Oh, come on, getting a fair trial is not the reason you wish the photos hadn't been leaked. Certainly not the main reason.
What good came out of having those photos released?
Did it uncover something that was not ALREADY being addressed by both the military command in Iraq, as well as the ICRC?
I'm VERY p*ssed that those soldiers engaged in such stupidity and barbarous behavior.. But they would have been punished for it... severely..
If they had not been, there's little doubt that the matter would have found itself in the press eventually...
But if what Rumsfeld testified under oath was true, that report hadn't even made it to the Pentagon yet.. The process had JUST COMMENCED, and there has been no clear evidence that we were looking at a major coverup.
The vast majority of conservatives on FADG and Politics for Pros has registered outrage that the photos were leaked, and until now not one of them has said it was due to fear that the rights of the accused would be violated.
CB.. you're a lawyer. If you were prosecuting this case, would you feel like the illegal release of those photos might have compromised your ability to convict these people on the basis of being able to obtain a fair and impartial jury?
I WANT these people to be convicted.. I don't want them to have the ability to obtain a mistrial.
And releasing those photos directly threatens our war and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and might lead to even more Americans being killed needlessly.. It is FAR MORE DAMAGING to our national security than the exposure of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent, IMO. And the perpetrator who deliberatly released that classified report should be hunted down and given a life sentence.
Now there might be a chance that Iraqis will accept that Americans are not some kind of "angels" and are just as susceptible as THEY are to inhumanity and torture, BUT are willing to try, convict, and punish their criminals.
However, the jury is definitely still out on that one..
Hawk |
