Sonkrai update

Finally have enough operating grey cells to get back to work on the book, after a lot of time working on the tsunami coverage for CBC.ca.

I worked on almost daily photo galleries and interactives on the story. For those you can go to the Asia Earthquake main page and check out the list of photo galleries and interactives on the right side.

Worth reading:Andrew Sullivan has continuing good comment on Abu Ghraib both on his Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish Blog and in a book review in the New York Times.
Atrocities in Plain Sight. In the Times piece Sullivan shows he gets it.
One quote: "The scandal of Abu Ghraib is a...sign of both freedom's endurance in America and, also, in certain dark corners, its demise." We know what happened because the U.S. military, to its credit, (with some prodding from The New Yorker and CBS), has released most of the information we know about what happened at Abu Ghraib. And as for
"the certain dark corners" that still exist in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo, if history is any guide, those actions are doing almost nothing to protect the world from further attacks, but rather confirming the widespread idea that the United States is the prime oppressor on the planet, rather than the beacon of freedom that George Bush boasts it is.
In the review, Sullivan also notes: "In fact, those with real responsibility for disaster were rewarded."— the opposite of the concept of commmand and political responsiblity that the United States has used to prosecute or criticize politicians, generals and even sergeants from its adversary nations.
In both the blog and the review Sullivan emphasizes the mixed message that the Bush administration was and is sending about "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of prisoners. As The Sonkrai Tribunal will show, history is repeating itself.

(A note on links. The New York Times keeps its book review links active, so that one should work. Sullivan, unfortunately, as far as I can tell, is behind in indexing his blog archive, so I am linking to the main page, rather than the specific posts on Abu Ghraib and torture.).

The Abu Ghraib book reviewed by Sullivan is Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror by Mark Danner, New York Review of Books.

Amazon.ca:Torture and Truth

Amazon.com: Torture and Truth 

10:46 PM posted by Robin Rowland  
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