in democracy and the rule of law.”

Perhaps Stelter has forgotten that the United States is the country of 5,000 unsolved lynchings and the assassination of Martin Luther King (leaving aside the Vietnam War, etc.). We, too, face many troubling examples of anti-legal and antidemocratic conduct.

Al-Hajj has drawn from his experience a resolve to publicize other cases of injustice and violations of the rule of law.Silenced for 7 years, he has found a voice for human rights:

“But Mr. Hajj has not restricted himself to Guantanamo and his own incarceration.He has expanded the network’s coverage of other rights issues, including press freedom in Iraq, Palestinians in Israeli prisons [there are some thousands in those prisons, Gilad Shalit in Palestinian custody] and the implications of the Patriot Act.On a Wednesday morningsecond note on the post on Arendt and Strauss here, Don Campion, a wonderful correspondent with me and former student with Gary Schmitt at the University of Dallas, remarks on Strauss’s elitism even toward the elite.As in his own view an outstanding man in exile in America, he could not rule, but he hoped to shape the rulers. In addition, Don emphasizes Strauss’s loneliness (in Arendt’s sense).The god is by himself. As a scholar, Strauss had some sort of inner dialogue of the sort Arendt mentions.But there are some complicated further elements, that of fear and rebelliousness as well as a peculiar humor, even self-deprecation,in Strauss’s elitism.He was a Jew, ever having to hide in Germany, as well as a would-be German.He was also furious at this condition.In