Word: prosecutor
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Turkey's militant secularists may have lost their battle against the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the ballot box, but they're hoping that what the electorate denied them might be granted by the judiciary. To popular disbelief, the country's secularist chief prosecutor has applied to ban the ruling party, reelected last July with 47% of the vote, on the grounds that it is supposedly seeking to destroy secularism. The move comes on the heels of a controversial government move to overturn a ban on wearing headscarves at universities...
...constitutional court must now vote whether to dismiss or hear the prosecutor's bid to ban the ruling party. In the event of the latter, the AKP has one month to submit a defense and an ensuing case could take several months, losing Turkey much credibility abroad. "The constitutional court should reject the closure demand," wrote Milliyet commentator Hasan Cemal. "Otherwise, Turkey will lose." European governments and the U.S. have criticized...
...Still, it's difficult to believe that the crack former prosecutor would allow himself to get caught up in the routine IRS investigation that led to the exposure of the prostitution ring. As Spitzer knows better than most, banks must inform the government of suspicious transactions like unusually large or frequent cash withdrawals and requests to break down money transfers into small amounts. (Spitzer appears to have used both methods to pay for prostitutes.) Investigators are particularly watchful when a public official is behind such transactions - something Spitzer also would have known. During a lunch with TIME staffers...
...that Spitzer was discussed as a potential 2012 Democratic presidential nominee. Spitzer apologized for his "private failings," but he said nothing to explain why he would have thrown it all away, why he risked so much. He had built a reputation as an ethical crusader, and as a former prosecutor, he knew well the myriad electronic and surveillance tools that reveal hidden arrangements for crimes like prostitution. Just last year, Spitzer had signed a law that lengthened jail time for johns from three months to as much as a year...
...arch-rival Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, told TIME that he looked forward to working with the new chief executive, Lt. Governor David Paterson who officially succeeds Spitzer on Monday. Says Bruno: "I know he is in an entirely different frame of mind" than Spitzer, who "was a prosecutor and had that mentality. That doesn't work as CEO." Bruno, who will retain his post as Senate Majority Leader while assuming the duties - but not the title - of Lieutenant Governor, had only good words to say about Paterson. "When he was minority [leader], we many times would need votes from...