Node Of Evil - Fair And Balanced Reporting

Monday, June 30, 2003

 
An Exercise for Node readers

Read the following New York Times article (via Daily Kos) carefully:


'WASHINGTON, June 27 — The Defense Department has delayed the release of five Syrian border guards wounded last week in an American attack on an Iraqi convoy near the Syrian border, American officials said today.'

. . .

'Administration officials attributed the delay to _civilians_ [empahsis mine] at the Pentagon who wanted the guards to be questioned more extensively. An official said the delay did not seem to be based on hard evidence that the Syrian guards had assisted the Iraqi convoy that was the target of the American attack.' (link)


Hersh's article on the dominance of the Pentagon in analyzing intelligence springs to mind here. I'm not sure when it was determined that Pentagon civilians had the right to order the detention of prisioners of war, but it's a troubling trend nonetheless. Lest we forget, it was this civilian group within the Pentagon that cooked intelligence about Iraq in the first place. It is interesting to ponder what sorts of questions the "civilians" might want asked.

Andrew 9:58 AM : |

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