While getting ready this morning, I was listening to NPR. (go WFPL!) And they had on there two stories that just rubbed me the wrong way. Ok, well, one pissed me off, the other just made me curious.

Numero un:
NPR story here.
At Camp Pendelton in California, marines are on trial for killing 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, 10 of which were women and children in November 2005. Apparently, infantrymen went through three houses searching for insurgents who had detonated a roadside IED and pretty much slaughtered those they encountered. The question now is why there wasn't a more thorough investigation of the killings by the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffery Chisani.

Brian Rooney of the Thomas Moore Law Center in Ann Arbor MI, a conservative christian firm representing Chisani pro bono, says that the Marines are devouring their own in this case and that the terrorists are laughing in their caves.

"One of the reasons we took this case is because we believe that it'll lead to marines hesitating on the battlefield because they won't have confidence in their chain of command [and] they won't have confidence that they'll be looked after if these allegations come up."

Now, I disagree. I am of the opinion that, when marines are faced with civilians, especially women and children, they should hesitate before firing. And if they do fire, they should have doubts that they will be "looked after," should allegations come up. Christ almighty.

Numero deux:
NPR story here.
I would like to state that I fully embrace my status as a left-wing liberal hippie-type, but I have a question with this one. Namely, that of legal standing. Ok, here goes: the ACLU is suing a subsidiary of Boeing (the jet people), saying that they helped fly suspected terrorists (prisoners) overseas on 70 flights as a part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. The ACLU further accuses the company of knowing that the prisoners would be tortured, and profiting from it. This is wrong.

Yes, profiting from torture is wrong. However, even the ACLU admits that this is the first time that it has brought a charges like this against a company like this. And even though every little bit of me wants to believe that the CIA lets everybody all up in its business, I know it just isn't true. So the liklihood that this subsidiary, Jeppesen Dataplan, even knew who it was transporting on the 70 flights, much less why, is pretty slim. And besides (dear god, I sound exactly like my parents! oy, shoot me now) what business is it of the ACLU what Jeppesen Dataplan is doing?

On the flip side, (back to my hippie ways!) doesn't the CIA have access to government planes for all its transportin' needs? Or do the whips and chains come at a discounted rate with the Jeppesen Dataplan 70-flight package?