Kenneth Roth is exactly correct.
But the reality is that this is what has passed for 'justice' in Iraq since the start of the war.
Nouri al-Maliki disappeared thousands and thousands of Sunnis, for example, while he was prime minister of Iraq (2006 through 2014).
Sunnis were arrested for no reason at all.
They showed up at the home of someone -- with or without an arrest warrant -- and the person wasn't home. So they grabbed the mother, the father, the spouse, the sibling, the child, etc.
People who were guilty of nothing but being related to someone wanted.
They were thrown into prisons -- some were hidden prisons -- they were 'disappeared.'
The year and a half worth of protests was never properly covered by western media but Iraqi media was always quite clear that the protesters included family members asking where their relatives were.
The US government's point wasn't to bring democracy to Iraq or to help the Iraqi people, it was to grab up the resources.
As long as Nouri stood a chance of delivering the oil & gas law -- the only 'benchmark' the US government cared about -- then everyone would look the other way.
This is what led to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq.
A lot of useless liars -- including at Glenn Greenwald's site -- like to pretend otherwise.
They're aided in their lies by the fact that western outlets, in real time, refused to cover what was going on.
Oh, excuse me, when the 'disappearance' was so great that to calm things in Iraq -- to silence the Sunni politicians in Parliament -- and the Committee that found the claims true -- that women and girls disappearing were being raped in these prisons?
Suddenly, western outlets cared.
For exactly one day.
The issue became so great within Iraq that Nouri was forced to stage a release.
So for one day suddenly we heard about what was going on.
There was no follow up on the part of the western outlets.
Had they followed up, they would have learned none of those females ever made it home.
It was a photo op.
If people had bothered to pay attention, if the western press had bothered to report, maybe today's assault on innocents wouldn't be taking place?
