Never as exciting as an episode of 24
This Islamic-terrorist thriller takes us halfway around the world before landing on our shores to introduce us to the terrorists in our midst.
By MARK BAZER | August 27, 2008

Terror 'toonist

Dept. of gallows humor
Earlier this month, syndicated cartoonist Matt Bors found a new fan in none other than Salim Hamdan, the man tried and convicted for once having been Osama Bin Laden’s driver.
By CLIF GARBODEN | August 20, 2008

Let’s embrace satire, not boycott it

Get a grip
When the New Yorker last week ran a cover illustration spoofing the right-wing critique of Barack Obama, it was another instance in which the storied magazine put a provocative point on its front page.
By IAN DONNIS | July 23, 2008

The 11th Annual Muzzle Awards

Silencing free speech
Freedom of expression may be guaranteed by the Constitution. But it’s an idea we have to fight for every day.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 05, 2008

Brick Lane

A lush love story of Bangladeshi immigrants
A lush love story set in East London explores the lives of Bangladeshi immigrants caught up in social turmoil before and after 9/11.
By PEG ALOI | June 25, 2008

Habeas-corpus rights restored to enemy combatants

One of our most important civil-liberty victories to date
This past week, the Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration’s astonishing claim that it had the power to detain suspected “enemy combatants” at Guantánamo Bay — potentially for life — without fair proceedings or meaningful access to the federal courts.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 18, 2008

Camera bluff

Occupational hazards in Operation Filmmaker
Even as critics and moviegoers alike have scorned the surge of movies related to the War on Terror and Iraq, Nina Davenport has quietly been making illuminating, fair-minded, and entertaining films on these topics.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 17, 2008

A night in Guantánamo

Staying in a replica cell, with no waterboarding included
I’d volunteered to spend the night in the replica cell (which is modeled on the ones at Gitmo) because we’ve all heard stories about unlivable conditions at Gitmo but can’t come close to imagining what it must be like.
By JEFF INGLIS | June 18, 2008

You Don't Mess with the Zohan

Bad accents and infantile humor
The funniest moment in this benighted Judd Apatow project was in the trailer.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 04, 2008

Fact and fantasy

Walid Raad’s installations seek the “truth”
Walid Raad’s installation feels like a Borgesian detective story in which truth is elusive, and cities themselves shiver with post-traumatic stress disorder.
By GREG COOK | April 30, 2008

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

Nobody knows
Last time we saw documentarian Morgan Spurlock, he was downing McDonald’s fries in Supersize Me.
By TOM MEEK | April 16, 2008

Body of War

Poetic Americana
Tomas Young volunteered for the US Army right after 9/11, hoping to be sent to Afghanistan and chase down Osama bin Laden.
By GERALD PEARY | April 09, 2008

Is Homeland Security dough well spent?

Follow the money
“Because it is human nature to overspend on unlikely catastrophic events, it is likely that terrorists have succeeded in getting the world to overspend on counterterrorism,” they write.
By PETER VOSKAMP | April 02, 2008

Rueful reflections

Taking stock of the war in Iraq
March 19 marks the fifth anniversary of the start of our war in Iraq.
By GREG COOK | March 12, 2008

Documentary evidence

‘War Stories’ and Maori tattoos, plus the SMFA’s ‘Traveling Scholars’
The theme of MassArt’s “War Stories” is what we talk about when we talk about war — the Iraq War in particular.
By GREG COOK | February 27, 2008

The cuteness surge

Why, in desperate times, we turn to lolcats, twee songs, and mute kittens
Cuteness, of course, is the collective cultural cure-all to our problems.
By SHARON STEEL | February 01, 2008

Casting ballots

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival on the campaign trail
Some believe democracy can save the world. Others wonder whether it can even work in America.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 08, 2008

Know nukes

Why is our worst national nightmare so misunderstood?
I’ll never shake the sense memory of that numbed shiver.
By MIKE MILIARD | December 31, 2007

War stories

Pressuring the press
In his new book, Reporting the War: Freedom of the Press from the American Revolution to the War on Terrorism , author John Byrne Cooke tracks press influence on public opinion.
By ADAM REILLY | November 28, 2007

Land of Liberty

We're trapped in the Homeland
After 9/11, many of us went to New York City, responding to then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s plea to help Gotham by visiting and spending money.
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | November 28, 2007