Daniel Pearl 'refused to be sedated before his throat was cut'

The Sunday Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5/9/04 | Massoud Ansari

[petercooper]

or form a naked human pyramid.

oh the horror!

[TexasGreg]

I'm so sick of this double-standard.

Butcher Pearle ... that doesn't deserve condemnation or showing it on TV (mus'nt upset the population to hate Arabs)

Photograph Iraqis naked ... HORRIBLE, and let's show the pictures so that Arabs will hate us more (if that's possible).

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

European courts won't condemn anybody.

[ZULU]

True, but that originates from a liberal perspective in which the criminal is never guilty, only society is guilty.

That differs fro the situation here. Islamic courts are notorious for their strictness in inflicting punishment on "evildoers" as long as the evil does not involve a crime committed by a Muslim against a non-Muslim.

[mtntop3]

All enemies of America, including domestic ones, seize upon the most innocuous of American misdeeds to justify/propagandize the most massive of crimes against America and its allies. Americans do, surely, have a reputation to live up to in the world. And we're going to continue doing just that regardless of whether our higher standard/bar is met daily with the usual double standard by our enemies and detractors. That's the price of leadership as well as freedom.

[mondoman]

The thing is when they see atrocities committed against the West, they run out into the streets and cheer. Remember the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza after 911?

[adam_az]

"I know that she's gotten some really bad publicity over the past few months-why the media would want to pry into this woman's personal life even more is beyond me-but I defy you to read the memoir of her husband and their life together and not be moved to tears."

You mean like the Clintonite CNN exec she recently married?

[Christian4Bush]

"But who would apologize? I don't think the insurgents have that on their priority list."

My thoughts exactly PING

[BulletBobCo]

Bump

[mattdono]

Well, I don't disagree with that.

However, I do think that it is interesting (in fact, necessary) to point out that the "domestic ones" seem to include all too many in the American media.

If there job is to cover the news, then cover it...cover all of it. Cover of it in its excruciating detail.

Don't pick and choose which so-called "attrocities" to cover. Don't pick and choose only the "attrocities" that fit the detractor's agenda and pay scant attention to attrocities that don't.

If the media wants to start throwing the t-word around, then let's have some context of what torture really is.

Torture is not making someone get naked and do a naked human pyramid. Torture is not humiliating someone.

Torture is forcing a man to watch his wife and 8-year old daughter be gang raped, then gouging his eyes out to ensure that was the last thing he ever saw.

Torture is cutting someone's tongue out because you didn't like what they said.

Torture is putting someone into a wood chipper, feet first and slow, just to make sure that they get the full impact of their impending death.

I agree that we should set a high bar, and, as Americans, we do.

But, someone, somewhere has to provide the truth. And, the truth is that while what these soldiers did was heinous and deserves punishment (which they will be getting, by the way), it doesn't even compare to what true torture is.

The American media won't show that. Why? Because it doesn't fit their agenda, plain and simple.

Well, I'm not going to take it anymore.

So, while your explanation is correct and your assessment is accurate, I simply reject the premise that "that's how it has to be". So, I will actively work on exposing the American media for being friends of our enemies.

[mtntop3]

Too many in the media are ashamed of their own affluence and, in addition, distinctly lack any selfless contribution by themselves to America. Denigrating their own country and those in its service serves to cover up their low self-esteem.(Part of their making a living, after all, is oftentimes parasitically existing off the misfortunes of others.)

By pointing to the sins of America, they delude themselves into thinking they are "so sensitive and intelligent" that they have somehow risen above their own nothingness.

There is something else: when persons, or groups of them, no longer believe in God, they find someone or something else as replacement. It can be materialism. It usually includes themselves (I, me, and my) in combination with varying portions, in the liberal media, of such estimables as Marx, Che Guevara, or/and Hugh Hefner.

So in this way, the media merely reflects a significant section of our society and of the western world.

Would that service in the military or Peace Corps be indeed a significant prerequisite for employment in our media.

[mattdono]

That is a rather astute observation about those in the media.

Self-loathing is the best why I can describe it, which is, I think, your point.

[mattdono]

Another example of torture from Muslim fanatics...

Forced conversion to Islam fatal for Christian boy (Islamics torture Xian boy for 5 days)

[Republicus2001]

you forgot the first when Sirhan Sirhan murdered RFK way back in 1968...they want us dead

[Dec31,1999]

The only thing I've heard on the matter is that someone said they had bags over their heads to disorient them.

The whole thing stinks of anti-war, anti-American and anti-Bush setup! If someone was truly and exclusively out to psycho-sexually torture detainees, just for jollies, she surely wouldn't want evidence of the crime to be bouncing around, would she?

So why smile for the camera?

It's a setup.

[Feiny]

Great post.

[af_vet_rr]

The difference is that Americans have a reputation to live up to in this world. When Americans do the slightest bad thing, everyone claims Americans are horrible. It's like a perfectionist Straight-A student at school. They get a B, and someone comes a-knockin'.

These radical muslims have no standards. They aren't criticized for their actions because people have seen them do horrible stuff in the world already.

You made one of the best, most concise posts, on this subject.

In a way, all of the criticism of the prisoner abuse just goes to show how honorably we tend to carry ourselves, and the fact that we hold ourselves to higher standards than most of the rest of the world, and they know it. That's not arrogance either.

I'm very proud of that as well. Countries can bash us, but deep down they know we always try to do the right thing, and if somebody in our system doesn't, then we will hold them accountable.