The ACLU filed a freedom of information lawsuit request today seeking information on the Haditha killings of 24 Iraqi civilians, including women and children.

The request seeks information about the Haditha incident, about the alleged cover-up of that incident by senior officers, and about other incidents involving the killing of civilians by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The request also seeks to ascertain whether military officers attempted to suppress information about these deaths.

Specifically, the request seeks the release of all records relating to the killing of civilians by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan since January 1, 2005, including death certificates, autopsy reports, investigative files, documents related to criminal and administrative proceedings, witness interviews, statistics, policy documents (including "rules of engagement"), paperwork for compensatory payments to relatives of victims, photographs and videos.

As expected, both Senate proposals for a timed exit plan from Iraq were defeated.

The votes, 87 to 13 on one measure and 60 to 39 on the second, reflected not only deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats but within the Democratic ranks as well.

Kerry's bill was the first one voted on. It would have required all troops to be out of Iraq by July 1, 2007.

The second, more generally worded measure was also intended to scale down the American commitment in Iraq. It declared that it was "the sense of the Senate" that redeployment of United States troops from Iraq begin by the end of this year.

Here are the 13 Senators who voted for Kerry's proposal.

Bump and Update: Just in from Newsweek: A new poll shows that Europeans really, really don't like Bush.

A Harris Interactive/Financial Times survey released Monday found that 36 percent of Europeans view the United States as the world's greatest threat to "global stability." By comparison, 30 percent of those polled named Iran as the biggest threat, while 18 percent named China.

In Austria, that unpopularity is particularly acute: a recent poll by the Vienna-based News magazine found that 72 percent of those surveyed found Bush to be unlikable and a danger to world peace.

Shorter version: Bush can't escape his unpopularity by running off to Europe.

********
Original Post:
Bush Protests in Austria:

From Austrian tv/radio, here's the video of Bush protesters in Austria. Cindy Sheehan is front and center. At the end, there's a flag burning. [hat tip Scribe]

7 Marines and one sailor were charged with first degree murder and other crimes this week as the result of the killing of an Iraqi civilian.

In the case of the April killing of an Iraqi civilian, the allegation is that Marines pulled an unarmed man from his home on April 26 and shot him to death without provocation.

That makes 11 members of the military this week charged with murders in Iraq. The investigation into the Haditha killings of 24 civilians is still underway.

Here's an open thread for you all (except Duke which will get it's own.)

80 workers today were kidnapped from a Baghdad factory.

The abduction took place at a state-owned factory complex at Taji where dozens of insurgents commandeered buses taking employees home after work. A source quoted by Reuters news agency said the number of those kidnapped was at least 100 and possibly many more.

It is the latest of a series of mass abductions of workers in Iraq, many of whom have been ransomed or killed.

[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

Some good news on the NSA warrantless surveillance issue. I just received this e-mail from Rep. John Conyer's office:

Today, the House Judiciary Committee passed H.Res. 819, calling on the President and the Justice Department to disclose its role in approving massive telephone call databases maintained by the NSA and others. This is the first time a Committee has approved a Resolution of Inquiry demanding information from the Administration this Congress.

The resolution, authored by Representative Robert Wexler (D-FL), requests "all documents in the possession of the President and the Attorney General, including all legal opinions, relating to requests made without a warrant by the National Security Agency or other Federal departments and agencies to telephone service providers, including wireless telephone service providers, for access to telephone communications records of persons in the United States."

Khamis al-Obeidi, one of the main defense lawyers for Saddam Hussein, was kidnapped from home by men in uniforms and killed. He is the third defense lawyer on the team to be killed in 8 months.

Khalil al-Dulaimi, Saddam's chief attorney, blamed the Interior Ministry.

Al-Dulaimi blamed the Interior Ministry, which Sunnis have alleged is infiltrated by so-called Shiite death squads, for the killing. "We strongly condemn this act and we condemn the killings done by the Interior Ministry forces against Iraqis," he said.

The Interior Ministry had no comment on the claim. A photo of al-Obeidi provided by police showed his face, head and shoulders drenched in blood

The Dukesters need a new thread, comments are overflowing at the last one. In today's Duke lacrosse player news:

• Coach breaks silence--Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski discusses the scandal caused by the rape allegations

• USA Today editorial saying the facts are growing shorter for Nifong, i.e., the case keeps unraveling

• Michael Gaynor in the Post Chronicle tells the accuser to pray and apologize and calls her by her real name in a very nasty opinion piece. I'd still like for commenters not to do that just yet.

I just finished watching "The Road to Guantanamo." It is as good as the reviews say. It opens June 23 in theaters in some cities and you should definitely see it. It's part documentary and part drama. It's very fast-paced and the scenes in Afghanistan and Guantanamo are very real -- and frightening. It also will make you very angry -- and drive home the realization that not all the detainees at Guantanamo can be the "worst of the worst" because many don't belong there at all. And yes, they were mistreated.

The four subjects of the film, Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul (pdf), and Monir Ali were British teens of Pakistani descent who went to Pakistan because one was getting married in an arranged marriage. Almost on a whim, they naviely decided to go to Afghanistan. The U.S. started its bombing campaign right afterwards. They get captured by the Northern Alliance and three of them get turned over to the Americans who won't believe they aren't al-Qaeda and send them to Guantanamo where they are held for two years without charges before being returned to England and finally freed. They appear in the film as narrators while actors re-create their ordeal. The fourth, Monir Ali, got separated and has not been heard from again, although he may be in a Pakistani prison.

Don't miss Frontline's The Dark Side about Dick Cheney at 9 pm ET. Here's a thread to discuss it.

Tennessee is gearing itself up to be the country's latest killing machine. It has scheduled five executions for the same day, June 28, and says it is prepared to carry them all out should last minute appeals not delay them.

Prison officials say they just need two to three hours between them so they can get the families of one inmate out and the next one in.

The record goes to Virginia:

The record for single-day executions is believed to be the eight men convicted of rape who were electrocuted on Feb. 2, 1951, in Martinsville City, Va.

Here's why Sedley Hadley and Dennis Reid should not be executed. I haven't found pages for the other three yet.