While many of the institutions that profited from Assange's revelations later turned on him, Gavin was steadfastly loyal, seeing his role, as always, to stick up for those under fierce attack from powerful forces.
And competition for those apartments is fierce, so fierce that these days no one I know can find a rental on the open market.
Mr. Rafeh had been outspoken in his support for the fierce government suppression of armed opponents.
So much for the fierce mountain clansman, the implacable Albanian avenger he'd imagined and feared.
But even given the modest living stipend and education award that comes with AmeriCorps service, competition for those slots is fierce.
"He is a bulldog of a bureaucrat," Mr. Lake wrote, "notorious among his colleagues for utter devotion to those he works for, fierce loyalty and support toward those who work for him and a bluntness toward those at his level that has not earned him universal affection".
It has also come in for some fierce criticism from those who are uncomfortable with assassination in general, with the eerily impersonal methods of remote killing, with the civilian casualties, or with the timid oversight of an agency licensed to kill.
With competition fierce for those summer teenage dollars, filmmakers increasingly employ high-tech effects.
But because it employs 90,000 people amid the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, competition for those jobs has become fierce.
And since the corporatized publishing world continues to shrink at an alarming rate, there are fewer and fewer slots available, even though the competition is every bit as fierce for those ever-dwindling spots.
