"The Order", by Daniel Silva

I became aware of Daniel Silva a few months ago, when I heard him being interviewed on the occasion of the publication of his latest spy novel, which I later learned was his 25th novel dating back to 1996, all of which were best-sellers. Checking in the local public library, I was pleased to see that many of these novels were on the shelves, with the rest no doubt available through inter-library loan.

The main character in all but the first three of his novels is Gabriel Allon, the head of Israeli intelligence. In "The Order", Allon is investigating "the order", a shadowy organization composed of authoritarian, anti-democratic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic Catholic priests, in coordination with like-minded figures throughout Europe.

The appeal of Silva's novels is two-fold. One, he takes you to places all over the world, and makes you feel like you are there. And two, he brings in current affairs, basing his plots on what is actually going on in the world. At the end of each novel, he has an "Author's Note", in which he explains what is factual and what is made up, and expresses his concerns based on recent world events. In "The Order", he outdoes himself, with an 11-page "Author's Note".

What is so impactful about "The Order" is the emphasis on the passage from Matthew 27:25, which says that the Jewish people are responsible for the killing of Jesus, supposedly saying, “His blood be upon us, and upon our children”. Silva's idea, which I cannot dispute, is that this passage has been responsible for 2,000 years of the persecution of Jews. And it is a clearly false passage. The idea that some Jew in the crowd might have yelled out "his blood be upon us", is, I suppose, marginally plausible. But to add "and upon our children" is ludicrous. We have to ask, how did this pathetic verse find its way into the Bible?

Atrocious Decision from Tump-appointed Federal Judge

U.S. District Judge from the Southern District of Florida, Aileen M. Cannon, issued a ruling the other day appointing a Special Master to review documents seized by the FBI while executing a search warrant at Donald Trump's Florida home.

The reason this is so outrageous is that the court system has no business injecting itself into an ongoing investigation. Courts don't normally get involved until charges are filed. Up until that time, an investigation is the sole province of the executive branch, as represented by the duly authorized prosecutors and detectives conducting the investigation.

In my experience lawyers who have tried to inject themselves into an investigation in an attempt to influence whether charges are filed have been soundly rebuffed. It is the same princple, which is that the legal system doesn't kick in until charges are filed in court.

This principle is why I see problems with the Miranda Warnings, as mandated by the Supreme Court in the famous Miranda case back in 1966. The first two sentences should be sufficient, informing a suspect that he has a right to remain silent, and that anything he says can be used against him later in court. The last two sentences on the right to an attorney should be dropped, as the function of an attorney doesn't kick in until charges are filed and the case thereby gets into the court system.

All an attorney is going to do during the investigative phase is tell his client not to talk to the police. I much prefer the British system, as illustrated in the many British detective shows available to stream these days. The British tell the suspect, "You have the right to remain silent, although if you fail to mention something that you later rely on in court, your silence can be used against you."