An American in The Hague?
Jonathan D. Tepperman, a senior editor at Foreign Affairs magazine, has written a fascinating op-ed piece in the June 10 New York Times, in which he explores the possibility that senior Bush Admiminstration officials could face charges in the Hague for torture at Abu Ghraib prison. Under the doctrine of command responsibility (developed by the U.S. and allies at Nuremberg), high level officials can be held accountable for war crimes committed by subordinates.

The op-ed cites the the fact that American courts have already accepted this doctrine. In July 2002 a federal court in Miami found two Salvadoran generals liable for torture. The acclaimed documentary JUSTICE AND THE GENERALS covers this and another, similar case, and documents the the groundbreaking legal work that enabled cases like these to be recognized by U.S. courts.

The Truth Behind the (False?) Promise of Las Vegas
Las Vegas is at the center of a population boom that has transformed the American desert over the last three decades. Starting May 3 the New York Times is running series of in depth articles about this boomtown. "AMERICAN DREAMERS: The Lure of Las Vegas" examines what a few typical dreamers have found in this place of unmatched opportunity and extreme dysfunction: from portraits of families living in budget motels far from The Strip, to the challenges teachers face in the fastest growing school district in the country and beyond, to the problems parents confront in trying to keep their children safe, and onward.

Following several full-time residents of Las Vegas over a two-year period, the documentary film DREAMLAND shows the cityscape beyond the grandiose casino-hotels on the strip. It is a world of dingy gambling halls and countless gambling arcades that survive throughout Las Vegas. Among the locals that patronize and work in these casinos, many struggle daily with compulsion and self-impoverishment while walking the tenuous line between dreams and denial.