Left I on the News

The news has broken (in some circles, of course it's not a focal point of the corporate media) about the "scandal" involved in the Guantanamo imprisonment of then 15-year-old (now 23, and still in Guantanamo) Afghan Omar Khadr. It appears that he was threatened with rape and death in order to get him to "confess," which is, incidentally, a war crime.

But the real scandal is why he was in Guantanamo in the first place, charged with murder and terrorism. And why is he charged with those things? Because he was participating in a firefight in which an American soldier was killed. An American soldier who had illegally invaded Khadr's country! And for daring to fight back against that invasion, and possibly killing one of the invaders, Khadr is held not as a prisoner-of-war (which would at least be legitimate if the invasion were legal and a war declared), but as a murderer and a terrorist! If I were British, and the situation weren't so serious, I'd be tempted to say, "What cheek!" Talk about having your cake and eating it too; the Americans get to invade and then charge anyone who resists with murder! Disgusting.

Needless to say, the atrocities being committed by the U.S. in Afghanistan didn't end with the capture of Omar Khadr. Michael Prysner lays out one of the more recent in brilliant detail on PSLweb.org.

Out now!