In the long run, he must also make political space in Rwanda for the Hutu rebel forces who maraud through eastern Congo and give General Nkunda a pretext for his depredations.

ECONOMIST: Congo

It warns that if the countries in the region do not participate in the conference "this will give the Turks a suitable pretext for undertaking greater co-operation with Washington".

BBC: Words of warning before Turkish talks

But with that said, lower courts are always looking for guidance for the Supreme Court about the kinds of reasons that prosecutors give that are a mere pretext or the kinds of reasons that look like they're solid.

NPR: Slate's Jurisprudence: Court Passes on Padilla Case

The reason, according to reporters Michael Isikoff and David Korn: Armitage did not want to give the White House a pretext for placing the blame where it belonged - with the disloyal denizens of the State Department's seventh floor.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The disloyalists