Posted on 05/11/2004 10:16:09 AM PDT by Lando Lincoln
Time is out of joint. The miniscule percentage of American soldiers and officers implicated in prisoner and detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere confront charges, trials and punishment that earmark the rule of law. That incriminating photographs and videos will be manipulated to aid the enemy in the Arab and Muslim worlds has been no deterrent. As Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld elaborated last Friday before Congress: "We know what the terrorists will do. We know they will try to exploit all that is bad and try to obscure all that is good. That's their nature, and that's the nature of those who think they can kill innocent men, women and children to gratify their own cruel will to power. . . ."
--snip--
.....President Bush should thus order a swift prosecution of Saddam and sister suspects before a United States military or civil tribunal. The trials should satisfy due process, including a right to defense counsel, proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and an opportunity to present exculpatory evidence. Cameras should be permitted. Every picture of an Abu Ghraib abuse would be juxtaposed to a gruesome Saddam atrocity, such as chemical weapons against Kurds and systematic rape, torture, mutilations and assassinations.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
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