The convictions handed down by a French court this week against arms dealers, influence peddlers, and former government officials, including a son of the late president François Mitterrand, expose a vivid picture of the world in which Dick Cheney used to do business when he was the head of Halliburton in the 1990s. The case did not touch on the former vice president's activities directly, and he is not implicated in any alleged wrongdoing. But now that a verdict has been reached in this nine-year-old French case, I expect the door will be open to investigations touching many corners of this fetid world of corruption. (Click here to follow Christopher Dickey)
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Leader of the Pack
Some in Washington have described Abdullah as "the whip" of the Arab and Muslim peace camp. The term is used in Congress to describe a political party's chief enforcer. But it originally applied to the huntsman who keeps a pack of hounds on the right scent. Abdullah's job is actually more like herding cats.
