Hostages?
The US recently convicted one of the detainees we are holding a gitmo. After 5 years of isolation and intensive interrogation (and having the US Military judge refuse to allow his lawyers in the courtroom) he confessed.
The Iranians have held 16 British military prisoner for a few days. One of them confessed.
The official story is that she was probably coerced and her confession doesn't mean it's true that they were in Iranian waters. Tony Blair knows better than her where they actually were.
But, why are they being called hostages? They are prisoners. Even if Tony Blair is right and they were actually in Iraq waters that just means they are innocent of the charges. That doesn't mean they weren't legally arrested and have status as prisoners.
Hostages? Give me a break.
The Iranians have held 16 British military prisoner for a few days. One of them confessed.
The official story is that she was probably coerced and her confession doesn't mean it's true that they were in Iranian waters. Tony Blair knows better than her where they actually were.
But, why are they being called hostages? They are prisoners. Even if Tony Blair is right and they were actually in Iraq waters that just means they are innocent of the charges. That doesn't mean they weren't legally arrested and have status as prisoners.
Hostages? Give me a break.
Labels: words
posted by Gary Carson at 9:39 AM
2 Comments:
Ironic, isn't it?
Someone interrogated every day confesses to everything except for the JFK killing (or did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admit to that, too?), and it is treated as a valid confession.
Here, the British soldiers are being coerced, and their testimony is therefore irrelevant.
In all fairness, it's not entirely hypocritical since it's not necessarily the same people who think Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession counts but the sailor's doesn't, but I'm willing to bet that there's a lot of people who quickly assume one is true while being very sceptical about the other.
By the way - I noticed the God delusion banner on the right here and picked it up a few months ago; just got around to reading it. Thanks for the tip (I treated it as a book tip, at least) - it was a very interesting read, indeed.
Actually it's mostly Fox News who's calling them hostages, I think most other news organizations calls them prisoners. NBC calls them captured sailors.
And, Fox makes suggestions that the female sailor might have a gun pointed to her head off-camera when she was being filmed saying they were in Iranian waters.
Yes, the book ads are all recommendations, I only put ads up for books I think are worth reading.
Post a Comment
<< Home