In virtually every city and county in our America’s Most Wanted USA, you can access police blotters and mugshots of the latest arrests, replete with personal details above a small print disclaimer that persons profiled are only accused of the crimes described, and should be considered innocent until proven guilty. Why then, in this pillory-centric culture, is it often impossible to learn the names of real found-guilty criminals? And why are reporters, and often foreign governments, complicit in keeping the names secret? I’m thinking for example of the 23 US operatives convicted of kidnapping in Italy, the Blackwater goons recently discovered plotting a murder in Germany, and the USAID subcontractor apprehended in Cuba, for starters.
Just this week, a Yakuzi handful of Israeli officers decided against traveling to England after their British hosts warned them of the possibility arrests warrants could be issued against them for war crimes committed in Gaza this time last year. The identity of the four IDF officers is being kept confidential, requiring not only the cooperation of the international press, but of the activist groups pursuing justice through the system. Certainly their names would have to be known to be able to file papers in British court.
Are accusers keeping quiet based because they’re admonished for despoiling chances for a fair trial? Social justice advocates are natural patsies for wanting to respect every defendant’s dignity, even that of a war criminal.
Back in the US, some local news outlets even air holding tank arraignment video pleas before the judge. Contrast this with the still-universal ban on cameras in courtrooms. The different policy has everything to do with who can afford a lawyer, or the cooperation of the corporate press.
Here’s a brilliant example today, of a Swiss tycoon issued a world-record-setting speeding fine of $290,000 for driving his ferrari 137kph through a village. The fine was calculated based on a court’s assessment of his wealth, approximately $22.7 million. Arrested, tried, bean-counted. His name? Undisclosed.
Heck that’s only 90 miles an hour (quick calculation and I’m sure the nut-pickers will want to dispute anything I say based on that).
Plenty of time to stop and avoid the kid crossing the road… in a medieval-layout town that’s designed around mountain terrain and also as a deterrent to rapid movement through the town by an invading army, or emergency response persons, or an idiot with a really expensive car.
Maybe the IDF not identifying the assassin squad (four people, four door car, yeah… that’s the correct size for a Hit Squad. Just ask the Mafia.) means they’re not actually going to try to declare them to be “hostages” like Prisoners Of Global War On Terror usually are identified.
Prisoners from the other side usually aren’t identified to begin with.
Unless they’re confirmed dead in which case they were automatically declared Unlawful Combatants the instant the bullet left the gun. Get a kid being breastfed through his head, bam… two “Terrorists” with one bullet.
I didn’t come up with that, by the way. The snark chasm doesn’t escape me, and if I had invented it I would take credit.
No, that’s a variant on what an IDF apologist said about shooting a pregnant woman at a checkpoint. “One bullet, two terrorists”. The logic is that all Palestinians are Terrorists for daring to exist in the first place. And the kid would have grown up to be a suicide bomber.
His brothers and sisters might. The IDF and their funny funny spokesperson made sure they’ve got plenty of reason to do so.