Pacific Views

No WMD

The Administration finally admits there were no WMD in Iraq. After countless dollars spent (yeah, really, countless dollars as the amount spent is classified) and nearly two years, the weapons hunters have been finally stopped by the lack of people to interview, places to investigate and the violence in Iraq. And thus, what some of us suspected before the war and knew for sure shortly after the war started, it is finally proven: Iraq had no WMD. Now the only legitimate reason for the war (the only one that could prove that Iraq was an imminent threat) is null and void.

But in the Kafkasque world the Bushies have created, Iraqi scientists who were held before because they wouldn't admit the existence of the non-existent programs cannot be released because now they might be useful in possible war crimes.

None of the scientists has been involved in weapons programs since the 1991 Gulf War, the ISG determined more than a year ago, and all have cooperated with investigators despite nearly two years of jail time without charges. U.S. officials previously said they were being held because their denials of ongoing weapons programs were presumed to be lies; now, they say the scientists are being held in connection with the possible war crimes trials of Iraqis.

This is one of the more unlovely things about this administration. Because they cannot admit to mistakes, people picked up by mistake can be locked away forever because letting them go would be an admission of wrong doing. Remember the original reason that the prisoners in Guantanamo were held without tribunals and denied judicial oversight was because they were extremely dangerous criminals? Well, when the Supreme Court ruled Guantanamo a prison under American laws (and not just an American gulag of los desaparecidos), didn't the Bush administration find that hundreds of the prisoners should really never have been detained? How many more have been held for more years when there is no evidence they ever did anything wrong? Here's what the American Progress report says today about those unfortunate detainees:

THE ENEMY COMBATANTS: Devoid of intelligence value, Pentagon authorities have long maintained that the Guantanamo inmates deserve to be held because they are "enemy combatants," many of whom remain "committed to indiscriminately killing American civilians and soldiers." That statement, among others, appears dubious now. According to various sources, "several dozen detainees sent to Guantanamo were simply farmers, taxi drivers, and laborers with no meaningful ties to the Taliban or al-Qaeda—not the enemy combatants the Bush Administration claimed." About 200 have been released, and many more are now being transferred back to their home countries. "An Air Force colonel chairing one review board said last week that his panel had found 14 men, among 82 prisoners he was assigned to review, who didn't meet the Pentagon's own standard for an enemy combatant."

Someday, our country will live up the the values it once espoused - including not locking up people forever without a fair and legitimate reason.

Posted by Mary at January 12, 2005 02:00 AM | Iraq | TrackBack(2) | Technorati links |