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The New York Times takes us a step closer to "The Whole Truth"
The irony, Mr. Lawson said, is that the public spectacle might have been avoided if the military and the federal government had been responsive to his claims that his nephew was simply following orders. Mr. Lawson said he sent letters to 17 members of Congress about the case earlier this year, with virtually no response, and that he ultimately contacted Mr. Hackworth's Web site out of frustration, leading him to cooperate with a consultant for "60 Minutes II.""The Army had the opportunity for this not to come out, not to be on 60 Minutes," he said. "But the Army decided to prosecute those six G.I.'s because they thought me and my family were a bunch of poor, dirt people who could not do anything about it. But unfortunately, that was not the case."
That would be William Lawson, Ivan Fredericks uncle, explaining why his family decided the international media would give his boy a better shot at a fair trial than the US Army would.
The connection between Frederick and the 60 Minutes crew is apparently retired colonel David Hackworth:
Mr. Lawson sent an e-mail message in March to Mr. Hackworth's Web site and got a call back from an associate there in minutes, he said.
What took you so long? He might have asked.
The Times story of course, doesn't speculate how the photos (none of which show Frederick involved in any torture) made it to CBS for airing immediately following Frederick's article 32 hearing. But here's a new timeline:
Jan: Frederick apprehended, begins a journal and starts sending letters and emails home detailing events he claims occurred the previous fall at Abu Ghraib.
March: His family contacts Hackworth.
We'll fill in missing pieces later.
Military-turned-journalist Hackworth seems the likely channel between Frederick, 60 minutes, and the Hersh/Myers My-Lai dream team.
Hat tip: Commenter "old maltese" and Tim Blair.
Update, added thought for discussion: Put yourself in a victim's place. You've been humiliated and the proceedings have been photographed. In the interest of justice do you want those pictures on the internet?
If appearing naked is the greatest humiliation a Muslim man can suffer, if it is, as so many have lately claimed, a far worse torture than that inflicted by Saddam, then who is guilty of a greater crime than 60 minutes, the program that magnified their torture by millions?
