In assessing the actions of the CIA and, in particular, the program euphemistically called, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, context is important. Nowhere is that historical context more evident than in an April 2007 interview CBS News Anchor Scott Pelley conducted with former CIA Chief George Tenet. Tenet was unusually candid and direct about the situation the United States faced after September...

A five-year Senate Intelligence Committee investigation examining the Central Intelligence Agency’s role in interrogation tactics against detainees involved in the terrorist attacks on 9/11 was released today and the evidence is damning. “Based on 6.2 million pages of documents,” TIME magazine reports (Dec.9), photos and other CIA files, the report presents evidence that the agency’s interrogation methods were brutal and...

I never became aware of the racial tension that had existed for decades until the evening of August 11, 1965. The Watts Riots continued for six, agonizing days and resulted in 34 deaths and $40 million in property damage. The last two weeks have seen protests spread from Ferguson, Missouri to New York, Seattle, Washington, and Los Angeles. Last Thursday...

Beginning with last week’s grand jury decision not to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, and continuing to Wednesday night, protesters calling for fundamental change in the way police operate have gained significant momentum in major cities across the country. #CrimingWhileWhite became the unifying Twitter hashtag widely circulated since Wednesday’s decision by a New York...

Pamela Hartzband and Jerome Groopman are physicians on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. Wednesday’s Op-Ed, from The New York Times (Nov. 19), discusses the corruption in medical practice, largely conducted behind the scenes, at a cost to all of us. “When we are patients, we want our doctors to make recommendations that are in our best interests as individuals....

As election results came in late last night, it became clear that the Republicans would indeed take control of the Senate, but the night was not without many surprises in the governor’s races around the country. Among them: Republican governors will become chief executives in three states, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Illinois long held by Democrats. Now, that the results clearly...

There are two ways some people have reacted to the Ebola crisis: the Chicken Little approach, or the complacent approach. Neither is helpful or effective. “Think of this America, please think of this,” Glenn Beck told listeners. “Every time somebody new gets the Ebola virus, it mutates. It’s going to go aerosol.” “Fears of contagion spiked,” writes The New York...

In 2009, The New York Times ran a story which renewed the debate some parents have over whether or not to allow doctors to vaccinate their children against the flu and childhood diseases. This particular story concerned a vaccination for the H1N1 flu. “Barbara Loe Fisher,” The Times writes (Oct. 16, 2009, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, an...

How do you make sense of the senseless? As soon as I logged-on to The Washington Post Saturday morning, I stared in disbelief at a headline reporting that the latest school shooting had occurred just twenty minutes from where I live. From late Friday night to Monday morning, our small community continues to be shaken by the fact that we have joined...

Over the ricky ticky tinkle of a honky-tonk piano banging out “Buffalo Gals,” Georgia Governor Nathan “what-a” Deal sits down at his desk to sign a new piece of legislation into law. Watching the proceedings, a tall man with a steely-eyed gaze, dressed in black with matching hat quietly watches. “Well, boys,” Deal says, handing out souvenir pens, “Here she is, the Safe...