Opinion: In today’s pages
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Shaul Bakhash relates his wife’s experiences as a prisoner in Iran, accused of plotting a ‘velvet’ revolution:
Since her incarceration 17 days ago, Haleh has been allowed only one- or two-minute phone calls with her mother. She speaks as if a minder is present. No visits are allowed, no legal representation. With so little contact, I have every reason to assume the worst: that she is subject to blindfolding, solitary confinement and harsh, even brutal interrogation calculated to extract a false confession.
Columnist Rosa Brooks explains why a navy lawyer’s decision to leak information about Guantanamo detainees was the wrong move for the right reasons, and David O. Stewart argues for the abolition of the electoral college. Columnist Joel Stein tells a few members of the L.A. Philharmonic what not to wear.
The editorial board wonders whether Alberto Gonzales’ Justice Department has crossed too many lines, and if Congress is ever going to stop blaming oil companies for high gas prices. The board also thinks reality TV can be too real, particularly if the subject is the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
On immigration, letter writers have varied views on reform. Claremont’s Owen Keavney, citing the Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty and saying it doesn’t reflect American values anymore, asks, ‘Are we a better nation today?’