In reality the workings of your governing system are opaque and covert, while hiding in the chattering spotlight of an ostensible transparency, even though the ultimate objective is clear.

The goal, I submit, is obvious: subjugating the world (which is barbarian, dangerous, envious and ungrateful) to US power for the sake of America's interests.

The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.

You ride astride the imaginary in order to hunt down the real.

Dangerous because your present Administration and its specialized agencies by all accounts know no restraint in hitting out at any perceived enemy of America, and nobody or nothing can protect one from their vindictiveness.

It would be a tragic mistake for us out here to imagine that Bush represents the hearts and the minds of the majority of your countrymen. Many of your black and other compatriots must be just as anguished as we are.

It may be an extreme example brought about by abnormal circumstances -- but the criteria of human rights kick in, surely, precisely when the conditions are extreme and the situation is abnormal.

Even ivory towers need central heating.

I think it's an area that one writes from that is curious because it is not a clearly defined partisan one.

In dancing with the enemy one follows his steps even if counting under one's breath.

Americans have mastered the art of living with the unacceptable.