Monday, March 30, 2009
American journalists to be tried in North Korea
Two American journalists will be indicted and tried for "illegal entry and hostile acts" in North Korea. I have no idea if these are completely bogus charges, if the two tried to "get away with something" they knew was illegal hoping not to get caught, or if they were even spying or otherwise engaged in really illegal acts on behalf of the U.S. government. What I do know is that the price they may pay is at least in part due to the decades-long, extensive employment of journalists (and people posing as journalists) by the CIA and other branches of the U.S. government, not to mention the decades-long policy of hostility on the part of the United States towards North Korea (starting with refusing to sign a peace treaty to end a war which ended 55 years ago).
Just as some American soldier who was nowhere near Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo may someday pay a horrible price for the sins of others when he or she is captured by an enemy and tortured, so too these journalists are paying a price for the practices of the U.S. government, which have placed and will continue to place all journalists in danger.
