May 6, 2004

The US Has Lost The War. Seymour Hersh: "There are many more photos even inside that unit. There are videotapes of stuff that you wouldn't want to mention on national television that was done. There was a lot of problems. There was a special women's section. There were young boys in there. There were things done to young boys that were videotaped. It's much worse." ... AP: "US soldiers who detained an elderly Iraqi woman [for six weeks without charge] last year placed a harness on her, made her crawl on all fours and rode her like a donkey." ... More photos have been released.

Bush says he was "shaken" by the reports of torture, yet according to his own press secretary, he hasn't bothered to even look at the Taguba Report. As TPM notes, he seemed unaware of what the report even was and then claimed he couldn't get a copy until it came up through the chain of command. Bush seems "blithely indifferent to what is a huge setback to American goals and standing in the Middle East and indeed throughout the world. There's an echo here of his response to the pre-9/11 warnings streaming up through the government bureaucracy. It hasn't landed on his desk yet, with an action plan, so what is he supposed to do?" ... Even some neocons are mystified by his behavior.

No comments: