This is from May 12, 2004. This is what S.B. does in her free time. I think it's brilliant so here it is, for posterity and all that:
"The quote of the day was the Administration’s response to the execution of Nick Berg, a 26-year old contractor who had gone to Iraq in the hopes of finding a job where he could contribute to the rebuilding of a nation. Scott McClellan spoke on behalf of the President, saying that Mr. Berg’s murder “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.” Sadly, the crux of this quote has an eerily similar ring to a Bush speech last week on Al-Ariybia television, in which Bush explained that the difference between the former Iraqi human-rights abusing regime and our human-rights abusing regime. That difference was that we were going to hold the perpetrators accountable. We were going to bring our own criminals to justice.

Regard for the lives of innocent men, women and children? Bring them to justice? Nick Berg’s murder was a horrible, disgusting tragedy. And at this point the White House and their judicial and military branchess have truly fallen so far into the depths of injustice that their words of condemnation and sorrow ring hollow.

There is no democratic system of justice happening in Iraq; not in the hands of the United States, the Coalition forces (Great Britain is currently battling their own prisoner abuse scandal), nor has our devastation of that country allowed for a judicial body to arise from within the Iraqi citizenship. Sadly, there is no reason to think that there will be justice in the case of Nicholas Berg. At least not justice the way we are brought up to believe constitutes the American ideal. The inmates in US run prisons in Iraq are “70-90%” innocent according to ICRC statistics. As we have discovered in recent weeks, these same inmates have been shown how the United States deals with detainees who are “innocent until proven guilty.” By stacking them up naked, by attaching them to fake electrodes and by forcing them to stimulate sex acts on each other.

There was no way for the Administration to react to the Berg murder, except to apologize. Again and again and again. I certainly do not place the brutal murder of an American citizen entirely on the shoulders of the White House. I hate the murderers of Nick Berg with my whole heart. I believe that they should be brought to justice. But I’ll be damned if I can figure out which system of justice has the moral authority to do so. The United States has no claim to the “moral high ground” as Senator Lieberman did today. Particularly since our brand of justice within our own country, our own prisons and when dealing with our own citizens, violates the same moral, ethical and democratic rights that we purportedly hold in such high esteem. And for this failing, the Administration needs to apologize. To the family of Nick Berg, to the families of detainees murdered in American-run prisons and to the Iraqi citizens, who we have tried to fool by sending Supreme Court Justices, legal experts and legal pundits, for the purpose of structuring a justice system based on our own.

Our own system of justice is so broken that it should not be held up as a model for other countries. The ideals and underlying themes of due process, trial by
jury, fairness and impartiality; these can be forever taught...in theory. But the ever-growing number of inconsistencies between our justice system’s words and actions have shown that it is our own country that should revisit these lessons. The abuses documented within our own prisons, at the federal prisons against Arab aliens post-9/11, inmate-on-inmate and guard-on-inmate rape at every detention facility, overcrowding, extended stays on segregation units without a hearing, and inadequate medical and mental health care for inmates, should all be reason to doubt that we hold the “moral high ground.” The exonerations of prisoners by DNA evidence, the corruption and intermingling of politics in our own highest courts, the lack evidence and effective defense in death penalty cases (a form of punishment we continue to use, though most democratic countries have condemned it), the continued execution of mentally ill inmates and potentially innocent, the race-disparity in those who serve higher sentences; all of these should be reason to doubt that we hold the “moral high ground.”

I desperately hope that Nick Berg’s killers are “brought to justice.” Just as I hope that “justice will be served” in the cases of prisoner abuse in US-run prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and if we ever get there, Guantanamo Bay. I just can’t figure out what system this will be done under, since it doesn’t seem possible under our own."

--S.B. 5/12/04
- posted by liz @ 5/13/2004 03:46:00 PM