The farcical end of the American dream

[Briar]

...it's not just this fawning on political power that makes me despair. Let's move to a more recent example of what I can only call institutionalised racism in American reporting of Iraq. I have to thank reader Andrew Gorman for this gem, a January Associated Press report about the killing of an Iraqi prisoner under interrogation by US Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jnr.

Mr Welshofer, it transpired in court, had stuffed the Iraqi General Abed Hamed Mowhoush head-first into a sleeping bag and sat on his chest, an action which - not surprisingly - caused the general to expire. The military jury ordered - reader, hold your breath - a reprimand for Mr Welshofer, the forfeiting of $6,000 of his salary and confinement to barracks for 60 days. But what caught my eye was the sympathetic detail. Welshofer's wife's Barbara, the AP told us, "testified that she was worried about providing for their three children if her husband was sentenced to prison. 'I love him more for fighting this,' she said, tears welling up in her eyes. 'He's always said that you need to do the right thing, and sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing to do'".

Yes, I guess torture is tough on the torturer. But try this from the same report: "Earlier in the day ... Mr Welshofer fought back tears. 'I deeply apologise if my actions tarnish the soldiers serving in Iraq,' he said."

Note how the American killer's remorse is directed not towards his helpless and dead victim but to the honour of his fellow soldiers, even though an earlier hearing had revealed that some of his colleagues watched Welshofer stuffing the general into the sleeping bag and did nothing to stop him. An earlier AP report stated that "officials" - here we go again - "believed Mowhoush had information that would 'break the back of the insurgency'." Wow. The general knew all about 40,000 Iraqi insurgents. So what a good idea to stuff him upside down inside a sleeping bag and sit on his chest...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12395.htm

[sasha031]

1. as always Mr. Fisk is right

it's a good thing that circulation is down for our press, when their news items constantly consist of one official after another, and the blatant disregard for anyone who is not an american officer or the official source is cruel and boring.

at one time I was hoping with all the revelations they would snap out of it, wishful thinking it's not going to happen. So we always have Dr. Frisk and the UK Independent and international sources for accuracy.

[n2doc]

2. Well..If he did have such valuable info

The LAST thing you would want to do is KILL him! Real good information gathering technique there, folks. Torture doesn't work-Mr. Rumsfeld, write it 1,000 times on the blackboard, please....

[peacebird]

4. exactly - torture gets people to say what they think you want to hear

they will say ANYTHING to stop the pain.

Note that this has nothing to do with telling the truth. The value of their confessions is nil.

America has lost its soul, its heart, its moral fiber, and it now stands as arrogant as Ozymandias - proclaiming its strength and power to all the world... soon we will be another fallen superpower - like Rome, like the USSR...

[bemildred]

3. Another bit:

And here is what the American colonel replied: "Mr Abbasi, your conduct is unacceptable and this is your absolute final warning. I do not care about international law. I do not want to hear the words international law. We are not concerned about international law."

Alas, these words - which symbolise the very end of the American dream - are buried down the story. The colonel, clearly a disgrace to the uniform he wears, does not appear in the bland headline ("US papers tell Guantanamo inmates' stories") of the Sydney paper, more interested in telling us that the released documents identify by name the "farmers, shopkeepers or goatherds" held in Guantanamo.

[Briar]

5. This is just the Bush foreign policy

stated plainly. And it probably has the support of a lot of "patriots" as well.

[Tom Bombadil]

6. Great article.

Two things struck me: 'Official sources' will lie to the press and to the world and not bat an eyelid. Filthy propagandists.

Secondly, what sort of vile system allows a US soldier to stuff a man into a sleeping bag, suffocate him to death and then later escape with a $6000 fine and be confined to barracks for 60 days. The US miltary is rotten and racist to the core - the ignorant, hillbilly, killing machines amongst their ranks will get no sympathy from me.