I was reading around on the net again like usual and found a pretty disturbing piece of information that I was previously unaware of. I can’t really say if this was an accident or on purpose (I will let you decide for yourself), but apparently the person who blew the whistle on the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture scandal was outed on television by Donald Rumsfeld despite his wishes to remain anonymous.
This link is for an article on the BBC website that describes the incident in more detail, but it seems that after Joe Darby (the whistle blower) was named on TV in front of his peers, he was then flown out of Iraq and put under protection for six months out of fear of retaliation. His house in the US was vandalized by people angry over the whistle blowing and his wife, after learning what her husband had done, fled to her sister’s house to avoid any repercussions.
Those who are anti-Bush tend to say it was on purpose, as does Joe himself, but what I find more disturbing about this whole issue is that there are actually Americans who would be angry with Joe Darby’s actions. To be fair I don’t know if this reaction was by acquaintances from his home town or complete strangers, but it makes me angry to think that doing the right thing would make you a target. Call me naive, which I readily admit I am, but when a crime has been committed I have always been under the impression that it needs to be dealt with properly. Strangely, I wrote about a similar topic in a letter to the editor of the Japan Times. It’s scary times we live in when people in the right are subject to wrong.
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October 30th, 2007 at 9:49 am
It doesn’t surprise me much and I would expect that those who vandalized his home are military or friends and family of members of the armed forces. It seems that some people even think it’s unpatriotic to do something like that. People are just screwed up.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:41 am
I totally agree with Matt. People are just screwed up. But no more now than in the past. Look at the KKK. And all the church burnings. I am not sure that all the internet reading will bring peace and happiness but more anxiety!!!!
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:07 am
I think that this subject has a lot of gray area. While I agree that whistle blowers should be able to come forward without fear of retaliation, I find it disturbing that a lot of resulting policies and governmental actions that occur after an injustice has been presented are based on the “outrage” or mass opinion of the general public.
NPR had a great interview with a war photo-journalist and he spent a lot of time talking about what news media will and will not show and how insurgents, for example, know that they don’t need a huge massacre somewhere. A small skirmish with the right photo in the press will be enough for Americans to get upset and start dictating policy- “we want our troops home” or “this war was a mistake”. We then get into a cycle of people who don’t have all the facts and who can’t see the whole picture making decisions about what the next course of action should be and demanding that their wish is followed.
I think a better way, in particular for Americans, to ensure that the atrocities brought forth by whistle blowers are handled well is to really be active in choosing to elect officials that represent your values and more importantly, who have a high standard of ethics. Then let those people, who have access to all the facts decide what course of action we should take. Retaliation would absolutely be discouraged in this case as well, by media and elected officials.
November 5th, 2007 at 4:36 am
The sad part though Lauren is that no one spends that much time choosing candidates. They vote along party lines regardless of how the people think. I was the same way as well when I first started voting because the Republicans just couldn’t be right. /sarcasm I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that 90% of people in the US voted for Bush because he had a nice haircut. That’s what politics in the US have become. At least if people can continue to discuss these topics we might be able to create a more positive discourse – I’m not even talking about a middle ground; just real debate.
And Matt I think you’re right about the military connection to the vandalism. Maybe we could make a new patriot missile that in reality was just one of these so-called patriots strapped to a bomb. Not only could they help the war on terror but it really would be better for the country.
And I do think that reading the internet causes anxiety, but having the information available is definitely better than being ignorant. I read just the other day that during World War 2 the first pictures of dead American soldiers were shown in the media because they wanted people back home to see the horrors of what was really happening.