ACLU Goes Fishing

Check out this report from Stop The ACLU. It describes the latest ACLU fishing expedition, a Freedom of Information Act request on the Haditha incident which appears to be focused on doing nothing else but attacking America and the U.S. military.

The ACLU's FOIA request seeks information about an incident in which U.S. Marines are said to have killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in retaliation for the killing of another Marine by a roadside bomb. The request seeks information about the Haditha incident, about the alleged cover-up of that incident by senior officers, and about other incidents involving the killing of civilians by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The request also seeks to ascertain whether military officers attempted to suppress information about these deaths.

Specifically, the request seeks the release of all records relating to the killing of civilians by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since January 1, 2005, including death certificates, autopsy reports, investigative files, documents related to criminal and administrative proceedings, witness interviews, statistics, policy documents (including "rules of engagement"), paperwork for compensatory payments to relatives of victims, photographs, and videos.

The ACLU could have just asked for "every possible document" and be done with it. Ostensibly, by hook or by crook, the ACLU lusts to prosecute the United States Marine Corps for something.

In my estimation, the most salient question needing to be answered is, "What, if anything, does all this have to do with American civil liberties?"