[Leica] OT: Koran Desecrations at Gitmo

[msmall at aya.yale.edu (Marc James Small)]

At 03:11 PM 6/8/05 -0400, B. D. Colen wrote:
>Uh, "cheesy Newsweek hoax?" Isn't it odd that while the world has been
>trashing Newsweek for its "cheesy hoax," verified report after verified
>report of Koran desecration has come out - including from the Pentagon? Yet
>people speak of the "cheesy Newsweek hoax." Seems to me Newsweek got the
>essential story right, and first; they were simply off on some of what are
>essentially meaningless details.  

BD

You and I are probably closer on this than we are on many other issues:  I
distrust the government inherently and my anarchist beliefs tell me that
the sort of extraordinary imprisonment used on these folks is offensive to
all traditions of US law.

However, most of the documented cases of Koran abuse at Gitmo seem to be by
the inmates themselves.  It is intolerable for the US to allow abuse of a
religious work either by its own people or by inmates, but the big picture
seems to be that the greater abuses have been committed by the inmates
themselves and not by their interrogators.

Now, the mechanics of flushing a book down a toilet does interest me, and
it ought to have raised the hackles of everyone in the editorial chain at
NEWSWEEK.  You simply cannot flush a book down any toilet in current use in
the US or at Guantanomo Bay.  Was anyone thinking when this story was run?
(It is possible, of course, that the book was torn into small pieces and
then flushed but I find this most imrobable, given the sort of arrogant
jerks who end up employed as interrogators, and their short attention span:
 it strikes me as funny to contemplate one of these dudes spending eight or
ten hours hacking down a Koran into bits small enought to be flushed.)  In
the end, a capable editor ought to have bounced the story back to the
writer and demanded an explanation for the bizarre omission of discussing
HOW a book was to be flushed down a toilet.

I still have no idea why the US is involved in either Afghanistan or Iraq,
as I am a convinced adherent of national isolation.  If the US would simply
abandon the blind support of Israel it has adopted since 1948, the Islamic
nations would see the US in a far more positive light.  The only edge they
hold is their possession of oil, and, were the US to adopt a stature of
absolute neutrality, they would certainly sell it to the highest bidder.
(And, in the end, the Big Hammer remians in the background:  the US could,
though I certainly do not advocate this, seize the oil fields and use the
US Army's Corps of Engineers to pump the oil by contracting the oil
companies who do this today.  The fortunate reality is that the oil fields
are located in areas bereft of a populace, so enraged Arabs could then blow
themselves up without cost to the US.)

But the entire Gitmo thing is an example of the policies of Janet Reno run
mad:  crazy as she was in her disregard of human rights, Ashcroft proved
himself much goofier.  Charge these guys and try them in conventional
courts under conventional rules,. or release them.  This Star Chamber stuff
is offensive to every tradition of US jurisprudence and ought to be
offensive to every US citizen.

Marc

msmall@aya.yale.edu 
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!

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