As I’m sure you’ve heard, Newsweek has apologized for a piece in its last issue that reprinted allegations that U.S. interrogators at Gitmo flushed at least one copy of the Koran down the toilet in an effort to fluster prisoners.
Newsweek has stopped short of retracting the story; The New York Times reports that The White House says that the report should be retracted:
“The report has had serious consequences,” he said, according to Reuters. “People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged.”
For a second there, I thought he was talking about Curveball.
Juan Cole has heard from at least one former officer who has no doubt that the allegations are true:
The course I attended . . . [had] a mock POW camp, where we had a chance to be prisoners for 2-3 days. The camp is also used as a training tool for CI [counter-intelligence], interrogators, etc for those running the camp.
One of the most memorable parts of the camp experience was when one of the camp leaders trashed a Bible on the ground, kicking it around, etc. It was a crushing blow, even though this was just a school.
I have no doubt the stories about trashing the Koran are true.
I’m sure you must also realize that Gitmo must be being used as a “laboratory” for all these psychological manipulation techniques by the CI guys. Absolutely sickening . . .
While conservative blogs scream bloody murder about the MSM’s liberal bias, the MSM has stayed silent on a story that should have been splashed across the front pages of U.S. Newspapers: the now infamous July 2002 Downing Street Memo, which reveals that the Bush administration cooked the intelligence books before the Iraq war. If you haven’t read it, you should (it’s short and to-the-point).
Here’s the nut:
[snip]
The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.
Paul Krugman addressed the issue in his column today, Staying What Course?. He argues that although “November’s election is behind us,” it’s important to revisit the history of the Iraq war because “any path out of the quagmire will be blocked by people who call their opponents weak on national security, and portray themselves as tough guys who will keep America safe. So it’s important to understand how the tough guys made America weak.”
For many of us, of course, this just confirms what we already knew. A new song called “Memorial Day” by the Boston hip-hop group The Perceptionists puts it bluntly:
We been looking for months and we ain’t found nothing
Please mister President tell us something!
We knew from the beginning your ass was bluffing!
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