Another proud member of the irony-based community.
Those of us who held out hope that the Obama administration would not be actively covering up the brutal torture of a Gitmo prisoner who was subject to abuse in several countries must now concede the obvious.Yes, I'm afraid we must.
"Mysterious Jackson area lawyer's blog about history, literature, and whatever irks him." -- NMC
"Just a hypersensitive pantywaist probably of Gallic descent who still suffers nightmares over what Gaius Julius did to your people 2,000 years ago." -- Kingfish
And therefore, reader, I myself am the subject of my book; it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on a topic so frivolous and so vain.
-- Montaigne, Essays, "To the Reader.""I shall see myself, I shall read myself, I shall go into ecstacies, and I shall ask -- Is it possible that I have so much ésprit?"
-- Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols.... the torturer has become – like the pirate and slave trader before him – hostis humani generis, an enemy of all mankind.
-- Filártiga v. Peña-Irala, 630 F.2d 876, 890 (2d Cir. 1980)
While I'm disappointed by his decision, I have to wonder at all the hyperventilating going on.
ReplyDeleteDoes his decision not to reveal these photos make him worse than the torturers, or those who approved it? Seriously? And can we really call this a coverup, as they fight the release of photos concerning something we pretty much all know happened anyway? Sullivan even admits it's a pretty crappy coverup, but still chooses to treat it as a coverup.
Here's another theory: Obama knows they'll lose in court, and wants that loss on the books for future cases. For the same reason the Bush DOJ withdrew the detention case before it could hit the Supreme Court, only backwards... *shrug* I dunno, but I can't help feeling we're moving past any actual "find out what happened" efforts and into feeding frenzy territory.
I think the link is re: the Binyam Mohammed case in Britain.
ReplyDeleteRe: the photos, I can concede a pragmatic argument vs. inflaming Islamic opinion further.
Anderson, I agree completely with your "pragmatic argument vs. inflaming Islamic opinion further." There is no gain in releasing them. Razor
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