'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

JWN blogiversary, etc

So my first blogiversary here at JWN passed Feb 6 and I didn't even blog that day. Oh well.

My first post, here, was about Colin Powell's speech to the UN just the day before.

What a lot has happened in this past year!

Back in early January (2004) I wrote a CSM column urging that the administration should be held accountable for its many serious mis-statements over Iraqi WMDs-- in Powell's speech, and of course, elsewhere. I actually had no idea that that process of being-held-accountable would proceed as far and as fast as it has in the past month.

Not nearly enough, of course. I looked at the make-up of the Commission of Inquiry that the Prez himself appointed (to investigate himself... how does that work again??), and I noted along with most other commentators that of the seven folks named to date, only one has any depth of the relevant expertise.

Judge Wald, I know a little bit. She specialized in family law; then, about six or seven years ago she was named to the bench of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

I interviewed her there, in The Hague, in 2001, shortly before her term at the court finished. She seems like a nice, compassionate person, and had a little exposure to intel matters when they used as evidence at the court. But still, I can think of many people who would have a lot more of the relevant expertise than her.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit here. I mainly want to encourage readers to keep checking in periodically with JWN over the days ahead, even if I'm not posting regularly...

Oh, and tonight I have to write a column for Thursday's CSM...