Inside Al-Qaeda’s Hard Drive
Budget squabbles, baby pictures, office rivalries—and the path to 9/11
September 2004
In This Issue
Alan Cullison, "Inside Al-Qaeda's Hard Drive"; Eric Alterman, "The Hollywood Campaign"; Paul Elie, "In Search of a Pope"; James Warren, "More Nixon Tapes"; Tom Carson, "Policy Wank"; Ryan Lizza, "The Natural"; Alexandra Starr, "Dixie Chicks"; P. J. O'Rourke, "Adult-Male-Elephant Diplomacy"; fiction by Christopher Buckley; and much more.
Features
The Hollywood Campaign
Want big money to get elected to national office? If you're a Democrat, you need to head for the hills—Beverly Hills.
In Search of a Pope
Media commentators love to speculate about the power politics of the next conclave. They keep forgetting about the most important factor of all
More Nixon Tapes
Fresh talk about the Irish, the Africans, the Ivy League, and Chairman "Mayo." A selection from recently released recordings in the National Archives.
Florence of Arabia
How one woman (plus a disgraced Green Beret, a shameless PR lackey, and the wife of a sheikh) brought the Middle East to the brink of female emancipation. A short story
Get the digital edition of this issue.
Subscribers can access PDF versions of every issue in The Atlantic archive. When you subscribe, you’ll not only enjoy all of The Atlantic’s writing, past and present; you’ll also be supporting a bright future for our journalism.Agenda
The Stakes in 2004
The coming presidential election may be the most important in generations
The Natural
Why is Barack Obama generating more excitement among Democrats than John Kerry?
Dixie Chicks
A new kind of Democrat is emerging in the South—and she's no shrinking violet
Who Will be the Next President?
The market speaks
Ayatollah Democracy
Arrogant, dogmatic, and anti-American, Iraq's Shiite clerics are the last people enlightened Westerners want to see in power. Let's hope they prevail
Private Military Contractors
A buyer's guide
Adult-Male-Elephant Diplomacy
Colin Powell talks about Iraq, the Cold War, his place in the Administration, and chilling "the ambitions of the evil"
Primary Sources
The U.S. prison system as a terrorist university; why the suburbs make you fat; the "happiness-maximizing" number of sex partners
Books
Wolves, Actors, Jihadis
Vicious, by Jon Coleman; Who the Hell's in It, by Peter Bogdanovich; Imperial Hubris, by Anonymous; Heloise & Abelard, by James Burge
Policy Wank
Bill Clinton's sodden memoir goes into all the wrong detail
Mother of All Mothers
The leadership secrets of Kim Jong Il
Mirror, Mirror
Astonishing memoirs by (and about) deeply repellent people
The Immortal
A new biography reaches the heart of the labyrinth—the intense and wondrous life of Jorge Luis Borges
Pursuits
Witless Protection
Coping with the sixteenth minute
“When Russia Is Ready”
In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the question of whether protecting U.S. national security warranted a preventive war was fiercely debated. The question was not new. In the September 1954 Atlantic, Thomas K. Finletter, who had recently served as the Secretary of the Air Force, broached it in a very different context.
Principled Pork
"Sustainable farming" is now open to debate and commercial exploitation. But sustainable pork certainly tastes the way pork should
The Lord’s Music and the Devil’s Words
Ray Charles (1930-2004)
Also in this issue
Other articles in this issue
The Message in the Budget
The alternative minimum tax is a nuisance, but the Bush administration is relying on it to balance the budget.
Poetry
Peaceable Kingdom
[with audio]
