The Interocitor

"Victims" demand justice. They should get it.

AP reports that some of the Abu Ghraib "families" want the accused prison guards executed if convicted:

If they actually committed such offenses, they should be executed," said Odai Ibrahim, 55, as he waited in a line with hundreds of other Iraqis to visit relatives at the prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad -- notorious as the site of executions and torture during Saddam Hussein's regime.

Hmmm. Just like those arrested for insurrection should have been shot, if found guilty by a tribunal, I guess. But no, they didn't argue that point. Matter of fact, I've failed to find one iota of press anywhere discussing who these prisoners were and why they were arrested, other than anecdotes from prisoners who all claim innocence.

I have to think that the response of Americans would be generally different if these prisoners were charged with blowing up mosques, schoolbuses and American personnel. Or, as Condi Rice described them, "the Klan." Probably why the press just leaves them as uninvestigated "victims." Don't want to run the risk of spoiling the outrage against Bush. They do find room for this, though:

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which inspects prisons in Iraq and elsewhere, has said up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees were arrested by mistake. A 24-page Red Cross report also cited abuses, some "tantamount to torture," including brutality, forcing people to wear hoods, humiliation and threats of imminent execution.

Now this is a damning accusation, worthy of a serious investigation. Why isn't it happening? Who are these people? Victims or thugs and killers?

It matters. Justice demands it.

Posted by Kevin Murphy at May 18, 2004 03:06 PM | TrackBack