This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: National Security Archive
November 13, 2007
A federal judge yesterday ordered the Executive Office of the President to preserve all e-mail backup media in its possession, or under its custody or control, under conditions that will preserve its eventual use. The Order came in two cases, consolidated today, that seek to enforce the Executive Office of the President's, and its component agencies', Federal Records Act obligations. The two cases were separately filed by the National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics i
Source: Reuters
November 10, 2007
A 4,000-year-old temple filled with murals has been unearthed on the northern coast of Peru, making it one of the oldest finds in the Americas, a leading archaeologist said on Saturday.
The temple, inside a larger ruin, includes a staircase that leads up to an altar used for fire worship at a site scientists have called Ventarron, said Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, who led the dig.
It sits in the Lambayeque valley, near the ancient Sipan complex that Alva unearthe
Source: Salon
November 11, 2007
King Albert laid a wreath Sunday at the
Monument to the Unknown Soldier while thousands flocked to the site of one of
bloodiest battles of World War I in western Belgium to mark the anniversary of
the war's end.
Ceremonies across Britain, France and Belgium were held on Armistice Day to
commemorate the end of the war on Nov. 11, 1918.
In London, Queen Elizabeth II paid silent tribute at the Cenotaph memorial to
those who have died serving Britain since World War I. For the first
Source: NYT
November 4, 2007
As David Rohde reported in The Times today, Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, speaking on Pakistani television about his decision to suspend his country’s Constitution, compared himself to Abraham Lincoln.
The general, dressed in civilian clothes, quoted from Abraham Lincoln and cited the former president’s suspension of some rights during the American Civil War as justification for his own state of emergency.
Speaking in English, General Musharraf began his
Source: Chicago Tribune
November 12, 2007
Visitors to the gleaming glass-and-steel William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library can see the former First Lady Hillary Clinton's gold-embroidered 1997 inaugural ball gown and hear Clinton extol his wife's contributions to his administration.
In time, Hillary Clinton "will deserve a lot of the credit" for the comprehensive health coverage that the former president predicts is on the horizon, he gushes in the audio for an exhibit celebrating "The Work of the Firs
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
November 10, 2007
Letters have always been the lifeblood for soldiers and their families back home.
The ones from Roy E. Kidd to his folks in Emsworth are yellowed from the 90 years that have passed since he wrote them in 1918 as a young infantryman with the American Expeditionary Force in war-ravaged Europe.
As a first-hand account of the horrors of World War I trench warfare, they're too mundane to offer much insight. The sentiment of the day was to avoid nasty descriptions of life at
Source: http://www.thestar.com
November 11, 2007
Like that old axiom about riddles, enigmas and mysteries, perhaps some of the soldiers bogged down in the World War I fight for Passchendaele saw in the battle futility, wrapped in recklessness, wrapped in death.
At least that's how the hindsight of history remembers it.
The drive for the tiny, already burnt-out Belgian village, which would offer little in the way of a prized capture, had already annihilated entire divisions of exhausted Britons, Australians and New Zea
Source: NYT
November 12, 2007
DALLAS — Prospective bidders looking to buy a piece of the Old West here over the weekend were greeted by an intimidating view straight down the barrel of a Model 1883 Gatling gun. Behind the weapon, an exhibit hall at a hotel was filled with rows of exquisitely beaded moccasins, revolvers and well-oiled Western saddles.
The items were included in auctions of more than 800 artifacts from a trove of period photographs, Indian artifacts and historic memorabilia acquired by Mayor Steph
Source: NYT
November 12, 2007
The fate of the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is uncertain this Veterans Day weekend, as the Army has yet to decide whether to replace or repair the 75-year-old monument, which is marred by several large cracks.
Under consideration for years, the idea of replacing the monument has pitted conservationists, who think the original structure should be restored, against those who say that replacing the tomb is inevitable and will properly memorialize America’s falle
Source: Richard Rubin in the NYT
November 12, 2007
BY any conceivable measure, Frank Buckles has led an extraordinary life. Born on a farm in Missouri in February 1901, he saw his first automobile in his hometown in 1905, and his first airplane at the Illinois State Fair in 1907. At 15 he moved on his own to Oklahoma and went to work in a bank; in the 1940s, he spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. When he returned to the United States, he married, had a daughter and bought a farm near Charles Town, W. Va., where he lives to
Source: AFP
November 10, 2007
A synagogue in the western German city of Cologne yesterday reclaimed a Torah roll damaged 69 years ago to the day during the Night of Broken Glass, or Kristallnacht, pogrom against Jewish citizens and businesses.
The valuable Hebrew Bible Scripture arrived in Cologne after being restored in Jerusalem and was formally presented to the city's Jewish community during a memorial ceremony.
During the night of Nov. 9 to 10, 1938, a German Catholic priest, Gustav Meinertz, ri
Source: NYT
November 12, 2007
He had all-American cover: born in Iowa, college in Manhattan, Army buddies with whom he played baseball.
George Koval also had a secret. During World War II, he was a top Soviet spy, code named Delmar and trained by Stalin’s ruthless bureau of military intelligence.
Atomic spies are old stuff. But historians say Dr. Koval, who died in his 90s last year in Moscow and whose name is just coming to light publicly, was probably one of the most important spies of the 20th ce
Source: Der Spiegel
November 7, 2007
A unique traveling Holocaust exhibition sets off on a six-month journey Friday. The 'Train of Commemoration,' which is dedicated to the Nazi deportation of children and young people, will visit 30 cities between Frankfurt and its final destination of Auschwitz.
A unique traveling train-mounted Holocaust exhibition will leave Frankfurt railway station Friday and begin its six-month-long journey through Germany to Auschwitz in Poland. The exhibit commemorates the fate of the estimated
Source: Der Spiegel
November 5, 2007
When Helmut Kohl gave the green light for a Holocaust Memorial in Berlin during the early 1990s, he set in motion a process that has seen a proliferation of monuments across the capital's government district. This Friday the German parliament is to vote on yet another memorial: one dedicated to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Nov. 9 is the perfect day to vote on memorials in Germany: It is the most German day of all. No other date is quite so pregnant with history: In 1918, it saw the
Source: LAT
November 8, 2007
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is unable to find or account for tens of thousands of valuable mementos of Reagan's White House years because a "near universal" security breakdown left the artifacts vulnerable to pilfering by insiders, an audit by the National Archives inspector general has concluded.
Inspector General Paul Brachfeld said that his office was investigating allegations that a former employee stole Reagan memorabilia but that the probe had been hampere
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
November 9, 2007
On November 7, 2007, the House Administration Committee held a hearing on the role slave labor played in the construction of the United States Capitol. The Slave Laborers Task Force, chaired by Representative John Lewis (D-GA), submitted a report and recommendations to the Committee on how to best commemorate the contribution of enslaved African Americans in building the Capitol.
The Task Force recommended:
Commemorative plaques and building stone, quarried by slave lab
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
November 9, 2007
This week, Congress sent to the President, the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill (H.R. 3043; H. Report 110-424). The conference agreement includes $120 million for the Teaching of Traditional American History program at the Department of Education, a $210,000 increase over the FY 2007 level. The conferees also recommended that the Department provide initial three-year grants, with two additional years if a grantee is performing effectively.
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
November 9, 2007
This week, the continuing controversy over the release of records from the William J. Clinton Presidential Library concerning Senator Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) time as First Lady moved to the courts. The conservative public interest group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in federal court against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) seeking to force the release of records related to the National Task Force on Health Care Reform, chaired by then Fi
Source: USA Today
November 9, 2007
Former president George H.W. Bush forcefully defended his son's handling of the Iraq war Thursday, saying critics of the current president have forgotten the "extraordinary brutality" of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"Do they want to bring back Saddam Hussein, these critics?" the elder Bush told USA TODAY in a rare interview. "Do they want to go back to the status quo ante? I don't know what they are talking about here. Do they think life would be bet
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE)
November 9, 2007
The University of Kentucky would like you to know that it is not afraid to teach students about the Holocaust, no matter what a widely circulated e-mail message claims.
A digital chain letter, which first surfaced earlier this year, castigates the institution for allegedly eliminating the Holocaust from its curriculum in deference to a vocal Muslim community that denied the tragedy ever took place. “This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily
