Nation Topics - New York | The Nation

This article reflects on a court decision in Brooklyn, New York stating that United States courts will not interfere with the torture of suspects in the "war on terror" despite previous court decisions to hold officials of other countries responsible for the torture of people in their own lands. The article suggests this is another example of American exceptionalism and cites the example of a man recently detained and interrogated at John F. Kennedy airport on his way home to Canada from Europe.

The article presents New York Representative Major Owens' views on education policy in the United States. The author suggests that eduction become the top federal budget priority. Statistics related to education spending are reviewed. The importance of a first-rate education system in the United States is discussed.

Reviews an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring Fra Angelico, through January 29, 2006 in New York City.

The article reviews the exhibition "Egon Schiele: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections," at the Neue Galerie in New York City.

The article announces the winner of the 2005 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize given by the American Academy of Poets and "The Nation" to the most outstanding book of poems published in the United States by an American in 2005. The winner this year is Anne Winters, for her collection "The Displaced of Capital," inspired by New York. The article features excerpts from many of her poems.

The article reviews the book "New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan," by Jill Lepore.

Focuses on a protest in support of the graduate teaching assistant union (GSOC-UAW) in front of New York University's (NYU) Bobst Library after NYU's use of an antilabor ruling by U.S. President George W. Bush's NLRB to deep-six the union. Participation of AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, UNITE HERE president Bruce Raynor, UAW secretary-treasurer Elizabeth Bunn and high-profile New York City and state politicians; Denial of some of NYU's requests for special dispensations by the New York City Council as retaliation.

Argues that accusations from the right have delayed the construction of two cultural institutions called for in architect Daniel Liebeskind's plans for the World Trade Center site in New York City. Report that the cultural center was to house two of four organizations chosen by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, including the Drawing Center art museum and the International Freedom Center (IFC); Report that the Drawing Center was driven away after censorship-like demands for oversight; Demands placed on the IFC by Governor George E. Pataki that the IFC not present exhibits that denigrate the U.S., New York or freedom; Reference to an article by Debra Burlingame in the "Wall Street Journal" that criticized the IFC; Criticism of the IFC for agreeing to Pataki's demands and for being unwilling to say a word in favor of freedom of expression.

Presents various news briefs related to United States politics and government. Report by John S. Friedman that a group of U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq plan to file a lawsuit in Federal District Court against the U.S. Army for violating its regulations by not offering safeguards against exposure to depleted uranium; Report by John Nichols on anti-Patriot Act resolutions; Book release of a recent show of political posters at the New York School of Visual Arts; Review of articles appearing on "The Nation" Web site.

The article focuses on the work of The World Tribunal on Iraq. The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) held its culminating session in Istanbul on June 24-27, 2005, the last and most elaborate of sixteen condemnations of the Iraq War held worldwide in the past two years, in Barcelona, Tokyo, Brussels, Seoul, New York, London, Mumbai and other cities. The Istanbul session used the verdicts and some of the testimony from the earlier sessions; the cumulative nature of the sessions built interest among peace activists, resulting in this final session having by far the strongest international flavor. The cumulative process, described by organizers as "the tribunal movement," is unique in history: Never before has a war aroused this level of protest on a global scale--first to prevent it (the huge February 15, 2003, demonstrations in eighty countries) and then to condemn its inception and conduct. The WTI expresses the opposition of global civil society to the Iraq War, a project perhaps best described as a form of "moral globalization."