Mainstream media pushing Rovian "War Crimes" meme re Guantanamo trials

Has anyone else noticed the egregious, misleading use of the term "war crimes trials," by the mainstream media in describing the Military Commission Act trials that the Bush administration is now launching in Guantanamo?

Isn't it odd that the Bush administration and the brain dead, lazy, propogandistic mainstream media (including NPR of course) would start calling the military commissions trials, "war crimes trials," just as domestic and international interest in prosecuting former and current Bush administration officials for "war crimes" is reaching an all time high, and various Bush administration officials are being warned against travelling to Europe, where they might be subject to arrest for war crimes, after the end of their catastrophic administration?

Wasn't one of Rove's favorite tactics painting your enemy with your own faults -- such as calling John Kerry a coward to confuse the issue about Bush's desertion from the Texas Air National Guard -- or otherwise just plain confusing the public?

Well, the Bush administration seems to be at it again. They seem to be trying to confuse the public about the nature of "war crimes." Now it may very well be true that many of the detainees at Guantanamo have committed "crimes," including the crime of terrorism, and they may have also considered themselves or been "at war" with the United States.

But that does not constitute "war crimes."

"War crimes" in general are violations of the laws of war, and would include acts like the murder, torture or ill-treatment of prisoners of war -- you know, the kind of thing the Bush administration is accused of. Other war crimes include killing enemy soldiers who have indicated that they want to surrender, ill treatment or deportation of civilian populations and wanton destruction of towns and cities (kind of like what happened in Fallujah), mass murder and genocide (which the one million or so dead Iraqis increasingly seems to be).

Closely related to "war crimes" are "crimes against peace," which basically means planning, starting and waging a "war of aggression," that is, a war that is not a defensive war or war of collective security, but is a war launched in violation of international law when the country launching the war has not been attacked or threatened -- kind of like the Iraq War.

NPR has been particularly committed to "catapaulting the propoganda" as Bush would put it, starting out the morning news cast the last few days with headlines about the beginning of "war crimes trials" at Guantanamo. For example, this morning, NPR's Morning Edition described the military commissions act trials as "war crimes trials," and it's website right now has, under the headline "Trial Of Bin Laden's Driver To Begin In Guantanamo," the sentence, "The first war-crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay starts tomorrow..." and as I write this, NPR legal correspondent, Nina Totenberg, is describing the military commissions as "war crimes trials." Surely, NPR can afford to buy Nina a legal dictionary or a connection to the internet where she can look up "war crimes" on Wikipedia? Is Nina completely ignorant of what constitutes "war crimes" -- or is she just passing along Bush administration press releases and talking points? What happened to her vaunted capacity for "legal analysis"?

Similarly, the Los Angeles Times, had the bizarre headline on July 18th, "First Guantanamo war-crimes trial set to begin." But the accompanying story is about Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni accused of being Osama bin Laden's driver, and only near the end of the article does it describe the actual charge against Hamdan, "conspiracy and material support for terrorism" -- a very serious charges indeed, but not "war crimes." The only detainees who could likely be charged with "war crimes" would be those who were directly involved in planning or carrying out the September 11th attacks which killed a large number of non-combatant civilians.

So why has the Bush administration launched the meme that the Military Commission Acts trials are "war crimes trials" and why is the brain dead mainstream media going along with it?

You grab hold of the most powerful charge against you, and attach to name to something an opponent is doing (accurately or not..it doesn't matter). This takes all the value out of the term and makes it much harder for YOUR guys to get charged with it. . (and it also opens up your opponents to a "tit-for-tat. . they're all the same" charge besides.)

It is from Murdoch's playbook. It's deliberate and calculated.

This has to be her most disgraceful performance yet.

but this one here is pretty f'ing blatant.
really discouraging. i stopped giving them any money for a while, but my local station is still great. they started rerunning their outstanding international news show at night. that right there was worth what i send them. but jesus, i can't even listen to atc any more.

SOP

I couldn't believe it.
Frankly, my hope is that Rove gets associated with war crimes in a different way real soon.

but I realized they had been saying it for at least several days. It was almost like a subliminal message and suddenly I was like, WTF are they talking about? War crimes? What a blatant mistake. And why? Repeatedly.

I fired off an e-mail. Like that will have any effect!

I saw that a "required field" was your email address and real name. Yeah, like I'm going to send National Propoganda Radio, headed by a former CIA spook for several years of the Bush administration, my real name and email address, in a message calling them out for spreading Bush junta disinformation.

Very brave of you!

Su-prize, su-prize.

Apparently the MSM has become a little too dependent on being told what to think, say and write.

Here's a clue for the clueless in the hunt for war criminals:

Start at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue, then fan out from there.

Calling the military commission trials "war crimes trials" is a transparent attempt to confuse the public and dilute the meaning of the term.

Typical. However, another curveball: This is the first time they've used a term in a way that didn't mean the exact opposite of what it is supposed to represent.

Yet the easily confused will fall for it again. It's what they do.

i'm sure he's way up in the al qaeda pecking order


:sarcasm:

"the schmuck that drove osama around for $200 a month"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I hear he was a really bad driver.
The Professor

Of course, it's the PERFECT way to obscure and deflect the Bush (mis-)administration's wrongdoing and ACTUAL "war crimes".

The wrong people are being tried and everyone knows it.

It's pretty obvious it's a deliberate strategy to confuse the issue.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, HR.

because we have been subjected to a relentless barrage of mindwars, psyops, misinformation, disinformation and psychological intimidation.

Thanks!

...because then I would know how to effectively counteract the psyops instead of just recognizing them.

Perhaps a heroic alter-ego isn't a bad thing when we feel powerless to awaken people to the real nature of the war that is being waged against us.

The subject of your OP was a clearer than usual example of that war.