I'm still aghast at how the media unquestioningly depicts Byers and Attaran as altruistic good guys, motivated only by concern for the well being of these poor detainees, and, by extension, the Afghan people as a whole.
Both these hard left head cases want NATO out of Afghanistan. A withdrawal of western troops will plunge the country into a human rights hell, many times worse than the current situation. Forget the obvious increase in instances of abuse and torture by both sides. Many detainees will be murdered, just like the good old days before western intervention. There simply isn't any plausible argument that this wouldn't occur on the heels of a NATO-U.S. withdrawal.
If Byers and Attaran really cared about the Afghan people, they'd be saying " Afghan detainee human rights violations must end, but thank God we're there, because if we weren't, imagine how much worse it would be."
They aren't saying that, and they should be taking big time heat for their hypocrisy. It is a blatant contradiction for Byers to accuse Hillier and O'Connor of war crimes, while Byers himself lobbies to facilitate the commission of future, massive scale war crimes, acts that will completely eclipse the detainee abuse he is complaining of.