Articles

What a Murder by Mussolini Teaches Us About Khashoggi and M.B.S. (NY Times, Oct. 23, 2018)

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudis has striking parallels with the murder of the Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti by Fascist thugs. In the weeks after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, a question has been repeatedly asked: How could the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, be so…

The Last Slaves of Mauritania, NY Review of Books, Nov 23, 2017

You can both see the desert and feel its presence in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, which goes months at a time without rain. Although it is a city of one million people, rivulets of sand collect along the main paved thoroughfares of the city center, in front of a handful of government buildings and…

The Trump Card, The National Law Journal May 16, 1988

Nearly thirty years ago in my early days as a reporter, I did a long story for the National Law Journal on Donald Trump’s aggressive use of litigation. Among other things, it shows his well-developed habit of stiffing contractors who work for him, recently re-reported in a fine story by USA today http://usat.ly/1TY1QLb. Re-reading this…

The Pope Who Tried, (The Pope and Mussolini), New York Review of Books, April 23, 2015

The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer Random House, 549 pp., $32.00; $20.00 (paper) Hulton Archive/Getty Images Monsignor Francesco Borgongini-Duca, Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, Francesco Pacelli, Benito Mussolini, and Dino Grandi at the signing of the Lateran Treaty between Italy and the…

Why French Law Treats Dieudonné and Charlie Hebdo Differently, The New Yorker, Jan. 15, 2015

On the same day that the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdoimmediately sold out an initial run of five million copies of its latest issue—which featured a cover image of the prophet Muhammad—French police arrested the comedian and activist Dieudonné M’bala M’bala for writing on his Facebook page, “Je me sens Charlie Coulibaly.”* Dieudonné was charged with “incitement…