Howard Kurtz, of Reliable Sources, just asked why journalists always assume, as a default position, that the military is lying. Well, Howie take a look at the following juxtaposition.
“I could never see any criminal intent on the part of the M.P.’s to cause the detainee to die,” one of the lawyers, Maj. Jeff A. Bovarnick, later told investigators, referring to one of the deaths. “We believed the M.P.’s story, that this was the most combative detainee ever.”
NYT: Free Reg
NYT: Free Reg
At the interrogators’ behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend…When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.
“Leave him up,” one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying.
NYT: Free Reg
And what’s worse:
Military lawyers noted that the autopsies of the two dead detainees had found severe trauma to both prisoners’ legs – injuries that a coroner later compared to the effect of being run over by a bus…Mr. Dilawar, weighed only 122 pounds and was described by interpreters as neither violent nor aggressive.
It’s stories like this that explain why journalists assume the military is lying. Of course, stories like Jessica Lynch don’t help either, nor does their ridiculous attempt to blame Zarqawi for every single thing that goes wrong in Iraq.
