Camp Slappy??? / Outraged by the outrage

One of the private companies that DOD contracted with to provide inquisitors for Abu Ghraib, CACI International, also sells the Bush admin ethics training tapes.

Nick Berg’s death will be used as an excuse not to release the rest of the photos of Iraqis being tortured. One possible obstacle to this tactic: his parents, who are blaming not the guys who cut his head off but the US government, which arrested him for no particular reason (more to come on this, I’m sure) until they filed suit, at which time they released him and he disappeared. The story is odd in many details, as is his appearance in an orange prison-type jumpsuit in the film, and a 12-hour gap in the tape. And they’re lying about who beheaded him. The beheading-on-video thing, by the way, while new to Iraq, is common in Chechnya. Video-CDs of Russian soldiers being killed in that manner are common on the streets of Baghdad. For whatever that’s worth.

No one is giving the URL for the site with the video of the beheading. I wouldn’t have watched, but I want the option.

At the risk of joining a partisan version of the dump-Rummy movement, I “signed” the Kerry petition anyway.

Sen. Inhofe is outraged by the outrage. Well, I’m outraged by his outrage at the outrage. I don’t see what he could possibly say in response to that...

There is an undersecretary of defense for intelligence, did you know that? It’s a new position under the Bush admin. He’s Stephen Cambone, and he said today that military intelligence was given command of the facility of Abu Ghraib, but not the guards, so don’t blame him. Cambone was the one who sent the commandant of Stalag Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib to instruct them in how to soften up prisoners. Both should be fired, but won’t be, any more than Rummy, who as Bush said yesterday is a very good secretary of state, yes you are, who’s a good secretary of state, you’re a good secretary of state, would you like a Milk Bone?

Speaking of stalags....Camp Slappy? (Kandahar)

Joe Conason asks an interesting question: “When George W. Bush grudgingly apologized for the crimes committed in our name, who believed that he was sorry?” Think about this seriously for a second--do any of you believe he was actually sorry? Answers on a postcard please.

I do enjoy a good parliamentary sketch. Monday the minister of defense went before Parliament. The Guardian’s sketchwriter, Simon Hoggart, said this: “Short of pulling a hood over his head and jeering at the size of his genitals, the Commons could not have been much more humiliating to Geoff Hoon.” “He became the latest minister to offer an apology - for this administration "sorry" seems to be the easiest word, whether for the Irish potato famine, slavery or the Dome.”