The Washington Post is reporting that previously secret documents now being released show that the Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison were not being abused to soften them up for interrogation, but were being done as punishment and amusement .

The information comes in part from the guards themselves. One guard said:

He said that he asked Graner, a Pennsylvania prison guard in civilian life, about the photographs. Graner replied: "The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says, 'I love to make a grown man piss himself.' "

....All the MPs who provided statements also described abuses that appeared to have little to do with intelligence gathering. Instead, they said detainees were beaten and sexually humiliated as punishment or for fun.

Here's a few of the stories behind the photos:

• The Naked Pyramid Photo: "I was laughing at some of the stuff."
• Punches and Kicks Photo: "Knocked the Detainee Unconscious."
• The Dogs Photo: "They Let the Dogs Corner Him."

Some examples of the abuse:

This is pretty amazing. The Department of Justice wrote several memos to Pentagon officials advising them how to avoid being charged with war crimes while denying prisoners their rights.

A series of Justice Department memorandums written in late 2001 and the first few months of 2002 were crucial in building a legal framework for United States officials to avoid complying with international laws and treaties on handling prisoners, lawyers and former officials say.

The confidential memorandums, several of which were written or co-written by John C. Yoo, a University of California law professor who was serving in the department, provided arguments to keep United States officials from being charged with war crimes for the way prisoners were detained and interrogated. They were endorsed by top lawyers in the White House, the Pentagon and the vice president's office but drew dissents from the State Department.

The memorandums .....suggested how officials could inoculate themselves from liability by claiming that abused prisoners were in some other nation's custody.

And don't miss this editorial in the June 8 issue of The Nation, Orders to Torture (subscription required):

The Pentagon released some figures today about the number of Iraqi and Afghan prisoner deaths being investigated for possible criminal prosecution: The total is now 37.

The Army has undertaken criminal investigations into the deaths of at least 32 Iraqis and five Afghans held by U.S. forces since August 2002, Pentagon officials revealed Friday. The deaths are from 33 separate cases, two of which involved more than one death. That is eight more cases than the Pentagon had publicly reported two weeks ago.

Nine are active cases, and eight of those are classified as homicides involving suspected assaults of detainees before or during interrogation sessions. Two have been resolved as homicide cases. Four are called justifiable homicides and 15 have been classified as deaths by natural or undetermined cause, the Pentagon said. Of the total of 33 cases, 30 involve detainees who died inside a U.S.-run detention facility. In the three other cases, two Iraqis and one Afghani died while under U.S. control outside a facility.

Earlier this month, the the Pentagon acknowledged 25 deaths. So more are still coming out of the woodwork.

Wow. Secret Service employee Larry Stewart, the ink expert who testified at the Martha Stewart trial, has been charged with two counts of perjury--for lying on the witness stand at her trial.

The government said it had uncovered eight separate false statements made by Larry Stewart on the stand about two subjects: that he participated in an August 2002 examination of the worksheet, and that he was familiar with a book proposal on ink analysis.

The Government doesn't think it will affect her conviction. We disagree. We'd also like to know when the Government realized Stewart lied.

Meanwhile, shares in Shares in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (MSO) rose 11 percent today. We got an e-mail from Martha's website a few days ago asking us to let people know how they can help Martha. It was signed by Martha. Here's how:

Wonkette Rules. She has been mercilessly obsessing on the Washingtonienne scandal. Washingtonienne is a staffer of Ohio Republican Senator Mike DeWine who published her sexploits on her now defunct weblog. We won't go into details here, just go read Wonkette. But there's real news today: Gannett News reports that Senator DeWine has issued a statement.

Sen. Mike DeWine said Thursday that he has not decided whether to fire an aide who allegedly posted her exploits in an Internet diary, including accepting $400 from a married man for sex. "We're in the process of completing a review," the Ohio Republican said. "It's a personnel matter." DeWine said he expects to make a decision soon.

....In the blog, the woman said she had a variety of partners. These included an older man, a co-worker with whom she was involved in an "office sex scandal"; and a married Bush appointee who also gave her money.

The cached version of Washingtonienne's blog is here. Be forewarned, it's graphic explicit.

Update: DeWine fires Washingtonienne. She calls Wonkette and gives a taped interview . Her name is Jessica Cutler. The Washington Post will have an article about her, with a picture, on Sunday.

Via e-mail from American Progress:

...the Hindustan Times of India today reports that the RNC outsourced its key fundraising and get-out-the-vote operations to firms in India. The report notes that over a 14 month period while the Republican Party was trumpeting patriotism, the RNC exported its voter info database to various call centers in India.

More details here.

The Washington Post has them.. Statements describing sexual humiliation and savage beatings. And new photos.

The statements provide the most detailed picture yet of what took place on the cellblock. Some of the detainees described being abused as punishment or discipline after they were caught fighting or with a prohibited item. Some said they were pressed to denounce Islam or were force-fed pork and liquor. Many provided graphic details of how they were sexually humiliated and assaulted, threatened with rape, and forced to masturbate in front of female soldiers.

"They forced us to walk like dogs on our hands and knees," said Hiadar Sabar Abed Miktub al-Aboodi, detainee No. 13077. "We had to bark like a dog, and if we didn't do that they started hitting us hard on our face and chest with no mercy. After that, they took us to our cells, took the mattresses out and dropped water on the floor and they made us sleep on our stomachs on the floor with the bags on our head and they took pictures of everything."

Sean-Paul at Agonist reports this email from a reader who says that this Iranian website is reporting the following (Note that the Iranian website is not in English so we have no idea if that's what is really being reported.)

1. The site is in possession of "documents" that prove Berg was a CIA special agent who had initiated widespread contacts with Muslims resident in the US over the past two years, with the aim of penetrating Al-Qaeda.
2. Berg had been very successful in this mission, providing golden opportunities for the CIA and the FBI to deliver severe blows to Al-Qaeda.
3. With start of the Iraq war and Al-Qaeda's activities there, Berg was sent to Iraq under cover of a telecommunication businessman.

NBC News reports an exclusive --a new prison scandal in Iraq. The unit involved is the Delta Force:

U.S. military and intelligence officials familiar with the situation tell NBC News the Army’s elite Delta Force is now the subject of a Pentagon inspector general investigation into abuse against detainees. The target is a top-secret site near Baghdad’s airport. The battlefield interrogation facility known as the “BIF” is pictured in satellite photos.

According to two top U.S. government sources, it is the scene of the most egregious violations of the Geneva Conventions in all of Iraq’s prisons. A place where the normal rules of interrogation don’t apply, Delta Force’s BIF only holds Iraqi insurgents and suspected terrorists — but not the most wanted among Saddam’s lieutenants pictured on the deck of cards.

...the prisoners there are hooded from the moment they are captured. They are kept in tiny dark cells. And in the BIF’s six interrogation rooms, Delta Force soldiers routinely drug prisoners, hold a prisoner under water until he thinks he’s drowning, or smother them almost to suffocation.

One senior Pentagon official has denied the charges. Others have clammed up and refused to comment. But other officials say Rumsfeld tried to get the BIF tactics brought to Abu Ghraib:

The House of Representatives today voted to tear down Abu Graib prison in Iraq. The vote was 308-114 to include the tear-down provision in a $422 billion defense spending bill.

After the tear-down, we would pay to build a modern detention center in its place. The bill requires the consent of the new Iraqi Government because by the time the bill passes the Senate, it will be after June 30 and no longer our decision to make, says Congressman Curt Weldon, a Republican co-sponsor of the bill.

Really? That's not what the Walll Street Journal and New York Times have reported. Via Eric Alterman at Altercation:

If you are not buying the Journal every day during this scandal, you are missing the best non-Hersh reporting to come out of it. For instance today the Times has a much less informative and more administration friendly version of the story that Journal readers read a week ago, in which U.S. authorities admit in the fine print that the June 30 handover will be a ruse and that Americans will be running Iraq as much as ever. Today’s top story: “U.S. Generals Say No System Exists For Abuse Reports.”

Like Eric says, "don't feel guilty about skipping the editorial pages."

Whoops, never mind.

An American lawyer who was arrested two weeks ago in connection with the terror attacks in Spain was set free Thursday after evidence pointed to another suspect in the deadly train bombings. Brandon Mayfield, 37, was released soon after Spanish officials said fingerprints found on a bag near the bombing site were that of an Algerian. U.S. authorities had previously said the prints were Mayfield's. The bag contained detonators similar to those used in the March 11 blasts, which killed 191 people and injured 2,000 others.

In Madrid late Thursday, authorities said the fingerprints found on the plastic bag belonged to an Algerian, Ouhnane Daoud. The bag was found in a van hours after the morning rush-hour blasts. The van had been left near the train station from which three of the four bombed trains had departed.

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