Bump and Update: The ACLU criticizes the clearing of the officers.

These findings only show that the President must appoint a special counsel -- who is not beholden by rank or party and who is able to look up the military chain of command. We need to make accountable those who are putting our own soldiers at risk of torture and who tarred America’s image in the world community," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. "The Army has released thousands of pages of internal documents -- after months of stonewalling -- that clearly show that the command breakdown that led to these abuses was more than the work of one scapegoated officer. As we continue to receive more information, the government cannot ignore the systematic nature of the torture that implicates the military chain of command to the very top."

Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) has released a document showing the Administration knew of the lack of ties between Iraq and al Qaida before going to war.

A TOP Democratic senator has released formerly classified documents that he says undercut top US officials' pre-Iraq war claims of a link between Saddam Hussein's regime and the al-Qaeda terrorist network. "These documents are additional compelling evidence that the intelligence community did not believe there was a cooperative relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda, despite public comments by the highest ranking officials in our government to the contrary," Senator Carl Levin said today.

The declassified documents undermine the Bush administration's claims regarding Iraq's involvement in training al-Qaeda operatives and the likelihood of a meeting between September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in April 2001, Senator Levin said in a statement

[link via Buzzflash.]

A federal grand jury has returned Indictments in the UN Oil for Food Program scandal.

A Texas businessman, as well as a British and a Bulgarian citizen, have been indicted in New York for reportedly paying millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq as part of the United Nations oil-for-food program.

The company indicted is Bayoil. Austin Bay has been live-blogging the Indictments. The Counter-Terrorism blog has links to the Indictments:

In a new interview with CBS News, Italian journalist and former Iraq hostage Giuliana Sgrena says the U.S. lied about the circumstances of her car being fired upon by U.S. soldiers.

The interview will air on 60 Minutes II Wednesday night. CBS background is here.

I bet the U.S. didn't expect this when it planned the Iraq elections:

Iraq's new president, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani said that he opposed the idea of oused dictator Saddam Hussein being sentenced to death... "I am among the lawyers who signed an international petition against the death penalty in the world and it would be a problem for me if Iraqi courts issued death sentences," he told the Asharq Al Awsat newspaper.

Right after the war began, there was an incident at Camp Pennsylvania in Northern Kuwait in which someone threw a grenade into a tent occupied by U.S. soldiers. A fellow soldier, Sgt. Hasan Akbar, was accused and his court-martial begins today.

Sgt. Hasan Akbar's court-martial marks the first time since the Vietnam War that a soldier has been prosecuted for the murder of another soldier during wartime. Proceedings were to begin Monday, and the trial was expected to last four weeks.

Sgt. Akbar will raise a mental impairment defense.

Today is the second anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Here are pictures of the tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets, demanding the U.S. leave the country.

Chanting "No! No to terrorism!" and "No! No to America," thousands of supporters of a radical Shiite cleric who once led uprisings against U.S. troops called Saturday for American forces to withdraw from Iraq, staging a massive protest at the same square where - two years ago to the day - protesters pulled down a towering statue of ousted Saddam Hussein.

More on the protests here.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to invalidate the military's "stop loss" policy." As a result, National Guard members who served their eight years will be forced to go back to Iraq.

The courts have generally upheld the so-called "stop loss" law that authorizes President Bush to suspend service agreements of many armed forces personnel for national security reasons. Thousands of soldiers have been redeployed under stop loss orders.

In court briefs, the government told the appeals court Thursday that "soldiers are essential to the national security, and their service in the face of hardship is a crucial source of the strength of our nation."

One of the guards, Emiliano Santiago, says he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Some background on the case is here, and here.

Why are right-wing bloggers smearing AP photojournalists who won Pulitzer Prizes for their work in Iraq?

The photo staff of The Associated Press, including five Iraqi photographers and six foreigners, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for breaking-news photography for its yearlong coverage of the combat in Iraq. Deanne Fitzmaurice, a 16-year veteran of the San Francisco Chronicle, won the Pulitzer for feature photography for her photo essay on an Oakland hospital's effort to treat a 9-year-old Iraqi boy severely maimed in an explosion.

AP director of photography Santiago Lyon singled out the Iraqi stringers for praise, saying they responded with bravery to a dangerous assignment.

The Red Cross is demanding an investigation into last week's prison riot at Camp Bucca in Southern Iraq.

The US military announced early today that 12 Iraqi prisoners and four US prison guards were wounded when inmates rioted at Camp Bucca last week, torching tents and hurling rocks in Iraq's largest US-run detention centre. The riot at the desert camp in southern Iraq, where more than 6000 prisoners are held, was first reported by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's movement, and was confirmed by the ICRC.

The U.S. first claimed to have no knowledge of the riot, until the Red Cross released details. Then the U.S. provided this version of events:

There's been a second attack by suicide bombers at Abu Ghraib prison. Reportedly, four civilians were injured.

In related news, taking reality tv to new heights or lows, depending on your viewpoint, an Iraqi television station is broadcasting confessions of alleged terrorists obtained during interrogations.

The Iraqi branch of al Qaeda has taken credit for yesterday's attack on Abu Ghraib prison in which 44 U.S. soldiers and a dozen Iraqi prisoners were injured.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq said on Sunday seven suicide bombers spearheaded its brazen overnight raid on Abu Ghraib prison that wounded 44 US soldiers, according to an Internet statement.

The web statement claims dozens of American lives were taken.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group said its fighters killed "dozens of Americans," destroyed more than 15 vehicles and shot down an Apache helicopter. It said 57 fighters attacked watchtowers from four sides and "silenced them" as seven suicide bombers detonated vehicles laden with explosives around the facility.