To the Editors:

The post I wrote right before this (below) is happier and has hope. Then I read some links on Bitch, and got sad. Read the earlier post for more happy


The Editors
The New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, New York 10036-3959

To the Editors:

Please devote as much of your investigative resources as possible to uncovering the remaining Abu Ghraib photographs and videos. These videos show American soldiers committing rape and murder, according to a statement by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, as quoted in by Greg Mitchell in Editor and Publisher. Seymour Hersh has told the ACLU that some of the victims are children. Most likely the faces of the perpetrators are visible in the photographs and videos. By hiding the videos, the Pentagon is sheltering the worst sort of criminals. By leaking them, your paper would be helping to bring the worst sort of criminals to justice.

Right now the Pentagon is refusing to comply with a judge's order to release the material to the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act. Even if the rule of law is defeated in this case, and the Pentagon is allowed to remain in contempt of court, you can advance the cause of justice by getting the truth out. At the very least, you can put the pentagon's recalcitrance on the front page, to shame them into coming clean.

You may feel that the damage to our nation's reputation would outweigh any good that would come from prosecuting criminals, but the damage to the nation was done when the crime was committed. Admitting the truth is the only way to begin to heal that damage.

Sincerely

J. Robert Loftis