Controversial Iraqi Television Program Airs Confessions of Alleged Terrorists
confessions by individuals accused of responsibility for the wave of violence in the country. The program is popular with many Iraqis, tired of the continuing instability two years after the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
A man, appearing disheveled and uncomfortable, sits on a wooden chair in a dim room of what appears to be a police station.
As an interrogator peppers him with questions, the man says he was part of a gang that kidnapped and murdered Iraqis during the past two years in order to create a split between Shi'ite and Sunni Iraqis. But he says his acts were not holy war. They were blasphemous.
Freedom is on the march...
Obviously a Karen Hughes idea... Make Iraqis admit to crimes and renounce the insurgency on television after being beaten with a rubber hose+ the Real World Drama+ America's Most Wanted+ Cops+ American Idol
Brilliant....
The hour-long program is called Terrorists in the Hands of Justice. It appears nightly on the government-owned Iraqia network. * Obviously the CPA, who is not actually an American Entity, I have learned, has absolutely no control over this broadcasting. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
While we here in the United States were repulsed by the images of our own troops being put in front of the camera after being tortured and abused (as we should), there seems to be little outrage when the tortured Iraqis appear on Iraqi TV.
There it is called the Season Sweeps
Alas not all the contestants are having fun. As MSNBC reports
...are the confessions real? Or forced?
An NBC News team visited the police station in Mosul where the interrogations are being recorded. The police put detainees on display for the local media. Several looked beat up. A relative of a murdered policeman said he interrogated a suspect himself. The police denied torturing any of the detainees. To prove it, they lined up the accused, asking if they'd been beaten. Each said no.
Well I'll take their word for it. I mean, c'mon, guys, right. They wouldn't like beat them. That would be, like, sooo ridiculous. So outragous, right? Soon, they hope to add a feature where you can call in and suggest a punishment to be carried out live (well, until dead) on Television.
Well what makes for good TV, may not make for happy Iraqis. But who cares, this invasion was never about them anyways.