The war of terror continues

A misprint in the title? Surely you know Left I on the News better than that. :-)

On the one hand, the U.S. war of terror against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan continues unabated, with thousands being killed or rounded up for indefinite incarceration (excuse me, "detainment") on a regular basis. A Marine is acquitted of slaughtering two unarmed Iraqis who appear to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, using sixty (6-0) rounds of fire to eviscerate them, and then hang a sign on their bodies as a "warning" to other Iraqis; in other words, a sign meant to terrorize Iraqis into submission. Incredibly, we read: "Autopsies conducted on the Iraqis' exhumed bodies backed 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano's assertion that he shot them in self-defense after the men disobeyed his instructions and made a menacing move toward him, Marine officials said." Now I understand that an autotopsy might be able to show that the men weren't shot in the back (although with sixty rounds ripping them apart, I wouldn't be so sure about that), but it certainly couldn't possibly prove that they had "made a menacing move" toward the Marine killer. Hardly a surprising turn of events considering that a soldier who killed an unarmed Iraqi who was clearly not making any "menacing moves" toward him, but was in fact lying motionless, with all of this captured on video, was not even charged. A war of terror is certainly an apt phrase.

Back in the Western hemisphere, the U.S. demonstrated that its willingness to shield terrorists from justice knows no geographical limitations:

"The United States rejected on Friday Venezuela's first move to extradite a Cuban exile wanted for an airliner bombing, in a case that could challenge the U.S. commitment to fight all forms of terrorism.

"The Bush administration told Venezuela its request that Luis Posada Carriles be arrested with a view to extradition was 'clearly inadequate,' because it lacked supporting evidence, said a State Department official who asked not to be named."

The first thing I'd like to know, just in passing, is, since this appears to have been an official action of the United States government in official relations with another government of the world, why the official who announces this action would ask not to be named, and why the press would be willing to grant such an outrageous request. The second thing I'd like to know is if the reporters asked this anonymous government official if the U.S. would be willing to release all documents pertaining to Luis Posada Carriles, since the ones they've already released certainly provide a strong case for believing Posada Carriles to be guilty of the Cubana airline bombing, and the liklihood that the U.S. is concealing even more incriminating evidence is high. And the third thing I'd like to know is, where does the U.S. come off asking these questions anyway? Posada is an officially wanted man in Venezuela; there isn't any question about that. Whether he is guilty, or whether there is evidence sufficient to prove he is guilty, is a matter for Venezuela to decide; the U.S. government has no right to designate itself the grand jury. Even if it did before his original trial, the case has moved way beyond that stage.