All Pentagon All the Time

Both this morning and this afternoon Guy Raz reports on the Pentagon's announcement that it will seek the death penalty for six detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo. Poor Guy Raz, stuck inside the maze of the Pentagon, just can't find a non-Pentagon point of view no matter which way he turns. According to Raz "the way the Pentagon is describing it, this will be an open trial relatively similar to a civilian court" and "all six men will be able to call witnesses" and "cross examine" the prosecution witnesses, "and examine all the evidence." Dang, sounds like a good show trial to me! In the afternoon Raz turned over a lot of the reporting duties to Kangaroo Court Specialist Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann from the Pentagon. Hartmann assures us that the six prisoners will get "a fair trial consistent with American standards of justice." Ah yes - and Raz will give us a fair report consistent with American standards of journalism, too.

Raz does note that the trial process will take years, and he mentions that "all of the accused men have alleged they were tortured under US military custody - in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed the CIA has admitted that he was subjected to waterboarding." But he also repeats the completely unreliable "admissions" of guilt made by Mohammed as if they were acceptable testimony.

What we don't hear is one single intelligent, dissenting viewpoint. Raz apparently has never heard of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, or the American Civil Liberties Union. But who needs those wacky do-gooders when Guy Raz and Pentagon officials can cover all the angles?