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Graphic Pictures, Blurry Lines

The Toronto Star has an extremely graphic photo (h/t How Appealing and Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald) of Omar Khadr, the 21-year-old Canadian at Guantanamo Bay, apparently being treated by U.S. soldiers after being injured in a firefight. In a sidebar. the editor of the Star explains his decision to print the “brutal image” and scolds the Canadian government for its “failure to follow the lead of Britain and Australia, which demanded the repatriation of their citizens to face due process at home.” Khadr was 15 at the time of his capture in Afghanistan and he is, at least periodically, on trial at Gitmo for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. Human rights organizations worldwide have condemned the U.S. for failing to distinguish between child and adult soldiers.

The accompanying excerpt from the Toronto Star’s Michelle Shephard’s upcoming book about Khadr's life describes Damien Corsetti, one of the interrogators at Bagram who “had been given little training and lots of responsibility.” Having “logged more than 3,000 hours in the interrogation booths,” Corsetti was eventually charged with beating and sexually humiliating a detainee at Bagram. But in 2006 Corsetti was acquitted and given an honorable discharge. His lawyer’s defense strategy? He “portrayed Corsetti as a foot soldier led by a commander who demanded results at any cost: "The President of the United States doesn't know what the rules are. The Secretary of Defence doesn't know what the rules are. But the government expects this Pfc. (private first class) to know what the rules are?"

This weekend President Bush vetoed the Congress’ attempt to clarify the rules for CIA interrogators. Because when nobody knows where the line between aggressive interrogation and genuine torture lies, the only one left to blame for the cruel treatment of prisoners is the detainees themselves.