by TChris

Was it worth the price that the United States paid -- and continues to pay, in lives and credibility -- to invade Iraq? Most Americans sensibly answer "no."

[A]ccording to a CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll released on Tuesday[:] Fifty-seven percent of those polled said it was not worth going to war compared to 41 percent who thought it was.

Reality has replaced enthusiasm since April 2003, when 73 percent of respondents thought the war was worth fighting.

A military jury has begun hearing evidence in the sentencing phase of FPC Lynndie England's abuse trial. The prosecution called no witnesses. The defense case began with a doctor who testified England was cognitively impaired due to oxygen deprivation at birth. Her problems, which include speech impairment and reading disability, were diagnosed in kindergarten.

"I knew I was going to know Lynndie England for the rest of my life," West Virginia school psychologist Dr. Thomas Denne said.

How does that impact her moral judgment? The doctor said it made her less resistant to peer pressure. But does it excuse this behavior?

Pfc. Lynndie England pleaded guilty today to seven charges. A jury will determine her punishment.

England pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy, four counts of abusing detainees and one count of committing an indecent act, during a morning pre-trial hearing at Fort Hood, Texas.

She pleaded not guilty to two other counts against her: dereliction of duty and committing an indecent act.

Her ex-boyfriend, prioner abuser Charles Graner is expected to testify for her at her sentencing. Reportedly, Graner is the father of the child conceived at Abu Ghraib. He has since married another reserve officer soldier who pleaded guilty to prisoner abuse charges, Spc. Megan Ambuhl.

The International press is reporting that two weeks ago, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Saddam Hussein in jail and offered to free him:

US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld paid a secret visit to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and offered him freedom and possible return to public life if he made a televised request to armed groups for a ceasefire with allied forces, a media report said.

Saddam promptly rejected the offer, Ynetnews reported quoting a London based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily.

Other news agencies that have run the story: Here, here and here. [Via Sploid and Crooks and Liars.]

And here's an interesting recent interview with Samir, the St. Louis auto mechanic who pulled Saddam Hussein from his spider hole.

There are unclassified reports and declassified reports, but in the case of the U.S. military report on the shooting of Italian journalist and Iraqi hostage Giuliana Sgrena and the killing of her protector, Intelligence Agent Nicola Calipar, there's a big oops! Kevin Drum has the details on the report.

• View 1 (pdf)
• View 2 (MS Word)

Update: The AP has noted a CBS report that aired Thursday night(that does not appear to be online) that satellite imagery was used to establish the speed of the Sgrena vehicle.

by TChris

TalkLeft has long been critical of Ahmad Chalabi and his once cozy relationship with the neocons in the Bush administration. Maureen Dowd has a perceptive take on Chalabi's new role in Iraq.

Ahmad Chalabi - convicted embezzler in Jordan, suspected Iranian spy, double-crosser of America, purveyor of phony war-instigating intelligence - is the new acting Iraqi oil minister. Is that why we went to war, to put the oily in charge of the oil, to set the swindler who pretended to be Spartacus atop the ultimate gusher? Does anybody still think the path to war wasn't greased by oil?

Mr. Bush wanted Iraq to have a democracy like ours. It's on its way, nearing an ethics-free zone where a corrupt official can hold sway and a theocracy can curb women's rights.

Pfc. Lynndie England has reached a plea bargain. Reportedly, she will receive no more than 30 months in jail. Had she been convicted on all 17 counts at trial, she could have received 38 years. Her boyfriend and the chief Abu Ghraib prisoner abuser, Charles Graner, got ten years. And here's a bit of news:

Mr. Graner has since married another of the accused, Megan Ambuhl, who pleaded guilty in exchange for dismissal from the military. Mr. Graner has given statements to investigators in the hope of reducing his sentence and is scheduled to testify on behalf of Private England at her sentencing hearing, Captain Crisp said.

The Pentagon today announced the end of the CIA's ghost detainee practice, where it hides imprisoned terror suspects in foreign prisons while it interrogates them.

Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, assured the U.S. Senate that new interim rules on military interrogations eliminate the CIA's practice at Abu Ghraib of hiding detainees and subjecting them to separate interrogation methods that critics say were harsher than those employed by the military.

Does this mean Ghost Air is grounded? Or will it continue to fly the unfriendly skies because the detainees are housed in prisons under the control of a foreign government rather than in a U.S. Military prison? Background on Ghost Air is here.

Can Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed now be transferred to a U.S. prison? If they are no longer to be held in secret, can Moussaoui now depose them for his death penalty trial?

The ACLU has just issued a press release on the one year anniversary of the release of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse photos. Here's a large portion of it (received by e-mail, will update with link when available):

While many Americans would like to believe that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib involved only the horrific acts of a few poorly trained soldiers, the fact is that the torture and abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo was widespread and systematic. The roots of the conduct can clearly be traced to a series of administration policies designed to insulate the treatment of military detainees from public scrutiny, judicial review and ultimately from the rule of law.

Yet a year after the release of the photos, top officials have not been held accountable, while low-level members of the military have been prosecuted and an unwarranted cloak of secrecy continues to shroud the treatment of prisoners.

Human Rights First has issued a report on the aftermath of Abu Ghraib. As we noted here, it is the one year anniversary of the disclosure of the prisoner abuse photos that shocked the world. The report concludes:

• Torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody extend far beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib;
• The civilian and military leaders in charge of detention and interrogation operations a year ago have been promoted rather than punished;
• The key policies that led to such widespread illegality are still in place.

In addition:

Today is the one year anniversary of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Senator Edward Kennedy has released this statement, saying it's time to "reflect on how well we've responded as a nation." Here are his main points, in direct quotes:

• First, we must acknowledge that the rule of law is not a luxury to be abandoned in time of war, or bent or circumvented at the whim and convenience of the White House. It is a fundamental safeguard in our democracy and a continuing source of our country's strength throughout the world.

• Second, we must acknowledge and apply the broad consensus that exists against torture and inhumane treatment.

It is clear beyond a doubt that we cannot trust this Republican Congress or this Republican Administration to conduct the full investigation that should have been conducted long before now. We've had enough whitewashes by the Administration and Congressional Committees.

by TChris

Apologists for the Bush administration who cling desperately to the belief that Saddam Hussein really did have weapons of mass destruction have sometimes argued that the WMD's were spirited away to Syria before the United States invaded Iraq. A new report by the Iraq Survey Group rejects that theory as "unlikely."

The ISG report also said that 12 years of international sanctions against Baghdad after the Persian Gulf War had left Iraq's scientific community decimated and their skills in a state of "natural decay." The group added that it was unlikely that Iraq's scientists were capable of recreating the destroyed weapons programs, meaning Iraq would have possessed little, if anything, to transfer to anywhere.

Charles Duefler, who heads the ISG, says that Iraqi scientists have told the ISG everything they know, and should no longer be detained.