Slate, which seems to specialize in publishing obtuse and misguided essays when it comes to the Arab world (with the exception of Michael Young's press roundups, which are usually very sharp), has one today marveling at the lack of coverage by the Arab media of the sentencing of a staff seargant from Abu Ghuraib to eight years in prison. What hypocrisy!
Before I had a chance to write a response, though, Chris at Explananda beat me to it:
"But what about the possibility that the Arab media doesn't consider Ivan Frederick "a central figure in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal"? And what about the possibility that they're on to something there? The Bush administration condones torture. The Bush administration uses torture. The Bush administration performs - without apology - extraordinary renditions to countries which use torture. The Bush administration's attitude towards torture has been made abundantly clear in a series of memos and legal documents released and leaked over the last year. The Bush administration refused to properly investigate Abu Ghraib. And the Bush administration continues to employ some of the key architects of the policies which led to many of the abuses. I'm glad that Mr. Frederick has met with justice. May he rot in a jail cell for eight long years. The system worked . . . on him. But I'm not going to fall all over myself at the thought of justice done because I don't consider him a "a central figure in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal.""
That's about right.
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