Lewis' Letter to the NYTimes' Public Editor:
I do not understand why you or The New York Times should be defensive about the C.I.A. covert air rendition stories - as I thought your column was. Here is a program of dubious legality in conflict with longstanding American ideals.
Does The Times have to explain that it's really not news when we write about American agents seizing people without any legal process and shipping them to countries that routinely practice torture? I remember when we were proud of Seymour M. Hersh's stories disclosing C.I.A. plots to assassinate people.
ANTHONY LEWIS
Boston, June 20, 2005
The writer is a former Times columnist.
One of the greatest columnists ever.