The Rant

After condemning NY Times ' NSA wiretap story, WSJ editorial page mum so far on disclosure of bank monitoring Summary: After criticizing the revelation of the Bush administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program, The Wall Street Journal editorial board has been silent on the disclosure of the administration's monitoring of international financial transactions, on which the Journal 's own news division reported. On December 20, 2005, four days after The New York Times broke the story that the Bush administration was conducting a vast domestic electronic surveillance program without obtaining warrants apparently required by law, The Wall Street Journal printed an editorial saying that the Times ' disclosure of the secret program was "likely to do genuine harm" to the country. On June 27, more than four days after The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), and the Los Angeles Times disclosed the e...

Many Westerners see Muslims as fanatical, violent and intolerant, according to the study by the Pew Research Center in Washington. Muslims, for their part, tend to view the West as selfish, immoral, and greedy - as well as fanatical and violent - the survey says. The researchers canvassed the opinions of 14,000 people in 13 countries. BBC Islamic affairs analyst Roger Hardy says a string of events, from last year's London bombings to the more recent row over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad, appear to have taken their toll on relations between Islam and the West. Muslim opinions about the West and its people have worsened over the past year and by overwhelming margins Pew Center report The Pew Research Center's survey, published on Thursday, speaks of a "great divide" between the two. It says that Muslims and Westerners blame each other for deteriorating relations. Muslim people "have an aggrieved view of the West" and are "much more likely t...