wagging the dog: u.s. media ignores rumsfeld torture trial

"Our country is one that safeguards human rights and human dignity. . . I live in a transparent country . . . where decisions made by government are wide-open."
- George W. Bush, in Slovakia, Feb. 24, 2005

While the American media is agonzingly thorough in its blow-by-blow coverage of the Jackson trial (no pun intended), Donald Rumsfeld's trial for torture and civil rights abuses remains curiously absent from the headlines. Coincidence? You decide.

In order to fight a new war against terrorism, the U.S. government would often need to work "quietly" and "without any discussion," and would "use any means at our disposal" and "work through, sort of, the dark side." "America's Extraordinary Tolerance for Torture," Salon, February 11, 2005, paraphrasing and quoting Vice President Dick Cheney from his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, September 16, 2001.

On March 1, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First filed a historic lawsuit, Ali et al. v. Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense of the United States of America, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (the defendant's home state).

In all forms of media, there has been minimal coverage of the very existence of this legal action, and even less of the precisely documented charges, including the defendant's violations of American and international laws and the consequences of his continuing lawlessness.

Via The Village Voice