Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:34:10 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Daniel Freedman :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Daniel+Freedman istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/debate-mccain-should-want/72756/ Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST Pressure is quietly mounting on John McCain to support the idea of a nuclear-free world. It is being pushed primarily by former secretaries of state, and Senator McCain advisers, Henry Kissinger and George Shultz. They are joined in their efforts by a bipartisan slate of eminent national security figures, including a former secretary of defense during the Clinton administration, William Perry, and a Democratic Party heavyweight, Sam Nunn. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have already signaled... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/its-about-rivalry-not-camelot/71227/ Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST As Ted Kennedy and other Democratic Party elder statesmen rush around the country trying to cajole the superdelegates into supporting Barack Obama, lost is why Senator Kennedy is so keen on Senator Obama. Mr. Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama has been successfully portrayed as an endorsement of "change." Mr. Kennedy described his endorsement as turning "the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion." In reality, though, the endorsement was a lesson in the politics of... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/can-i-be-president/47157/ Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST "No person except a natural born citizen … shall be eligible to the Office of President." —Article II, U.S. Constitution Forget Giuliani, McCain, Romney, Obama, and Clinton. There is only one candidate that every American envisions in the White House: oneself. Which American, at least as a child, never once daydreamed of sitting behind the big desk in the Oval Office … leader of the free world … fighting evil and protecting freedom? And I was no different. Well, slightly different. I was born... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/national/president-carter-interceded-on-behalf-of-former/46972/ Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:00:00 EST The scandal surrounding President Carter's attitude toward the Jewish state, sparked by the publication of his book, which blames the Jews for the fate of the Palestinian Arabs, was given a fresh boost yesterday when a document surfaced showing that the former president interceded on behalf of a former Nazi guard. The document in question shows that Mr. Carter asked the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation — the unit responsible for the prosecution of Nazis — to show "special... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/headaches-and-poetry-of-traffic/45899/ Fri, 29 Dec 2006 00:00:00 EST If your taxicab driver paused an extra second before honking after the light turned green, you can thank the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission. And if you notice that the cab's meter is moving faster than usual and you're paying an extra dollar for your journey, you can also thank the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission. The commissioners decided last month to hike the charge for traffic "wait time" from the current 20 cents a minute to 40 cents a minute. "Walk next time you're stuck in... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/foreign/ahmadinejad-writes-letter-to-the-american-people/44340/ Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:55:52 EST The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent an open letter to the American people today, urging Americans to disregard their government and to support unity with Iran. The letter, distributed by the Iranian mission to the U.N., addressed "Noble Americans" and criticized President Bush for his support Israel, his policy in Iraq, and his terrorist detention policies. The text of Mr. Ahmadinejad's letter follows: Message of H.E. Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad President of the Islamic Republic of Iran... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/save-this-man/43406/ Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST Today may be an ordinary day for the rest of us, but it is the day that Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury goes on trial for his life in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mr. Choudhury, a Bangladeshi journalist, is accused, he told me, of "praising Jews and Christians," "spying for Israel," and being "an agent of the Mossad" — because he advocated relations between Israel and Bangladesh. He's also accused of being critical of Islamic radicals, which is considered blasphemy. He committed these crimes by writing... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/foreign/ex-iranian-president-wanted-for-argentina-bombing/42302/ Thu, 26 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST An Argentinean prosecutor asked a judge yesterday for national and international arrest warrants for a former president of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and seven other Iranians for their roles in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires. Judge Alberto Nisman said that although the bombing was carried out by the Iranian proxy terrorist group Hezbollah, the decision to bomb the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association "was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities of the... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/foreign/israel-faces-stark-election-choice-with-dove/41751/ Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST If Ami Ayalon leads Israel's Labor Party into the next election, voters will face the starkest election choice in the nation's history. His vision includes surrendering parts of Jerusalem and most of Judea and Samaria, along with handing control of Israel's holy places to international control. To achieve these goals he will bypass the Palestinian Arabs, if need be, and create an "axis of pragmatism" with Arab states and other countries to build a Palestinian State, he told an Israel Project... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/hour-of-living-dangerously/41436/ Thu, 12 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST 2:53 p.m.: An AP news alert: "A plane crash has been reported on Manhattan's Upper East Side." I freeze. And probably along with most of New York, the country, and perhaps the world, I feel my heart skipped a beat. I then do a double take, learning in the process that that hackneyed phrase actually does describe a cognitive event. Our office is on Chambers Street, a few blocks uptown from Ground Zero. Several of us look south out the window. 2:59 p.m.: Another wire report: "No immediate word on... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/daniel-in-the-dogs-den-part-ii/40740/ Mon, 2 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST I'm still running from the dogs. On September 6, I published an article in The New York Sun on how city dogs intrude on human space – and impose themselves on strangers in the street, like me. Now, owners are chasing me as well. It turns out that bemoaning the harassment New Yorkers face from those four legged beasts in our already crowded city and expressing a longing for the days when dogs were treated as animals and not humans put me on the wrong side of some very angry people. "Grrrr" was... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/national/us-may-lose-war-on-terror-historian-says/39539/ Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST The victor of the war on terror is far from clear, the historian Bernard Lewis told a Hudson Institute conference. The British-born professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton said Monday that he was "more optimistic about the future of our struggle" in the early 1940s — when the French had capitulated to the Germans, when Stalin was Hitler's ally, and when America was still neutral — than he is today. "Hitler would have won under these conditions," Mr. Lewis said, citing America's inability... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/national/us-politicians-should-focus-on-tehran-netanyahu/39275/ Fri, 8 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST NEW YORK - Benjamin Netanyahu, as part of an American tour repositioning himself for a return to the Israeli premiership, told an audience in New York yesterday that President Bush is preparing to ditch the United Nations to take on Iran alone and that American politicians of all parties would do well to stop squabbling about Iraq and join the president in focusing on threat from Tehran. The former prime minister, who leads the right of center Likud Party in opposition to the current... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/dont-lets-go-to-the-dogs/39106/ Wed, 6 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST "I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven't got the guts to bite people themselves." August Strindberg A man's best friend? Certainly not mine. Yet after living in New York for more than a year now I'm left with the feeling that the friendship is being forced upon me. Come wind, rain, or snow, whichever street or park trail I take in the city, almost without fail I cross paths with a dog and its owner trotting behind on the other end of the leash. After an initial dance to... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/mugged-by-reality/38058/ Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST Douglas Murray isn't a man you'd immediately peg as being a self-described neoconservative and Zionist. Eton and Oxford educated, an Anglican — sorry, a "practicing Anglican," as he corrects me — and complete with the chiseled features and upper-class accent one associates with the British aristocracy, Mr. Murray almost seems out of place declaring his admiration for the Jewish State, Leo Strauss, and everything else the left sneeringly associates with neoconservativism. But the man who tells... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/back-into-gaza/35989/ Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST As the situation in Gaza deteriorates, Israeli troops enter Lebanon, and the Middle East teeters toward a wider war, the man best suited to deal with the situation lies in a coma. As one of Israel's greatest heroes, Ariel Sharon possesses the unique combination of experience and resolve that is needed. Mr. Sharon is also the architect of this situation. This isn't to say that Mr. Sharon is even indirectly responsible for the kidnappings of the Israeli soldiers that have led to the current... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/britains-last-hope/33403/ Thu, 25 May 2006 00:00:00 EST Melanie Phillips, I muse as she sits in front of me in a seersucker suit, is strikingly like Margaret Thatcher. Like Ms. Thatcher she speaks with that authoritative British accent that we hear on the BBC and like the "Iron Lady" she's confident in her message and doesn't mince her words. Her message when she visited our offices yesterday? That there is a "cultural and moral sickness" afflicting Britain in the failure of its establishment to recognize Islamic extremism for the threat it poses... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/war-without-america/33091/ Fri, 19 May 2006 00:00:00 EST World War III is set to break out next month. Germany will be in the center of it, once again, with American boys in the thick of things. And yet the American heartland is unprepared. Welcome to the Soccer World Cup that kicks off June 9 in Germany. Jack Kemp dismissed soccer on the floor of Congress as a "European socialist sport" - in contrast to football which the ex-quarterback called "democratic" and "capitalism." Franklin Foer has written that soccer is popular elsewhere because it... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/mehlmans-message-on-iraq/32247/ Fri, 5 May 2006 00:00:00 EST This week was supposed to be one of the proudest for the American Jewish Committee. And indeed it largely was. The organization has been celebrating its 100th birthday, a celebration topped off last night with speeches from President Bush and Chancellor Merkel. But at a meeting with the chairman of the Republican Party, Kenneth Mehlman, some AJCommittee members made some surprising noises. The JTA reports that Mr. Mehlman was booed and hissed at for saying that Iraq is "less of a challenge than... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/for-ari-halberstam/28767/ Wed, 8 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST No sooner had the New York Times launched its series on the Imam of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge than the phone rang at The New York Sun. It was Devorah Halberstam, the mother of Aaron "Ari" Halberstam, a 16-year-old rabbinical student gunned down on the Brooklyn Bridge on March 1, 1994. She was calling to say that Monday would be the 12th anniversary of the murder of her son and that the mosque the Times was extolling as a seat of peaceable Islam was the place from which Rashid Baz set out... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/amend-the-charter/23410/ Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST What good is NATO? There are reports of Syrian troops clashing with American troops on the Iraq-Syria border, and Prime Minister Blair recently voiced suspicions that Iran has been helping the terrorists in Iraq. A perfect opportunity, or so it would seem, for our North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies to invoke the NATO Charter's Article Five and offer their support. But Article Five's famous Three Musketeers-sounding "an armed attack against one" is "considered an attack against them all"... DANIEL FREEDMAN http://www.nysun.com/opinion/confused-british-conservatives/12076/ Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Across the Atlantic, conservatives are confused. Prime Minister Blair has announced that Britain's general election will take place May 5, and conservatives now need to decide whether to vote for their Conservative Party or Mr. Blair's Labour Party. Before the presidential election, Mayor Koch, a lifelong Democrat, told me that for the first time in his life he'd be voting Republican. While he disagreed with President Bush on domestic issues, he said that was superseded by the consideration of...