Imagine you're being tortured, held captive by your own government, brutalized by soldiers wearing the flag of your own country. In that hell, a priest arrives offering solace. There's just one catch: the priest is working with the bad guys..
A court in Argentina has convicted a former Roman Catholic police chaplain of collaborating in murders during the country's military rule.
Christian Von Wernich, 69, was convicted for involvement in seven murders, 42 abductions and 31 cases of torture during the 1976-83 "Dirty War".
As he was sentenced, Father Von Wernich showed no emotion. Protesters torched his effigy outside the court.
Von Wernich denied any guilt. The jury didn't buy the lies and the torture priest was sentenced to life. Watch the You tube video, the monster is defiant; the families of the victims, ecstatic.
Five Decades of Republican Torture details the war-crimes of Republican Presidents from Eisenhower to Bush. Molly Ivens wouldn't let folks forget that US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger cannot travel in Britain or Brazil because of outstanding warrants for his arrest as war-criminal. Kissinger planned torture and assassination across the globe for decades. A friend of the rich and powerful, authorities may be working even harder to bring the American war-criminal to trial.
Torture Museum in Argentina on left. Chile's new President visits the torture center where she and her mother were tortured by Kissinger's pals.
Justice is hammering at the door. Americans accused of war crimes these days may be going to trial in international courts much sooner than many think. In her top-rated diary srkp23 confirms the UN is ready to prosecute Blackwater now. There's an urgency in the air that is both welcome and long, long over-due.
Former US President Jimmy Carter blows aside any doubt about the torture still being practiced by the Bush administration. Former Bush henchman 'I cannot recall' Gonzales is lawyering up.
Torture and assassination, murder, rape and mayhem have gone unpunished in the war Bush has waged on all he suspects. Guilt or innocence is not the question. The American people may have had enough.
There now appears to be a better than average chance that one of the first responsibilities of the next Dem President and Congress will be to ensure that US soldiers and mercenaries are afforded the support they need when charged in international courts of war crimes.
That's a good thing. Family members of all those tortured and killed by Bush and his blood-thirsty thugs shouldn't have to wait thirty years for judgment day.