Joshua B. Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, has raised the possibility of moving Harriet E. Miers from her job as President Bush's counsel as part of a continuing shake-up of the West Wing, an influential Republican with close ties to Mr. Bolten said Thursday.

It was not clear whether Mr. Bolten was floating a trial balloon to gauge White House reaction to the idea, or whether he might have been intending to send a signal to Ms. Miers that he would like her to think about leaving on her own.

Bush Counsel May Be Next in Shake-Up

Top British transplant surgeons have accused China of harvesting the organs of thousands of executed prisoners every year to sell for transplants.

"The weight of evidence has accumulated to a point over the last few months where it's really incontrovertible in our opinion."

China 'selling prisoners' organs'

George Packer on Iraq

Tal Afar is an ancient city of a quarter-million inhabitants, situated on a smuggling route in the northwestern desert of Iraq, near the Syrian border. In January, when I visited, the streets had been muddied by cold winter rains and gouged by the tracks of armored vehicles. Tal Afar’s stone fortifications and narrow alleys had the haggard look of a French town in the First World War that had changed hands several times. In some neighborhoods, markets were open and children played in the streets; elsewhere, in areas cordoned off by Iraqi checkpoints, shops remained shuttered, and townspeople peered warily from front doors and gates.

Since the Iraq war began, American forces had repeatedly driven insurgents out of Tal Afar, but the Army did not have enough troops to maintain a sufficient military presence there, and insurgents kept returning to terrorize the city.

The soldiers who worked to secure Tal Afar were, in a sense, rebels against an incoherent strategy that has brought the American project in Iraq to the brink of defeat.

...

He walked me outside into the sunlit garden. On the street, a car passed by slowly. For an hour, I had forgotten to be afraid, and now that we were saying goodbye I was reluctant to go. In the past we had always shaken hands, but on this occasion Dr. Butti kissed my cheeks, in the Iraqi way. Perhaps he felt, as I did, that we might not meet again for a long time.

THE LESSON OF TAL AFAR, by George Packer | The New Yorker | Fact

If our choice is another Rummy-led operation on Iran or Iran's going nuclear and our deterring it through classic means, I prefer deterrence.

Friedman on Iran

Eberhardt Rechtin, who played a key role in the development of space technology during the Cold War, died Friday at Torrance Memorial Hospital after lengthy battles with several illnesses. He was 80.

Rechtin, of Rolling Hills Estates, was chief executive of El Segundo-based Aerospace Corp. for 10 years, chief engineer of Hewlett-Packard Corp. and director of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, among other positions that placed him at the forefront of U.S. national security. He later joined the faculty at USC, creating the school's first program in aerospace architecture.

Eberhardt Rechtin, 80; Helped Develop US Space Technology

Los Angeles prosecutors filed embezzlement, grand theft, drunk driving and weapons charges Monday against a former European video game executive, whose involvement in the crash of a rare Ferrari Enzo in Malibu two months ago has mushroomed into a case filled with international intrigue.

WaPo coverage is The High-Octane Story of the Felon and the Ferrari.

A Pileup of Charges in the Case of the Totaled Ferrari

Much of their analysis strikes us as solid -- but the rebellion is problematic nonetheless. It threatens the essential democratic principle of military subordination to civilian control -- the more so because a couple of the officers claim they are speaking for some still on active duty.

If they are successful in forcing Mr. Rumsfeld's resignation, they will set an ugly precedent. Will future defense secretaries have to worry about potential rebellions by their brass, and will they start to choose commanders according to calculations of political loyalty?

At the same time, David Broder says:

Seeing these senior officers take this public stand is unprecedented; even in Vietnam, with all the misgivings among the fighting men, we saw no such open defiance.

Rumsfeld and President Bush insist that the manpower and strategy have been exactly what the commanders in the field thought best, but now general after general is speaking out to challenge that claim. The situation cries out for serious congressional oversight and examination; hearings are needed as soon as Congress returns. These charges have to be answered convincingly -- or Rumsfeld has to go.

The Generals' Revolt

Last Sunday, Andrew Krepinevich reviewed Cobra II for the Washington Post. His lead paragraphs are quite similar to the latest Time magazine piece about "Why Iraq Was a Mistake".

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made headlines last week by conceding that the Bush administration had made "tactical errors, thousands" in waging the war in Iraq. But, she argued, the administration pursued the right underlying strategy in toppling Saddam Hussein, and history's judgment will be based on whether "you make the right strategic decisions."

In their "inside story" of the war, Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor stand Rice's assertion on its head. They show that the US military's tactical brilliance during the war's early stages came despite the strategic miscalculations of senior civilian and military leaders -- and that the Bush team's misjudgments made the current situation in Iraq far worse than it need have been. As it turns out, in addition to the war with Iraq's tyrant, there was an ongoing war between US field commanders, their own senior commander (Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of Central Command) and civilian leaders in Washington.

About the book, Krepinevich concludes it's a bit like democracy -- it is flawed, but it's the best thing we've got so far. (You get an upfront sense of his take by his use of quotes on the term "inside story.")

Pointers to other recent MemeStreams coverage: an NPR story, and an NYT review.

Blundering to Baghdad

The way to avoid tragedy is to think tragically.

Haunted by Hussein, humbled by events

The trial of Zacarias Moussaoui has provided opportunities for followers in the courtroom to discuss which moment in the regularly odd proceeding is the oddest. The prize-winning occasion may have occurred when Mr. Moussaoui took the stand for the second time last week.

He quickly became embroiled in an argument with Gerald T. Zerkin, one of his court-appointed lawyers, who, despite Mr. Moussaoui's skepticism, is trying to prevent the Justice Department from executing him. The bizarre moment: the chief prosecutor, Robert A. Spencer, who is without doubt trying to have Mr. Moussaoui executed, rose to Mr. Moussaoui's defense, objecting that Mr. Zerkin was badgering the witness.

Of course, the upside-down nature of Mr. Moussaoui's status as a witness exists because Mr. Zerkin and his team are eager to demonstrate that Mr. Moussaoui is mentally unstable, and they are content to have an argument with him that may demonstrate that to the jury.

Mr. Spencer, on the other hand, is reluctant to have the jury — which will soon decide whether to order Mr. Moussaoui's execution — be shown signs that Mr. Moussaoui may not think in a logical manner.

Judge Leonie M. Brinkema has presided over the trial, now in its seventh week, with the tolerant air of a veteran high school teacher trying to maintain order in the pre-law club.

Logic Turns Upside-Down During Moussaoui Trial