Wednesday, May 26, 2004

I learn from this Newsday article that the U.S. is still holding people in Iraq who were arrested in Iraq only because they're related to other people the U.S. wants to arrest. Yes, it's a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions, and no, the U.S. doesn't seem to care.

The story focuses on Jeanan Moayad, whose husband was arrested (and has been held for four months) because Americans want to arrest her father, a scientist and former Baath party member. But this practice was noticed -- and denounced -- back in November, when American troops arrested the wife and daughter of a Saddam insider, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. The Newsday article notes that

Al-Douri's wife and daughter are still in U.S. custody, although rights monitors say they have not been charged with any crime.

Something tells me this isn't the fault of "a few bad apples."

(Newsday link via Kevin Drum at The Washington Monthly.)

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