In another wonderful display of American Justice and wholesome moral high ground, a soldier who killed an Iraqi general during "interrogation" by putting him head-first into a sleeping bag and sitting on his chest was given zero jailtime by an all-Army jury. The punishment that lies ahead for Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. is a $6000 dock in salary and is to be restricted to his barracks for 60 days.
Upon the delivery of the verdict Welshofer hugged his wife and soldiers erupted into applause. The sentence is to be reviewed by the resident Maj. Gen. Robert W. Mixon. Mixon, however, is not allowed to issue a harsher sentence.
During the hearing Welshofer said with heartfelt remorse, "I deeply apologize if my actions tarnished the soldiers serving in Iraq. It was never my intent to cast aspersions on their tremendous accomplishments." He apparently didn't feel bad about the life he took, he didn't wish bad press upon his fellow soldiers. How commendable! Cheerio, good sir!
Classy, America. I am so glad and thankful that a complete Republican-controlled U.S. Government has been working so hard with God to usher in an era of righteousness, humility, sensibility, responsibility, fiscal responsibility, and good plain common sense. Click here for the full story.
In comparison, a protester was sentenced to six months for adorning the walls and flag a military recruitment center in upstate New York with "vials of blood." I'm not arguing protesters fighting for noble causes should be dealt with with leniency, but that in comparison, our military courts are mock trials for "good old boys." Click HERE for that story.
What disgusts me the most about the Bush Administration is not that he authorized illegal eavesdropping on American citizens including high-profile journalists, but that he refuses to obey the law while doing it. In the everday world, police need court orders to get wire-taps and or conduct email searches. In the federal government and the intelligence community they have a seperate and secret court to get these court orders. In the event that intelligence officials need to monitor a citizen that may or may not be a threat to national security immediately, they have 72 hours after the fact to get the court order.
So not only are there easy and loopholed ways for the good guys to get the bad guys, but it's completely legal. The President, however doesn't care. The fact that he cannot admit fault here says one of two or possibly both things: The President does not care about the law and rules regardless of how easy they are to obey, or his eavesdropping is so unrelated to terrorism he knows they would never successfully acquire court orders. Including the latter would be a mirror-mistake that lead to Nixon's resignation: using taxpayer money for spying on the politcal competition.
What should also be noted is that the NSA (National Security Agency) has reported 0 (that's a "zero") arrests resulting from Bush's illegal domestic spying. And some sources lately have been reporting that allegedly Bush began the illegal surveillances prior to Sept. 11th. What would that prove? A number of things: Bush's spying has nothing to do with catching terrorists (which he not very good at anyways), and that it's solely for politcal purposes.
Click here to read up on the troops that Bush is unleashing to defend illegal domestic spying.
Upon the delivery of the verdict Welshofer hugged his wife and soldiers erupted into applause. The sentence is to be reviewed by the resident Maj. Gen. Robert W. Mixon. Mixon, however, is not allowed to issue a harsher sentence.
