From Democracy Now!

The captors of a kidnapped US journalist in Iraq have threatened to kill her unless US forces release all female prisoners in the country. On Tuesday, the Arabic television network Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape of Jill Carroll, a 28-year old freelance reporter working for the Christian Science Monitor. It was the first time she has been seen since she was seized in Baghdad earlier this month. The video contained no audio. Al-Jazeera said the captors identified themselves as members the previously unknown group the “Brigades of Vengeance.” The group gave a 72-hour deadline for the US to comply with their demand.

The kidnappers are murderous morons who already killed Jill Carroll’s translator.

But while we have murderous morons in America, too, we don’t have situations like this of kidnappings to demand the release of a prisoner (or none I’ve heard of). That is because there is the due process of law in the US, where people who are arrested get a phone call, an attorney, a trial, appeals, etc.

In Iraq, the US military imprisons people for as long as it chooses without due process, and apparently that has inspired these murderous morons to try this doomed strategy for getting the female Iraqi prisoners released.

It’s not the military’s fault.

It’s the fault of civilians such as former Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer who should have established the due process of law in Iraq during his tenure.

George W. Bush rewarded the failure of Paul Bremer by giving him a medal.

« More On Female Prisoners of the US Military »

From NBC News:

U.S. forces in Iraq confirmed on Wednesday they were holding eight women prisoners.

“We have eight females. They are being held for the same reasons as the others, namely that they are a threat to security,” said Lieutenant Aaron Henninger, a spokesman for the U.S. military detentions operation. Some 14,000 men are held at Abu Ghraib and other jails on suspicion of insurgent activity.

If there is evidence that any of those eight women committed a crime, including plotting something, how about a trial?