Stepping back

Today, news outside of Afghanistan deserves mention. A brief roundup:

One of the accused Russian spies was a Kennedy School mid-career MPA in the same class as Felipe Calderón. Bets are already underway as to which member of the MPP '11 class is most likely to be arrested in similar fashion ten years hence.

Also, a friend of mine coordinated a research project combing the major newspapers' coverage of waterboarding. Their report, released by the Shorenstein Center, has picked up significant press in the blogosphere: Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan, and the Huffington Post all wrote about it yesterday. Having read a few early drafts, I'm very proud to see it make an impact.

Finally, more locally, a UN driver was killed in Kabul on Tuesday. There are no official reports yet, but rumor here was that it was a mistake rather than an attack, and I'm not sure which outcome is more worrisome. In either case, it's a tragedy.