Castro Retires

Staff / Truthdig Feb 19, 2008 Fidel Castro announced on Tuesday that he "neither will aspire to nor will I accept the position of president of the Council of State and commander in chief." He had stayed in firm control of Cuba for nearly 50 years despite all the best efforts of a superpower some 90 miles away. In the end, he was forced from office not by coup or assassination, but trouble with his intestine. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Carla Kaplan on ‘The Mitfords’

Carla Kaplan / Truthdig Dec 28, 2007 A new collection of letters between the fascinating Mitford sisters offers unparalleled insight into one of the 20th century's most famous families. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

Cristina Nehring on What’s Wrong With the American Essay

Cristina Nehring / Truthdig Nov 30, 2007 One of our most trenchant critics takes a withering look at how contemporary essayists in a global world have gone increasingly, foolishly, local. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

Young Scholars Tell the President ‘No’ on Torture

Amy Goodman / Truthdig Jul 11, 2007 Sometimes it takes a brave, idealistic young person (or nearly 50 of them) to break all the rules of pomp and circumstance, pass the president a note, and school him about human rights. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

The Bush Ship-Jumping Spreads…

Staff / Truthdig Jul 9, 2006 Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a "sharply worded letter" to Bush warning him that he may have violated the law by keeping Congress in the dark on several unnamed intelligence programs, and that Bush risked losing GOP support on national security matters. All of a sudden, it's not just predictable GOP'ers like Arlen Specter who are rattling the saber on Bush's excessive secrecy. Hoekstra was, until now, a hard-core Bushie. Seems there's just so much alienation your friends will take before they lash out at you in public. Make no mistake: Bush values loyalty above everything else. That Hoekstra was willing to publicly cross the president says A LOT. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Iran Presses For Direct U.S. Talks On Nukes

Staff / Truthdig May 24, 2006 Iranian officials are furiously working diplomatic back channeles to open a dialogue with the U.S. (Apparently the Iranian's president's 18-page letter to Bush opened the floodgates.) The significance of this? For 25 years Iran has enforced a taboo against making overtures to "The Great Satan." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Andy Borowitz — Bush Demands That Iran Halt Production of Long Letters

Andy Borowitz / Truthdig May 13, 2006 The political satirist reports: White House aides said that writing an 18-page letter to President Bush, who is known for his extreme distaste for reading, was the most provocative act Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could possibly have committed. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Letter From Iran

Mike Luckovich / Truthdig May 10, 2006 Dig deeper

Iranians Fault Rice’s Dismissal of Letter

Staff / Truthdig May 10, 2006 An Iranian diplomat says that Condoleezza Rice squandered a potential "turning point" in U.S.-Iranian relations by her "hasty" rejection of a letter from the Iranian president to Bush. (Read the letter) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Iranian Leader Invites Bush to Join in Theocracy

Staff / Truthdig May 10, 2006 President Ahmadinejad, in his somewhat rambling letter to Bush, encourages him to abandon democracy in favor of theocracy (Sam Harris might observe that America wouldn't have far to go in that respect) The Iranian leader also criticized Bush's use of secret CIA prisons, and mentioned the nuclear issue only indirectly N Times article on the letter The translated letter in full Condoleezza Rice dismisses the letter . Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Bush Housecleaning Begins at Home

Staff / Truthdig Apr 19, 2006 In a moment of satire, the Washington Post surfaces a letter that Bush wrote to his daughters explaining why he's decided to replace them with Chelsea Clinton. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )