Smiley was soaked to the skin and God as a punishment had removed all taxis from the face of London. - John le Carré

The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.

Treason is very much a matter of habit, Smiley decided.

...in the hands of politicians grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery...