Getting Caught with Their Pants Down
Not only evil, but also stupid

In the LATimes editorial Torture makes justice impossible , David Cole points out that the use of torture has resulted in fewer prosecutions. Evidence obtained by coercion is not allowed in US courts. That is one reason for using military courts, but they also present problems. The "anything goes" approach to terrorism, instead of making us safer, has limited our ability to deal with terrorists.

But more than four years after President Bush created military tribunals, not a single case has gone to trial. Only a handful of the hundreds of detainees have even been charged. One probable reason for the military's reluctance is the real risk that any trial will turn into a trial of the United States' own interrogation practices. Although the military tribunal rules do not exclude the use of testimony extracted by torture, no trial will ever be viewed as legitimate if it allows such testimony, and defense lawyers are certain to make this a central issue in any proceeding.

In short, by electing early on to violate the universal prohibition on torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, the administration has not only inflicted unconscionable harm on detainees from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo, and done incalculable damage to the U.S. image abroad, it has painted itself into a corner. It is becoming increasingly unacceptable to hold so-called enemy combatants indefinitely without trial. But we have shielded the vast majority of them from being tried for the wrongs they may well have committed.

The same reckless disregard for our own ideals of democracy and freedom can be seen in another article in the same paper, Don't pay a free press .

THE GANG THAT COULDN'T shoot straight is firmly ensconced in Washington. The State Department trains Iraqi journalists how to be independent and fair; at the ame time, the Defense Department contracts with an organization that secretly pays Iraqi publications to print stories making the American occupiers look good.

As often happens with propaganda, when daylight exposes the secret, the stench is overpowering.

The administration's proselytizing for a free press becomes especially laughable if the news coming from across the sea proves true. See The Newsweek article by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball :

A British government crackdown on government leaks may have backfired by calling world attention to an ultrasensitive secret memo whose alleged contents have embarrassed President George W. Bush and strained relations between London and Washington. The document allegedly recounts a threat last year by Bush to bomb the head office of the Arabic TV news channel Al-Jazeera. . . .

"Bush administration officials initially dismissed the memo's allegations about Bush's threat against Al-Jazeera as 'outlandish.' U.S. officials later suggested that if Bush did talk with Blair about bombing Al-Jazeera, the president was only joking. . . .

Can't these clowns realize that saying something over and over doesn't make it true, and that eventually all but the obtuse voters will figure out the deception? Also that two wrongs not only don't make a right but is also downright stupid in today's information age?