Did you see the photos, published on the weekend, of the US-flag-draped coffins on a transport plane? Well, those were pictures you were never meant to see (by official Pentagon policy), and it seems that Tami Silicio was fired for her efforts. I guess you have to expect to be let go if you defy a policy as publicly as she did, but nevertheless the episode shows to what lengths US officials will go to prevent the public from understanding the realities of this (or any) war.

Dahlia Lithwick published a very nice rundown of the ongoing US trials related to terrorism on Friday in Slate: Trials and Terrors – These are our banner terror trials? “Second, the administration must try a real terrorist for real acts of terror. […] Reserving the courts for the small-fry sends the message that the Western legal system can only punish the pretty-bad. And treating each pretty-bad guy like he committed the crime of the century sends the message that justice was never really the point in the first place.”

hit the correct note for the Democrats against Ralph Nader: For Ralph Nader, but Not for President in an op-ed piece today.

the Sept 11 Commission tomorrow. Salon.com has posted 10 questions for John Ashcroft. This is one of a series of such articles, which neatly summarize many of the questions surrounding this whole sordid affair.

of the Condi Rice show today. Short summary: the bureaucracy was broken and we were committed to fix it entirely before considering anything else.