Red Cross in the Cross-Hairs Posted by Suzanne Nossel

So here's the question:  the International Committee of the Red Cross has now come forward and said that they alerted the Pentagon to various forms of desecration of the Koran occurring at Guantanamo.  They don't go into whether this included flushing the holy book down the toilet.  The spokesman cryptically states:

"We're basically referring in general terms to disrespect of the Quran, and that's where we leave it," Schorno told The Associated Press. "We believe that since, U.S. authorities have taken the corrective measures that we required in our interventions."

It's hard not to surmise that the vagueness may be driven by a concern that confirming the allegations reported by Newsweek might lead to more bloodshed.   Is it incumbent on the organization to come forward with specifics based on their investigations, or are they justified in simply alluding to the fact that abuses may have taken place?  Maybe they've concluded that a few weeks or months from now, once tempers have calmed, further details can safely emerge.

Assuming that Newsweek may have been able to corroborate their earlier, poorly sourced reporting on this subject, they could be left in the impossible position of either being blamed by some for the deaths that have occurred thus far, or coming forward with information that might lead to further mayhem and killings. 

Given the choice, will we and should we let truth be the casualty here?

Comments

[doc]

"Given the choice, will we and should we let truth be the casualty here?"

...depends on what you hold dear, I guess.

for myself, i have no doubt that the Quran was deliberately abused in such ways as to evoke violent emotional reaction from the prisoners and, yes, quite possibly "flushed" (size of Quran in question?).

...what was that about "hearts and minds" good job, WH.

[John Robert BEHRMAN]

Newsweek, the Pentagon, and the ICRC should be careful about what they say in that (ascendng) order, inasmuch as their words have consequence in war, maybe more than their actions in the case of the often mysterious matter of "Fourth Generation Warfare".

Operating under "conventional" law, as in "admiralty law" or "Geneva Convention", the ICRC does seem to have been circumspect.

I am not quite sure what Newsweek has done, since nothing I know of suggests that their story was untrue or a libel.

However, the civilian leadership of the Pentagon, on behalf, one supposes, of neo-cons and theo-cons in the Bush coaliiton, have openly labored to create a religious war where, ironically, there was previously only a secular despot.

In the course of that, these fools have now jettsoned moral and practical standards of military justice and intelligence that have and would serve our country well. However, neither the anti-military leftists or the plainly cowardly and corrupt centrists in my party, the Democratic Party, have done anything to uphold such standards.

There are some, far from perfect, "checks" but no fundamental "balance" in the old and conventional system of international law. That system favors a great maritime power, like the US and UK, rather annoys but does not destroy a compartatively minor one like Israel, and deals delicately with other NGO's, ranging from armed ones, like al-Qaida, to the the unarmed but powerful international oil marketing or national construction firms, as well as the zoo of humanitarian agencies, including the ICRC itself, most of which may well be providing non-official cover for some intelligence bureau or other.

All of these now in play on the field of Fourth Generation Warfare may or may not be instruments of some recognized government.

What we are dealing with out there in the field seems to involve distinctions between privateering and piracy, government and not government, that may be easier to make in legal verbiage than in fact.

My concern is that (a) to the extent we are dealing with things like piracy, sedition, treason, armed merchantmen, and so on, this country already has a proven constitutional framework for all of that that, but (b) that is a late eighteenth-century, early nineteenth-century framework that remains where it was put during the Great, World, and Cold Wars, (only temporarily for safekeeping, of course) sort of in a glass case in some museum, revered but not applied.

In any case, one thing the Democrats and Republicans in Congress have a manifest aversion to is responsible two-party government. For one thing, we truly have a three-way situation, like Britain today, with the GOP representing about 30% of the people but a majority of the Electoral College, and the liberal-labor coalition in utter disarray.

I can understand the GOP: They don't need no stinkin' two-party government. They have a disciplined coalition of concession-tenders in all three echelons of government and a fat and happy constituency among the credentialed and propertied classes one would expect paleo- and neo-Federalists to represent.

My amazement is at Vichy Democrats, who do not fathom the duties of an opposition party and really, really wish they could be helping moderate Republicans govern. This is just nostalgia on the part of my party's self-absorbed Congressional leaders.

Lawyers mostly and not admiralty lawyers at that, they do not fathom the challenges of Fourth Generation Warfare or even of their own polticial survival. They cannot help themselves collectively but the "jes wanna he'p ever'body" individually.

[Tom E]

It has been reported than when Muslim governments seize Bibles the Bibles are ripped up and burned.

But apparently that is within the bounds of politcal correctness.

Much of the Muslim world is going to hate us regardless.

By the way, ripping up Holy books is a stupid interrogation technique, I hear sleep deprivation works much better.

People who cheer when airplanes are flown into building aren't going to be our friends, no matter how much touch-feely stuff we try. What, me worry?

[idook]

Tom E: "it has been reported"??? Citations, please, this is not Fox News.

[Tom E]

Idook:

This isn't a term paper, try Google. "Muslim oppression of Christians" should work.

Hey, now we have pictures of Saddam in his Fruit of the Looms. That should be good for a riot.

He only ordered the deaths of 200,000 or so people, and used nerve gas on the Kurds (source: every major media outlet in the country). Now we have destroyed his dignity. I won't sleep for a week.

Diplomacy doesn't work with everyone, and we should quit worrying about it.

[robertdfeinman]

The Red Cross is always in a ticklish position. If it reveals things that it finds out when interviewing POWs and the like it runs the risk of being banned altogether.

So it's forced to be circumspect in their announcements. They focus on the small picture of helping individuals rather than getting involved in the larger political issues.

Not everything can be perfect in this world.

[profmarcus]

can somebody please clarify for me...? my understanding was that the icrc had a very strict protocol forbidding any release of the findings of their inspections to the public... does this revelation fall afoul of that restriction or does it not...?

[manoppello]

On a previous topic you brought up, NGO's and their ability to help in situations
like Iraq I hope you have taken the time to read this posting by Ali previously
from IraqTheModel and SpiritOfFreedom.

http://haloscan.com/tb/afreeiraqi/111653814559052236

[rosignol]

I am not quite sure what Newsweek has done, since nothing I know of suggests that their story was untrue or a libel.

>>>>>

Newsweek has retracted the story because their source denied confirming the rumor.

That rather strongly suggests the story was untrue.

[Barry]

No, it doesn't, because similar things have been reported. It suggests that the source was leaned upon, quite heavily.

[rosignol]

How do you lean on an anonymous source?

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