Isn’t That Your Job, WaPo?

27th July 2008 Charles J. Brown
10:00 pm

Isn’t That Your Job, WaPo?

So Dahlia Lithwick of Slate had a piece in The Washington Postdated’s Outlook section today called “Light Reading for the Paranoid.” Contrary to expectations, it was not about conspiracy theories but rather the Bush Administration’s counter-terrorism policies, particularly Guantanamo. I’m not exactly sure why we should be paranoid about Guantanamo — angry, disgusted, outraged, sure — but paranoid? Is Lithwick worried about being sent there?

In any case, her list of suggested books, blogs, and newspapers is a pretty comprehensive. But I did find one paragraph rather odd:

One of the best ways to stay up to date on what’s happening at Guantanamo Bay is through the foreign papers. Canada’s Globe and Mail and Toronto Star write almost daily about Omar Khadr, the young Canadian who’s been detain since he was 15. While the happenings at Gitmo rarely break into the A-section of most U.S. papers, the British, French, and Australian press are always on top of them.

In other words, if you want to learn about this issue, don’t read The Postdated. But then again, who can blame them? You can hardly expect a newspaper to cover Guantanamo when it needs to publish a 47-part series on Chandra Levy, a 56-column-inch puff piece on Cindy McCain, and a major feature about John McCain’s dead-but-hilariously-grouchy grandpa.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 10:00 pm and is filed under foreign policy, media. It is tagged under Guantanamo, torture, war on terror, Washington Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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1 On July 28th, 2008, Muslims Against Sharia said:
Hypocrisy of the “Repatriate Omar Khadr to Canada” Movement

As soon as the Gitmo interrogation tape of Omar Khadr hit the Internet, the blogosphere was flooded with demands to repatriate him to Canada. This wave is reminiscent of a Soviet campaign to free Luis Corvalán from the “fascist regime” of Augusto Pinochet thirty five years ago. The scenario is strikingly similar. A “victim” held by “fascist regimes” this time run by Bush and Harper, and a public outcry for justice. Except for the fact that Luis Corvalán didn’t kill anyone and didn’t fight for a terrorist group that wants to impose Sharia.

The “repatriate Khadr” crowd describes him as “a child”, “a kid”, “a boy”, and even “a torture victim”, with no facts to substantiate the torture claims notwithstanding. They complain about Khadr being mistreated, again, without anything to back up their claims. Some of them are outraged about “child abuse.” And they all scream for justice.

They want justice? OK, let’s talk about JUSTICE. What about justice for Sgt. First Class Christopher J. Speer, who was (according to an eyewitness) murdered by this “child”? What about justice for Tabitha Speer, who is a widow because of this “kid”? What about justice for Taryn and Tanner Speer, who are left without a father by this “a boy”? And what about all those Afghani civilians and NATO troops who are a little bit safer because this “torture victim” is behind bars? How many of these “repatriate Khadr” hypocrites concern themselves with justice for real victims? In literally hundreds of posts, we couldn’t find a single one.

One would ask, what is the reason for this idiocy? The answer is simple. Ignorance. Complete and utter ignorance. Let’s forget for a second that Omar Khadr killed Christopher Speer. Let’s forget that Khadr’s father was an al Qaeda financier. Let’s forget that Khadr’s family is known for it being al Qaeda sympathizers. Let’s just remember what this “child” was fighting for in Afghanistan.

This is what Taliban-imposed Sharia looks like in real life: http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2000/07/hypocrisy-of-repatriate-omar-khadr-to.html

Why don’t all of you, bleeding heart demagogues go to Afghanistan and spend a day in a Taliban-controlled territory? And let’s talk about Khadr when you get back. If you get back.