An update from Crooks and Liars on that story last week about the deplorable conditions at the Iraqi orphanage, and the US soldiers who rescued the children there. As if the initial story was not upsetting enough, it now turns out that the U.S. military officials did not want the story released, and tried to stonewall the story.CBS Reporter Lara Logan is a saint, and we are all lucky to have her in Iraq reporting for us. The Iraqi and US officials knew about this story for a week before Logan broke it. Then they tried to say the Iraqis discovered and saved the boys at the orphanage. Logan pursued the truth (hey mainstream media: there's an idea! pursue the truth!) with photographs from the event showing American soldiers rescuing the boys, with no Iraqis in sight. (The photograph above which includes an Iraqii soldier was taken later, when the boys were transported to a Baghdad hospital.)
According to Logan, "I was given a lot of support from the unit, a lot of support from the division. But as it started to go higher up the ranks, to the more political thinkers on the American side, I hit a wall."
The politics of this is shameful. According to CNN, "in the middle of the week the Iraqi labor minister put out a statement and said, 'We totally reject the tricks they use to manipulate and distort facts and show the Americans as the humanitarian party.'"
Logan continues that, "Prime Minister Maliki ordered all the people involved in this incident at the orphanage to be arrested. And yet, the minister of labor stood at that press conference where he made those remarks and had the manager of the orphanage next to him, standing there to publicly defend and justify his actions."
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