Left I on the News

In a nearly amazing development, former UN weapons inspectors join the lone voice of Left I on the News in calling for the release of Iraqi scientists including Gen. Amer al-Saadi, Dr. Rihab Taha and Dr. Huda Ammash, all held for more than two years without charges, and in some (perhaps all) cases, in solitary confinement with minimal priveleges and no rights whatsoever (and, I hasten to add, without the slightest legal authority on the part of the United States to hold them):

"Ex-inspector Rod Barton, an Australian biologist who was a key deputy to Duelfer, said it's 'outrageous' that the Iraqis are still held, and cited the example of Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a bioweapons specialist in the 1980s.

"'Huda is there accused of restarting the bioweapons program in the mid-1990s. And there was no such program,' he said."

"Facts? We don't need no steenkin' facts." - George Bush.

As a reminder of the outrageous way in which these people, who surrendered voluntarily to American authorities, have been treated, here's an excerpt from a post from May, 2004:

[Gen. al-Saadi has been] held in solitary confinement for that entire time, with the "privilege" of receiving one letter a month from his wife, and denied the right to read newspapers, listen to the radio, or watch television.

Al-Saadi, Taha, and Ammash were fortunate to escape the fate of Mohammad Munim al-Izmerly, another Iraqi scientist who was, it appears, beaten to death by American forces in February, 2004. The coverup of his death (there's an "investigation" still in progress, don't ya' know) continues.