Has Iraq turned into the new Bosnia? The Independent/UK reports:

Across central Iraq, there is an exodus of people fleeing for their lives as sectarian assassins and death squads hunt them down. At ground level, Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale.

On a related note, the New York Times has an in-depth report on how misjudgements marred U.S. plans for the creation of the Iraqi police force. It begins:

by TChris

The administration complains that news reports from Iraq enhance the negative and omit the positive. What "positive" event could be more newsworthy than this?

More Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad during the first three months of this year than at any time since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime -- at least 3,800, most of them found hog-tied and shot execution-style.

Others were strangled, electrocuted, stabbed, garroted or hanged. Some died in bombings. Many bore signs of torture such as bruises, drill holes, burn marks, gouged eyes or severed limbs.

by TChris

Donald Rumsfeld speechless? Hard to believe, isn't it?

Speaking in Atlanta today, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was sharply questioned about his pre-war claims about WMD in Iraq. An audience member confronted Rumsfeld with his 2003 claim about WMD, "We know where they are." Rumsfeld falsely claimed he never said it. The audience member then read Rumsfeld's quote back to him, leaving the defense secretary speechless.

Think Progress has the video.

The ACLU has released another 9,000 pages of documents it received from the Defense Department pursuant to its Freedom of Information Act request. Check out this document (pdf) charting the detainee deaths prior to May, 2004.

Of 58 deaths, 8 were homicides and several others were unknown or under investigation. It lists each death and a cause. Here are some of them:

"Soldier killed detainee in violation of ROE"; "Soldier killed detainee while handcuffed"; "1 strangulation found outside isolation unit"; "1 blunt force trauma and choking, died during interrogation" (there are three of these); "Soldier drowned detainee, body not found"; and "died sleeping after interrogation."

And that's just one document I happened to click on out of the 9,000 new pages. As to Gen. Sanchez, the ACLU reports:

by TChris

A "turning point" has finally been reached in Iraq. How do we know? The ever-optimistic president said so yesterday, on the third anniversary of his "Mission Accomplished" speech. Remember "Mission Accomplished"?

It didn't turn out that way.

Violence in Iraq continued instead of ebbed. In the six weeks from the start of the invasion to Bush's speech, 139 U.S. soldiers had died. In the three years since, as of Sunday, there have been another 2,258 U.S. military deaths in Iraq -- an average of 63 each month.

The latest "turning point" may mark a turn from disaster to chaos.

by TChris

Almost two years ago, a panel of Army Generals recommended that Lt. Col. Steven Jordan and his immediate superior, Col. Thomas Pappas, be punished for failing to prevent abuse at Abu Ghraib. Pappas was fined and reprimanded for dereliction of duty, but faced no criminal charges.

Jordan headed the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib from its inception in September 2003 to December 2003. Jordan's lawyer announced today that the Army plans to charge Jordan with dereliction of duty, lying to investigators and conduct unbecoming an officer. Jordan would be the highest ranking officer to face criminal charges arising out of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

If the buck stops with Jordan, it's fair to ask whether he's a scapegoat for those who assigned him to a job that was outside the scope of his training.

by TChris

Every U.S. inspection of a detention center in Iraq between November and February yielded evidence of prisoner abuse. Severe abuse was uncovered at two centers. Despite last November's pledge by Gen. Peter Pace that troops would stop inhumane treatment if they saw it -- a pledge that prompted some jousting between Pace and Rumsfeld about the duty to "report" abuse (Rumsfeld's view) versus the duty to "stop" abuse (Pace's view) -- the military hasn't taken consistent action to protect the abused prisoners.

Instead, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, only a handful of the most severely abused detainees at a single site were removed for medical treatment. Prisoners at two other sites were removed to alleviate overcrowding. U.S. and Iraqi authorities left the rest where they were. This practice of leaving the detainees in place has raised concerns that detainees now face additional threats.

According to Washington Post interviews, one Iraqi official involved in the inspections suspects that the U.S. doesn't want to publicize evidence that Iraq's Interior Ministry is actively involved in the mistreatment of detainees, for fear of further destabilizing a fragile government.

by TChris

Which is more important to the Senate: protecting the troops from harm, or enhancing the profits of defense contractors? Here's a clue:

A Senate measure to fund the war in Iraq would chop money for troops' night vision equipment and new battle vehicles but add $230 million for a tilt-rotor aircraft that has already cost $18 billion and is still facing safety questions.

President Bush's request for the emergency appropriations to cover costs of the continuing war and Hurricane Katrina recovery operations included no money for the troubled V-22 Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like a plane.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The Topeka, KS Westboro Baptist Church fundamentalist wackos (previously noted here and here by TChris) disrupted another soldier's funeral in Nashville a week ago with placards celebrating the soldier's death. From their message, one would think they were violent Islamic fundamentalists rather than purported Christian fundamentalists. They are about as unChristian as a group can get.

As result of their activities, several states have adopted laws against disrupting funerals or burials as an inappropriate place for political speech, and some Members of Congress want to get into the act.

Bump and Update: Arianna thinks we should cut Gingrich some slack and accept his repentence. I understand where she's coming from, but I can't agree. Newt Gingrich was one of the most dangerous men in politics. Don't ever forget his 1995 Contract On America and the Taking Back our Streets Act. He cannot be allowed back into the fray. He will tool us again. We're lucky we got rid of him once. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice.... (sorry about the unintended rhyme.)

Also refusing to cut Gingrich any slack: Jane at Firedoglake, Glenn Greenwald at Alternet, Matt at My DD.

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Original Post 4/11/06

Jane and Think Progress say Newt Gingrich's speech yesterday saying continued war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should leave Iraq now is not to be trusted. I agree. Here's Newt yesterday:

Via Raw Story, Robert Scheer at Truthdig has interviewed Colin Powell about the decision to go to war in Iraq.

On Monday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told me that he and his department's top experts never believed that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat, but that the president followed the misleading advice of Vice President Dick Cheney and the CIA in making the claim. Now he tells us.

by TChris

Another Bush administration effort to spread information it knew to be false has been exposed. This happens so frequently, it hardly seems like news.

On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush ... declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

Bush was referring to two small trailers that were anointed as mobile "biological laboratories."

But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true. A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement.