OH. MY. GOD.
CSI totally proves my Grand Theory of Media (which is viz = that if you omit engagement with [whatever] from the appropriate forum, then it simply re-merges, return-of-the-repressed styleee, elsewhere, in some unpoliced or disconsidered region)
so it’s not eg seymour hersh but Horatio who breaks the bush’s-torture-gulag story, like oh my deah! it’s this season’s colombian-druglord-villain-stereotype! —> the kids who rape and kill in this ep (first aired summer 2003!!) are the sons of a central american military dictator: they have expedited diplomatic immunity purely bcz the dictator is providing the outsourced “interrogation” of “terrorists seized in baghdad” —> the Govt Figure who tries to shut honest Horatio down is target for H’s *maximal* contemptuous sneer, and (if you can imagine this) is EVEN MORE DISLIKEABLE THAN mr caine
(sadly i missed the end bcz visitors arrived but it DOESN’T MATTER bcz endings are a disguise anyway, the important point is made: it’s ok for this little gem of a critique of war-on-terror misconduct to become a throwaway entertainment meme)