"Even Saddam Hussein had more legal counsel than I ever had."

This story in the New York Times—about a Navy veteran went to Iraq as a security contractor, became a whistle-blower about possible illegal weapons trading at the firm for which he was working, and ended up being erroneously detained for 97 days at the military’s maximum-security detention facility in Baghdad, after "American soldiers raided the company at his urging"—is so deeply disturbing, I don't even know where to begin. Really, I recommend just reading the whole thing. I cannot believe that this kind of thing is being done to American citizens by their own government, and I really have to agree with Mr. Vance's lawyer when he says, "Treating an American citizen in this fashion would have been unimaginable before 9/11."

Except, of course, 9/11 itself didn't "change everything," did it? Our leaders "changed everything," and used 9/11 as the excuse.

Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.

blog comments powered by Disqus