Families Demand Winograd Be Published
Full Text;
A group of bereaved families demanded on Sunday that Judge Eliahu Winograd, who heads the Winograd Committee of investigation into the Second Lebanon War, publish transcripts of the committee hearings.
“If you don’t intend to abide by this court order,” the families wrote in a letter, “We call on you to resign from the committee, in order to set up a state committee of inquiry and disband this shameless government.”
The state prosecutor backed up the Winograd Committee’s request not to publish transcripts of the committee protocols until an official interim report was issued.
Olmert: [Lebanon] War Damage a ‘Distant Memory’
Excerpt;
“No administration can any longer expect blind trust from the public or to be able to dodge accounting to it. This is the hard lesson that is being learned these days both by the Winograd Committee and the government.”
The state argued that there was insufficient time to censor the transcripts, while the committee was busy assembling the report, due out at the end of April. In addition, the state said, lessons should be learned from the results thus far of the leaked protocols.
“Analysis of partial findings caused unjust damage, such as that to Vice Premier Shimon Peres…it was only an incomplete presentation of facts that allowed too many, inaccurate interpretations.”
Furthermore, according to the state, publication of the transcripts at this stage could affect the committee’s ongoing work, and allow witnesses to “match” their testimony.
On Saturday, Channel 2 reported that the Winograd Committee intended to ask the High Court of Justice for permission to postpone publication of the protocols of testimonies by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former chief of General Staff Dan Halutz until after Pessah.
In response to a petition filed by Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On and a reprimand from the High Court for not beginning to publish the protocols sooner, the committee promised it would publish the three documents before Pessah.
The committee came under heavy fire after the release of the first protocols 10 days ago. Two of the witnesses, Vice Premier and Minister of Negev and Galilee Affairs Shimon Peres and former intelligence chief, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Malka, sharply criticized the committee for publication of their testimonies.
In response, the committee issued a statement that they were only publishing the protocols because they were ordered to by the High Court. Originally, the committee had intended to publish the protocols after it released its final report.
Later in the week, the committee indicated that it was considering whether to petition the High Court on the question of the protocols, but did not make clear what kind of request it intended to make.
Commentary;
The sooner the transcripts of testimony are revealed and the sooner that the committee’s findings are made public, the sooner that Israel will become aware of the extent of mal-feasance of the Olmert regime and the sooner that the Jewish people will demand to be governed in the way it should be; (of course, short of Moshiach) by Torah mandate, integrity and morality. MB