by TChris

According to CNN, the recent terrorist threat to the New York City subway system originated in Iraq. If this turns out to be true, the president's professed strategy of "fighting the terrorists there so we don't have to fight them here" has been a dud. We didn't have to fight Iraqi terrorists anywhere until the president invaded Iraq, creating a new threat to national security.

This is an incredibly engrossing and important article from Der Spiegel on Abu Ghraib. It's very long, so you might want to bookmark it or print it out for when you have time to read the whole thing. By putting the story in the personal context of Jamal Davis, the prison guard, and Hajj Ali, a prisoner and Iraqi community leader, and showing how both of their worlds were destroyed, it brings the horror of what U.S. soldiers did there into much sharper focus.

There are new details of the pervasive sadism of the U.S. prison guards and the higher-ups who endorsed it.

Hajj Ali believes he is the one in this picture.

"How can it be," he asks, "that the victims are not being called as witnesses, that no one wants to hear their version of the story? How can it be that someone like Davis gets only half a year in prison?" "Davis and the others," he says, "killed our souls."

Wow. Say hello to the Saddam Hussein Trial Blog by the Case Western University School of Law. Bookmark it now for later, it's an incredible resource.

On October 7, there will be a live webcast on Torture and the War on Terror sponsored by the law school's Frederick Cox International Law Center. Here's the link to view it.

Speaking of torture, one other great find today: Law Prof Jack Balkin and the other law profs writing at Balkinization have compiled all of their writings on "Torture, Interrogation, Detention, War Powers, and Office of Legal Counsel" in one place. I hope they publish it as a book, but in the meantime, it's free and just about the best stuff out there on these issues from a progressive, legal perspective.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom says the invasion of Iraq was the worst strategic disaster in U.S. history.

The invasion of Iraq was the “greatest strategic disaster in United States history,” a retired Army general said yesterday, strengthening an effort in Congress to force an American withdrawal beginning next year., Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, a Vietnam veteran, said the invasion of Iraq alienated America's Middle East allies, making it harder to prosecute a war against terrorists.

The U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, he said, and reposition its military forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border to capture Osama bin Laden and crush al Qaeda cells.

[Via Raw Story.]

by TChris

When the military plays the blame game, the blame rolls downhill. Capt. Ian Fishback, the primary source of information about detainee abuse in a recent Human Rights Watch report, fears that military investigators are making no serious effort to trace knowledge of or participation in the abuse up the chain of command.

"I'm convinced this is going in a direction that's not consistent with why we came forward," Captain Fishback said in a telephone interview from Fort Bragg, N.C., where he is going through Army Special Forces training. "We came forward because of the larger issue that prisoner abuse is systemic in the Army. I'm concerned this will take a new twist, and they'll try to scapegoat some of the younger soldiers. This is a leadership problem."

Speaking of leadership problems, Donald Rumsfeld assures us that somebody's head will roll. We can be sure it won't be the Donald's.

Bump and Update: Lynndie England was sentenced to three years in prison.

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Original Post: 9/26

Abu Ghraib prison guard Lynndie England was convicted today six of the seven counts against her.

England, 22, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count.

The jury of five male Army officers took about two hours to reach its verdict. Her case now moves into the sentencing phase, which will determined by the same jury. She faces a maximum 10 years in prison.

The French newspaper Le Monde excoricates the Bush Administration for Abu Ghraib in today's editorial.

“...the use of torture is one less chance for Washington to win its wars, because for each martyred prisoner, for each image of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, ten fighters rise against the United States.”

And it reminds the anti-war movement that it shouldn't just be about saving American lives.

Update (TL):

Caption from Jane at Firedoglake: DC Police Study for Gyno Exams.

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Original Post by TChris

Cindy Sheehan was arrested today while protesting outside the White House.

Others who were arrested also cooperated with police. Sgt. Scott Fear, spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said they would be charged with demonstrating without a permit, which is a misdemeanor.

So much for free speech, and the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.

by TChris

One day after a "massive" anti-war protest in Washington (among other places), the pro-war voices had their chance to be heard. They could barely muster a whisper, as about 400 people -- "far fewer than organizers had expected" -- gathered today on the National Mall.

So here's the unofficial count of those who rallied in Washington this weekend:

Pro-war: 400.

Anti-war: 100,000.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Everyone is well aware of President Bush's fundraising capabilities when it is for buying access to or owning government, or some nitwit rich horse judger getting a crucial job at the Federal Emergency Mismanagement Agency of the Department of Homeland Insecurity.

President Bush tried to raise private funds for the rebuilding of Iraq, and put out a plea to the "public." According to the UK Independent, he raised $600.

Bump and Update: (TL):

100,000 joined the protest.

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Original Post by TChris

In Europe:

A London demonstration against the war in Iraq drew at least 10,000 people today as similar protests were planned in European capitals including Paris, Rome, Madrid and Oslo ....

In the United States:

Lynndie England's former lover, Abu Ghraib ringleader Charles Graner, testified for her at her trial this week. He told the court this and this was his idea. Graner was a bad apple well before being placed as a prison guard at Abu Ghraib. Now a prisoner himself, serving a ten year sentence for prisoner abuse, he's still causing trouble:

Military officials say he has caused trouble even since the start of his 10 years prison sentence, refusing, for example, to shave in accordance with military prison regulations and earning himself solitary confinement. A spokesman for the prosecution said Graner was forcibly shaved before his testimony in which he defended the leash and pyramid stacking episodes as legitimate inmate control techniques.

Graner and England are no longer a couple. He has since married former Abu Ghraib guard Megan Ambuhl who also was embroiled and convicted in the prisoner abuse scandal. She was not sentenced to jail.

The military jury will decide Lynndie England's fate next week.