News That Stays News

The Glory and the Grime March 4, 2011

1. Vanity Fair takes us back to the aristocratic, Man in the Arena origins of the CIA, via a portrait of its founder, Wild Bill Donovan.

2. US helicopters killed nine Afghan boys, ages nine to fifteen, when they were out collecting firewood. The credit for the story:

An Afghan employee of The New York Times contributed reporting
from Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

This is not the first time that US helicopter gunners were responsible for some civilian casualties. The scene may have looked something like this video, available courtesy of Wikileaks, in which two journalists from Reuters were killed.

3. After the Arab revolutions, I’ve been waiting for someone like David Brooks to write this article: Huntington was wrong.

Credits: The Browser