Cyrus Kar was born in Iran but has lived in the U.S. since he was two years old. A naturalized citizen, he played high-school football in Utah and Washington and then joined the Navy. His dream was to make a movie about an ancient Persian King who championed tolerance and human rights.

When he reached the point of site selection for his film, he was 44 and traveled to Baghdad to research archeological sites. You could probably recite the rest of the story. He got arrested, supposedly because "suspected bomb parts" were in the taxi in which he was riding. He was held for two months in a Baghad jail without charges, then released.

Kar's family and lawyers describe as the frightening netherworld of American military detention in Iraq - charged with no crime but nonetheless unable to gain his freedom or even tell his family where he is being held.

The FBI searched his apartment and not surprisingly, found nothing.

Okay, here's something new. TalkLeft's Duke Discussion Boards.

I will make new threads on TalkLeft when there is news in the case. TalkLeft is a blog, not a message board. But the number of comments the Duke case has generated even when there is no news has prompted me to seek a solution other than posting a Duke open thread every day or so.

So let's try discussion boards where you can all comment to your heart's delight on any topic related to the case. I've made ten or so general topics and you can make more IF they are not covered by existing topics.

I'm in an all day journalism training program today. There are 25 bloggers attending and it's very cool.

You can use this as an open thread.

Murray Waas is blogging about Guantanamo, Colin Powell, McCaffrey, and Ignatius.

The New York Times reports Bush claims the Supreme Court backed him on Guantanamo.

"It didn't say we couldn't have done -- couldn't have made that decision, see?" Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Chicago. "They were silent on whether or not Guantánamo -- whether or not we should have used Guantánamo. In other words, they accepted the use of Guantánamo, the decision I made."

Nice try, Mr. President, but Guantanamo wasn't the issue in the case -- the use of military tribunals was, and there was no approval of them.

While I was attending a Hillary fundraiser in Denver, Bill Clinton was in Aspen speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival. He talked about Karl Rove and PlameGate.

Clinton didn't hold back when Atlantic Monthly national correspondent James Fallows asked him what one question he would ask President Bush's highly controversial political operative.

....The 42nd president said he most wanted to know what Rove would do had Clinton's senior advisor blown the cover of a CIA agent who happened to be married to the man who refused to falsify findings about nuclear transactions taking place between Niger and Iraq (see Valerie Plame). And he openly wondered whether Rove would instruct Republican congressmen to call a White House official who would do such a thing a traitor. bqq. Lastly, Clinton wanted to know why it is that, if the Bush administration is as concerned with national security as it claims, why it would spend 20 times the amount of money it would take to shore up gaps in port security to repeal the estate tax for the nation's elite, which consists of less than one percent of the population.

A Bush in 60 seconds video, sent to me by Will Keenan, who created the TalkLeft video, great Yearly Kos promos and Mission Accomplished Man.

The doldrums of summer? Another FBI disclosure of an aspirational but not operational terror threat on the Holland Tunnel in New York -- why disclose it now?

Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer are in Aspen at the Ideas Festival. So is Colin Powell who fell ill while diningat Campo Fiore in Aspen with Bill Clinton. He went to the hospital for a few hours. Katie Couric and Wolf Blitzer and other media luminaries are in Aspen this week as well.

Hillary Clinton will be in Denver tonight for a fund-raiser at a private home for her Senate campaign. I'll be attending, but as a guest, not a journalist, so I won't be blogging about it.

This is an open thread.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Suddam Hussein's lawyers (see Hussein trial blog) have complained to the International Criminal Court that the United States has committed violations of the Geneva Convention various ways that "amount to war crimes" according to a story on AFP on Yahoo.co.uk. This story will evoke universal apathy.

The AFP story mentions several violations of human rights: "'Saddam Hussein has been subjected to degrading treatment, including photographs taken of him unclothed,' it said."

More fundamental, however, is the allegation that Hussein is subject to a certain imposition of the death penalty in violation of international law and he was being denied full access to counsel and his family. Ramsey Clark, one of Hussein's eleven surviving lawyers, complains that the U.S. backed court is a show trial:

Truthout has posted the transcript (pdf) of the May 16 Scooter Libby hearing. Jason Leopold points out the new details, primarily, that Libby's lawyers seem to suggest Miller may have discussed Joseph Wilson's wife before June 23.

According to a May 16, 2006, court transcript obtained by Truthout, Libby attorney William Jeffress told US District Court judge Reggie B. Walton that redacted versions of Miller's notebooks turned over to the defense during the discovery phase of the Libby criminal proceedings show that "Ms. Miller was investigating and focusing on [former Ambassador Joseph] Wilson before the very first time that she met with Mr. Libby, that is before June 23, 2003."

"There are numerous entries throughout those notebooks to 'V.F.,' or 'Victoria Wilson,' or to 'Valerie Wilson,' all of which indicate that she [Miller] is talking to someone else about Mr. Wilson's wife," Jeffress said, according to a copy of the 128-page transcript. "What she learned and when she learned it about Mr. Wilson's wife is extremely - it is right at the heart of this case."

Final Update and thoughts: Considering Lamont is the less experienced debater, he did an excellent job. While Lieberman touted his own trustworthiness and experience, and tried to attack Lamont, Lamont came off as fresh-faced and someone who shares our values and would bring a change to Washington. Lamont talked about policies he supports and Bush policies that need to be changed, while Lieberman defended his past votes. Lieberman was on the ropes from the beginning and he stayed there. Lieberman got repetitive and weaker as the hour went on, Lamont got stronger.

Final word goes to C.L., TalkLeft's graphic artist, who e-mailed in: "Lamont was a little bit of the deer caught in the headlights but likeable and solid. Leiberman just seems petulant."

Update 9: Closing statements: Lieberman is reading his, very distracting. Shorter version: I have 18 years of experience, he served on the Greenwich town council a decade or more ago. He offers negativism. Lieberman stops reading and finally speaks from his heart. His voice almost cracks as he asks the people to support him and elect him to another six years.

Lamont says he will fight for our civil liberties, for social security, he'll bring our troops home to the heroes welcome they deserve. People should vote from their hearts. "My name is Ned Lamont and if you approve this message, I could use your support on August 8." Good close.

Digby on the rape of the Iraqi girl by soldiers in Iraq:

Now I know that rape has often been a common feature of war. But this isn't really a war in the classical sense. It's a hybrid war/occupation/police action/whatever and it seems to me that there is something quite sick about all the psychosexual aspects of it generally. From Gitmo to Abu Ghraib to this horrible rape and killing, it seems to me that there is a very strong desire on the part of Americans to sexualize and feminize the enemy. Maybe it's always been this way. I'm no expert. I can't help but remember Rush Limbaugh's reaction to the Abu Ghraib scandal; he was so excited that "the babes" were meting out the torture and he clearly thinks forced sexual humiliation as all in good fun. There is just something very odd about all this. I wonder if someone is studying it.

While only one soldier as of now is charged with the rape, as I wrote yesterday, according to the affidavit for the arrest warrant, two soldiers raped her and four went to the house, knowing what was intended. Why havent' SO12, SO13 and KP1 been charged?

Comments on the last Duke thread are about to hit 500. Here's a new one to keep the conversation going.

Don't forget to bookmark TalkLeft's separate Duke page, where all the posts and comments since the beginning are on one page.