(from Stephen Philion under `unusually good interview with Seymour Hersh on PBS Newshour'):
HISHAM MELHEM:...I thought last month with the incredible violence in Iraq, with President Bush's embrace of Ariel Sharon that America's credibility in the nation reached it's nadir. I think I'm mistaken, I think now. I think one could argue if you have any illusions about winning hearts and mind in Iraq and the Arab world for that matter, you should forget that. I think what happens --.
RAY SUAREZ: Forget it -- you mean like game over?
HISHAM MELHEM: Yeah, I think so....
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I watched this and Suarez was taken back. He visibly flinched. It was pretty interesting to watch. The other guest was a military justice type who taught at George Washington U in DC. He didn't try to nuance or spin anything and didn't argue. He merely pointed out that all this was a violation of the military justice system and the Geneva Conventions.
Meanwhile Suarez asked Hersh a question, which I forget now, and Hersh laughed, asking back, ``Is that a serious question?'' Suarez flinched again and said, yes. Hersh clarified whatever it was.
The important element here only briefly touched on by Hersh was that this sort of treatment is the tip of an iceberg. He pointed out that General Taguba in his report made reference to the same effect.
What we are seeing is a systemic abuse of civilian, military and international legal protections from Abu Ghraib in Iraq to Kandahar, Jalalabad and Asadabad in Afghanistan, to Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo, right on through to the domestic detention provisions of the Patriot Act. These are all painted with the same brush.
Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Aschroft and Tenet are now straight up war criminals.
They are the responsible high officials who deliberately and systematically negated the established legal protections of US civilian and military justice along with the Geneva Conventions to knowingly perpetrate these sorts of crimes and abuses as expedient policy in the name of intelligence gathering and national security. These crimes are not the result of accidents of circumstance. They are the consequence of policy.
There are only two bricks left to close the tomb. The first is the use of Israeli military security officials as contractors and consultants and the second is to document the treatment of women and children who have their own wing in Abu Ghraib.
And John Kerry is struggling to find an election theme?
What is he confused about choosing between lying, cheating, stealing, murder, torture, or war crimes?
Chuck Grimes