Crooked in Canada II

Ho-hum…There’s a story (maybe it’s just a rumour) going round about 36 missing and accused terrorists. The missing three dozen trainees are being referred to as “Ghost Prisoners,” and for now I am going to assume that the term “Ghost Prisoners” means that nobody really knows if these mysterious detainees actually existed, that there really isn’t any evidence of them ever being in U.S. custody.

The story about ghost prisoners is being perpetuated by online investigative journalism group Pro Publica , a not-for-profit news organization that unless they score that big story to make a big name for themselves, they are going to go broke.

This ‘Ghost Prisoner’ story is a make or break story for Pro Publica. They are hoping this story will get them the attention they need, and that when that happens financial benefactors will bang on their door.

There are two reasons this ghost prisoner story has legs, the first being because Pro Publica is putting the story out there, and the second one being because there is no evidence to dispute the claim Pro Publica is making.

I think it’s hilarious that Pro Publica is running with a story where it is virtually impossible to find any kind of concrete evidence that ghost prisoners exist. Even more hilarious is the fact that should anybody come forward with evidence to counteract Pro Publica’s claim about the existence of ghost prisoners, that evidence would somehow be linked by Pro Publica to the 36 detainees they are implying actually existed.

The CIA and Bush administration can’t win with this latest allegation of mistreatment and abuse of detainees.

Pretty slick of Pro Publica to conjure up a story that cannot be proven true or false without actual physical evidence that the detainees actually existed, and one that relies heavily on rumour and innuendo.

The story Pro Publica is peddling is a joke. It isn’t real, and they are making it up as they go along. I suspect that journalists at the news organization are either fresh out of university or retreads from other news organization, you know, the kind of people who have been fired because they didn’t measure up to their former employer’s journalistic standards,  things like that.

There is absolutely no evidence to back up Pro Publica’s claim that the CIA and the former Bush administration made detainees disappear.

Like I said, Pro Publica is making this story up as they go along, and most of it is probably based on rumour an innuendo from people with an axe to grind with both Bush and the CIA, or a journalist with a fertile imagination is just making it all up.

Whatever the reason for this story gaining momentum, I think this story is a lie.

Having said that, I’m betting on PP journalists on this ‘ghost prisoner’ assignment to be made out to be fools and frauds in the very near future, and that PP will be forced to pull the story and reveal its sources.

They are making some very serious allegations at PP headquarters, and they are using third-party information that includes rumour, innuendo, assumptions and people with axe’s grind to make the allegations. It’s the only way this kind of story could have grown the legs it is running on now. Remember, there is no physical evidence to back up PP’s story.

A smart fifth grader could make up the same kind of story that PP is telling, and do it with little or no effort at all.

It is pretty easy to make up a story about ‘missing’ torture victims without any proof, especially with the all the controversy surrounding the use of torture on captured insurgents and suspected terrorists in the U.S. and around the world these days.

Having said that, Pro Publica has peeked the interest of human rights groups with their story about these ghost prisoners, and news group IPS has picked up the story as well, and is running with it despite no real evidence that the ghost prisoners ever even existed.

I don’t know what you call it, but if the somebody says somebody never existed or ‘was there,’ and then somebody comes along and says that that somebody did in fact exists but doesn’t know who that somebody is or where that somebody came from (confused yet?), or where they are now, how credible could that latter somebody be (this case Pro Publica)?

Am I making any sense here?

Straight goods-These ghost prisoners Pro Publica speak of don’t exist, never did, and they are making it all up for the sake of a few ‘Benjamins’ to keep their news organization afloat.