

Quoted: In the intensifying debate on the U.S. treatment of detainees in its "war on terror," I find myself thinking of a key moment in the monologue of Albert Camus' abject narrator in his novel The Fall.

My favorite quote from the piece: "Rice's legal interpretations were authoritative, bland and bogus. It is hard to say whether they should be called Orwellian for their intentional falsity or Kafkaesque for their unintentional absurdity."

As promised, this is the Mark Bowden article from "The Atlantic Monthly." Articles like this one are what encourage me to keep my subscription active. Just looking over it again, it's amazing how predictive it actually is of the scenario today (see the quote below).

Quoted: The most effective way to gather intelligence and thwart terrorism can also be a direct route into morally repugnant terrain. A survey of the landscape of persuasion

I find this article to be a well-written explanation (it is, after all, by David Cole, professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and he has, quite literally, written a book on the subject) of the problems with our current policies on torture. They are duplicitous and hopefully untennable. I hope that we have an opportunity to do something to fx this issue.

"The Torture Convention is predicated on the principle that the conduct it prohibits is fundamentally incompatible with human dignity -- and all human beings have equal dignity, regardless of their nationality, and regardless of where they are held." I couldn't have said it better myself.

To see the best article on terrorism I have ever read, make sure to check out Mark Bowden's article in "The Atlantic Monthly" last year. I'll try to find that and Dot it as well.

Quoted: "It's not about who they are. It's about who we are." - John McCain