A senior Hezbollah commander accused of orchestrating the killing of British and U.S. citizens in Iraq has been released from Iraqi custody as officials in Washington complain that he has not faced justice for his crimes.
U.S. government officials accused Ali Musa Daqduq, a Lebanese citizen, of involvement in an attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq in 2007 which killed five American soldiers as well as being involved with a Shia insurgent group that kidnapped five British contractors, killing four of them.
Daqduq was held in U.S. custody for years, though while the Americans had accused him of these crimes, he had only been charged with failing to have a proper visa when he entered Iraq. That continued to be the basis of his imprisonment when the Obama administration had U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq at the end of last year, turning custody of Daqduq over to the Iraqi government.
Now he has been released and officials in Washington are pulling their hair out. A group of Republican Senators issued a formal letter about the issue.
“Now an Iraqi court has cleared Daqduq of any criminal charges under Iraqi law and – as we and many other observers had feared – [he] may be set free without being held to account for his crimes against the United States and its soldiers,” they wrote.
Surely Iraqi citizens can empathize with Americans feeling like justice has not been served. The George W. Bush administration, for one thing, waged an unprovoked, illegal war on Iraq which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Former officials instrumental in that crime have certainly not been held accountable.
But this kind of thing has happened on a small scale innumerable times. Eight of the nine U.S. soldiers charged with the 2005 massacre of 24 Iraqi men, women, and children in Haditha, Iraq were not convicted. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who was charged with leading the slaughter, was convicted in a plea bargain of a single count of “dereliction of duty”. He was demoted to the rank of private and will serve no jail time.
A State Department diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks revealed last year that U.S. forces committed a heinous war crime during a house raid in Iraq in 2006, wherein one man, four women, two children, and three infants were summarily executed. Though a UN diplomat brought it to the attention of the Bush administration, not a single American soldier was prosecuted.
Still, U.S. government officials don’t flinch when they protest Daqduq’s release. Republicans have even turned the issue into a political football, blaming Obama for not having just sent Daqduq to Guantanamo Bay to be held indefinitely without charge or trial. After all, he did have the wrong visa.
Equality of rights, truth, justice is only alternate weapons for Americans. Power, abuse, lies all have priority. A SICK CULTURE hopefully killing itself before the rest of the world.
Thanks John for a brilliant article. The indignation from belligerent war criminals is almost comical if it weren´t so tragic.
American execptionalism at it's finest.
Me too…… Like Adolph Eichman complaining his cook ate too many apples……….. Lt. Calley saying the residents of My Lai didn't show enough respect……
n 1969, Haeberle told The Plain Dealer that he had made no effort to photograph actual killings. He evaded the issue during interviews with Army investigators.
Last week, he said something distinctly different. “I shot pictures of the shooting,” he said. “But those photographs were destroyed.”
By the Army?
“By me.”
-an interview with Ron Haeberle by the Cleveland Plain Dealer
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2009/11/post_25…
"Haeberle was using two cameras that day, an Army camera and his own. "What happened was, I shot on a 36-exposure roll of film," with his own camera. "I just went ahead and processed everything. I had actual photos of actual guys who were doing the shooting and stuff like that.
"I never showed those. No, no, no."
He paused. "I mean, I was there in the operation, but I'm not gonna point a finger at some soldier out there and have him, you know, put up. No. We were all guilty.
"So I'm just as guilty as anyone else in the cover-up. I'll admit to that."
When the Army questioned him about the photographs he had taken and what they showed, he says, "I answered them honestly. But I never said the words, 'I destroyed them.' "
Over the years, occasionally people have asked him why he didn't try to stop the killing or if he was afraid he would be shot.
"I had no fear of that," Haeberle said.
And he's been asked if he wishes he had done anything differently in My Lai.
"It's hard to say in the aftermath," he says. "People say, 'If I was there, I'd have done this.' You don't know. Until you're in that reality. You never know."
"
Me too…… Like Adolph Eichman complaining his cook ate too many apples……or Lt. Calley saying the residents of My Lai didn't show enough respect……
In 1969, Haeberle told The Plain Dealer that he had made no effort to photograph actual killings. He evaded the issue during interviews with Army investigators.
Last week, he said something distinctly different. “I shot pictures of the shooting,” he said. “But those photographs were destroyed.”
By the Army?
“By me.”
-an interview with Ron Haeberle by the Cleveland Plain Dealer
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2009/11/post_25…
"Haeberle was using two cameras that day, an Army camera and his own. "What happened was, I shot on a 36-exposure roll of film," with his own camera. "I just went ahead and processed everything. I had actual photos of actual guys who were doing the shooting and stuff like that.
"I never showed those. No, no, no."
He paused. "I mean, I was there in the operation, but I'm not gonna point a finger at some soldier out there and have him, you know, put up. No. We were all guilty.
"So I'm just as guilty as anyone else in the cover-up. I'll admit to that."
When the Army questioned him about the photographs he had taken and what they showed, he says, "I answered them honestly. But I never said the words, 'I destroyed them.' "
Over the years, occasionally people have asked him why he didn't try to stop the killing or if he was afraid he would be shot.
"I had no fear of that," Haeberle said.
And he's been asked if he wishes he had done anything differently in My Lai.
"It's hard to say in the aftermath," he says. "People say, 'If I was there, I'd have done this.' You don't know. Until you're in that reality. You never know."
"
Was the US angry when Al Sadr,s goons beat to death a moderate cleric that worked with US officials? Look where Al sadr is today! Why wasnt he arrested back in 03?
Oh well, as much as Uncle Sam is an absolute control freak, the sooner he realizes he can't control everything, the better off he'll be
U.S. furious, outraged, shocked even!
Sure. Like with the Germans.
http://veriseal.org/specialcase/fbi/hamadei/20120…
Of course Daqduq is not SUNNI, therefore, he will not be prosecuted by the Shiit government. Alas, if he were a SUNNI then he would have been murdered by the US Army long time ago. All massacres committed by Americans and the Iraqi shiits alike were done against the SUNNIS. This is what we call ethnic cleansing. Now the republican are yaking their loud mouths just to put the blame on Obamba for the sins they committed. Daduq will now be free in Syria massacring more SUNNIS free of charge.
Well, that’s what military do in a war zone: they kill and sometimes get killed. So what part of this is news? Besides, the guy was only accused, not proven guilty. If he had really killed 5 military men, the US would have skinned him alive on the spot. That’s who we are, I guess, aren't we?