Mark Dayton, pious Democratic Senator and defender of the First Amendment, from Minnesota, complained about General Myers' attempt to get CBS to delay their sensationalism by not running the pictures from Abu Ghraib prison. General Myers thought the airing of the pictures would bring death to Americans in Iraq. Dayton didn't give a damn, while whoring for the cameras, he said
Is that standard procedure for the military command of this country to try to suppress a news report at the highest level?Well, al Qaeda's dogs have retaliated by beheading an American for the cameras. The video has been released. I certainly expect Mark Dayton, and every human being who hates torture and murder, to demand repeated airings of the video in the United States and on Al Jazeera and everywhere the Abu Ghraib story has been used to show how horrible Americans are. This is the face of the enemy and this is what we are fighting. These people deserve death, not sleep deprevation or not naked abuse by dogs and glow sticks.. . . But attempts to suppress news reports, to withhold information from Congress and from the American people, is antithetical to democracy.
Senator Inhofe (R-OK) had it right:
I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatmentI don't recall any beheading videos from al Qaeda to "redeem the dignity of the Muslim men and women" he tortured. Animals.. . .
These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals.. . .
I also am -- and have to say, when we talk about the treatment of these prisoners, that I would guess that these prisoners wake up every morning thanking Allah that Saddam Hussein is not in charge of these prisoners. When he was in charge they would take electric drills and drill holes through hands, they would cut their tongues out, they would cut their ears off. We've seen accounts of lowering their bodies into vats of acid. All these things were taking place. This was the type of treatment that they had.
And I would want everyone to get this and read it. This is a documentary of the Iraq special report. It talks about the unspeakable acts of mass murder, unspeakable acts of torture, unspeakable acts of mutilation, the murdering of kids -- lining up 312 little kids under 12 years old and executing them, and then of course what they do to Americans, too.
There's one story in here that was in the I think it was The New York Times, yes, on June 2nd. I suggest everyone take that -- get that and read it. It's about one of the prisoners who did escape as they were marched out there, blindfolded and put before mass graves, and they mowed them down and they buried them. This man was buried alive and he clawed his way out and was able to tell his story. And I ask, Mr. Chairman, at this point in the record that this account of the brutality of Saddam Hussein be entered into the record, made a part of the record.
Transcript from The Corner.
Scott McLellan at the White House said, "It shows the true nature of the enemies of freedom. They have no regard for the lives of innocent men, women and children. We will pursue those who are responsible and bring them to justice." Well, Scott, just be sure not to embarrass them when you catch them or opportunists will call for Rumsfeld's job.
There's a very good reason to control information in time of war. It's so you don't get killed.
