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May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review August 26, 2009 / 6 Elul 5769

When ‘Following Orders’ Is a Weak Excuse

By Clarence Page



http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Recent bad news about CIA interrogators, Michael Jackson's physician and Lt. William Calley of My Lai massacre fame brings a familiar theme rattling back into my mind like a ghost from the past: They were only following orders.


That's the notorious "Nuremberg defense." It comes from the war crime trials in Nuremberg, Germany, in which Nazi officers tried to shift blame to their superiors for their mass murder of innocent civilians.


That defense returned to mind with last weekend's news out that Calley had broken four decades of media silence. Speaking to the Columbus, Ga., Kiwanis Club near Fort Benning, where he was convicted in 1971, Calley apologized for the massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in and around the village of My Lai in 1968.


Although he said he was following orders, Calley was the only American soldier to be held legally responsible for the massacre that was conducted under his command. The Army reduced his original life sentence and he served only three years, mostly under house arrest ordered by President Nixon.


Jimmy Carter, Georgia's governor at the time, called Calley a "scapegoat." I agree. For opponents of the war Calley became a visible symbol of its worst atrocities. For defenders of the war, he became a scapegoat to avoid the prosecution of others above or below him in rank.


As a young man who was drafted into the army just as Calley's story broke in 1969, I understood both sides. Calley was guilty, but he was not alone. He was following orders from above, although there were conflicting accounts as to what exactly those orders were. The heroes of the day were helicopter pilot Hugh C. Thompson and two other soldiers who stopped the massacre before even more civilians were slaughtered. Still, there was a fundamental unfairness in the way Calley took the fall alone.


Neither the Army nor Washington showed much appetite for prosecuting those who gave Calley his orders or the bad intelligence that targeted the village incorrectly as a beehive of enemy activity. Once allegations like that start up the chain of command, who knew where they might end up? The White House? Perish the thought.


Then thoughts of the Nuremberg defense returned when news broke that the Los Angeles coroner was blaming Michael Jackson's death on a powerful anesthetic administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray, a Las Vegas cardiologist. It was not clear whether Murray would be charged. According to reports, he said he was actually trying to wean Jackson off of drugs administered by his other medical personnel.


His doctors surely will say that they were diagnosing what they felt was best for Jackson's insomnia and other ailments. Perhaps a jury will have to sort it out. But even after you separate out the gossip and rumors that swirl around the pop star's death, you get a familiar picture: Wealthy celebrity with money to burn goes doctor shopping until he finds some who will prescribe things his way. Doctors can't say they are only "following orders," but some have a disturbingly loose way of going along with requests.


It is fuzzy gray areas of judgment like that, awash in conflicting guidelines, that apparently moved Atty. Gen. Eric Holder to give CIA interrogators a break. He announced he was authorizing a preliminary review of whether CIA employees broke the law while interrogating suspected al-QaIda members after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But he stipulated that interrogators who operated "in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance" would be exempt from prosecution.


Holder is acknowledging that the Obama administration has a tighter definition of what constitutes torture than Team Bush did. Team Obama also released an internal May 2004 CIA report that concluded "unauthorized, improvised, inhumane, and undocumented" interrogation methods had been used on the suspects inside secret prisons.


Holder's announcement puts President Obama in an awkward position. Until now the president has fended off those who call for investigations of possible war crimes or other excesses by the Bush administration, saying we need to look forward, not backward.


That's a politically practical decision at a time when he has bigger fish to fry with health care, two wars and a sluggish economy.


But a don't-look-back posture also can amount to a dangerous dodge. The lesson of Calley's tragic story should be to give soldiers, military commanders and intelligence commanders clear guidelines before putting them in contact with suspected enemies. Those who fail to identify and learn from past mistakes invite new ones.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

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