The Independent reports that newly released documents show that Lt General Ricardo Sanchez authorized coercive prisoner practices banned by the Geneva Conventions. It appears that Sanchez may have committed perjury in prior testimony by denying that he authorized the techniques:

Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reveal that Lt General Ricardo Sanchez authorised techniques such as the use of dogs to intimidate prisoners, stress positions and disorientation. In the documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Gen Sanchez admits that some of the techniques would not be tolerated by other countries.

When he appeared last year before a Congressional committee, Gen Sanchez denied authorising such techniques. He has now been accused of perjury.

The ACLU says the authorization for the abuse doesn't stop with Sanchez, it goes up to Rumsfeld:

Insurgents stormed Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq today, leaving 18 American casualties. Casualties includes wounded as well as dead. [Via Atrios.]

Matt Welch, writing at Reason Magazine, says we will never see the remainder of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse photos. The ones that were going to make us all sick to our stomachs:

The images, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress, depict "acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman." After Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) viewed some of them in a classified briefing, he testified that his "stomach gave out." NBC News reported that they show "American soldiers beating one prisoner almost to death, apparently raping a female prisoner, acting inappropriately with a dead body, and taping Iraqi guards raping young boys." Everyone who saw the photographs and videos seemed to shudder openly when contemplating what the reaction would be when they eventually were made public.

What's the excuse? Officials have provided two reasons:

Army Officer Capt. Rogelio Maynulet was convicted at his courts martial trial this week of assault with intent to commit involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a wounded Iraqi teenager. His penalty: dismissal from the army, no jail time. The offense carried a possible penalty of ten years in prison.

American soldiers fired on a car, wounding the driver and a passenger. Captain Maynulet, 30, of Chicago, said he then shot and killed the driver to put him out of his misery.

"He was in a state I didn't think was dignified - I had to put him out of his misery," Captain Maynulet said in his defense, the military's newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, reported.

The teen was 16-year-old Qassim Hassan, who was working with relatives collecting rubbish. The Geneva Convention prohibits shooting wounded persons.

Two soldiers previously were convicted in the shooting death, receiving a one year and three year sentence respectively.

Is this just another exception from the Administration's respect for the culture of life?

by TChris

Another report -- this one by a presidential commission led by Laurence Silberman and Charles Robb -- criticizes the intelligence community for its assessment of Iraq's WMD's prior to the U.S. invasion.

A report made public this morning concludes that American intelligence agencies were "dead wrong" in almost all of their prewar assessments about the state of unconventional weapons in Iraq, and that on issues of this importance "we simply cannot afford failures of this magnitude." It adds, "The harm done to American credibility by our all too public intelligence failures in Iraq will take years to undo."

The failure was in large part the result of analytical shortcomings, the report adds, saying "intelligence analysts were too wedded to their assumptions about Saddam's intentions," referring to the ousted Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein."

While the Bush administration and its apologists point to other countries that arrived at the same conclusions, the report reminds readers that "in the end, it was the United States that put its credibility on the line, making this one of the most public - and most damaging - intelligence failures in recent American history."

Update: Maureen Dowd takes on the administration's claim that the commission "found no evidence that political pressure from the White House or Pentagon contributed to the mistaken intelligence." Her take: "That's hilarious."

by TChris

Demonstrating their ability to behave like children -- just like their counterparts in the United States -- politicians in Iraq, participating in a second meeting of the constitutional assembly, engaged in a "shouting match today and showed the fiery tensions that are rising as the main political parties fail to reach an agreement to form a coalition government."

Prominent politicians also said in interviews that the delay in forming a government could force the assembly to take an extra half-year to write the permanent constitution, pushing the deadline for a first draft well beyond the original target date of Aug. 15. That means the delay could significantly throw off the timetable for the establishment of a full-term democratically elected government.

The television feed from the meeting was discontinued after about 20 minutes, presumably to spare the bickering politicians the embarrassment of public scrutiny. A key point of disagreement: who will get the coveted job of oil minister.

The Army released a report yesterday on prisoner deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not institute charges against 17 of the soldiers involved.

Military investigators recommended courts-martial for the soldiers in the cases of three prisoner deaths for charges ranging from making false statements to murder. Officers rejected those recommendations, ruling that the soldiers lawfully used force or didn't understand the rules for using force, or that there was not enough evidence to prosecute.

Here's how the process works:

Army investigators turn over their recommendations to commanders of the soldiers involved when they finish their investigations. Those commanders can decide whether to bring criminal charges against the accused soldiers.

Newly released Army documents show that U.S. troops systemically tortured Iraqi prisoners in Mosul. The documents were obtained by the ACLU pursuant to its Freedom of Information Act request.

An investigation by a U.S. officer after an Iraqi prisoner's jaw was broken at the base in Mosul found that "detainees were being systematically and intentionally mistreated" in late 2003.

The documents show a variety of torture techniques were inflicted on the prisoners:

U.S. paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman has been denied asylum in Canada.

An immigration board ruled that Jeremy Hinzman had not convinced its members he would face persecution or cruel and unusual punishment if returned to the United States.

Seven other American military personnel have applied for refugee status, and Hinzman's lawyer estimated dozens of others are in hiding in Canada waiting to see how the government ruled.

Background on Hinzman's case is here.

Two years later, we are no safer. Iraq has become a "training ground for killing Americans.":

Two years after U.S. troops invaded Iraq, Americans are no safer from Islamic terrorism, and the war that President Bush bills as "a vital front of the war on terror" has become a major obstacle in the United States' effort to curb international terrorism, experts warn.

Experts say the war has made the terror problem worse and Bush's "anti-terrorism coalition is crumbling." [link via Cursor.]

So much for our concern for the "culture of life."

Think Progress has more in Iraq by the Numbers.

The Guardian has a new report on the abysmal state of U.S. prison policy in Afghanistan:

Washington likes to hold up Afghanistan as an exemplar of how a rogue regime can be replaced by democracy. Meanwhile, human-rights activists and Afghan politicians have accused the US military of placing Afghanistan at the hub of a global system of detention centres where prisoners are held incommunicado and allegedly subjected to torture. The secrecy surrounding them prevents any real independent investigation of the allegations. "The detention system in Afghanistan exists entirely outside international norms, but it is only part of a far larger and more sinister jail network that we are only now beginning to understand," Michael Posner, director of the US legal watchdog Human Rights First, told us.

The Guardian reporters traveled to Afhanistan and report first-hand. They also interviewed many former prisoner and Afghan officials:

Have we just become immune to the injustice of Bush's war on Iraq? In Europe, tens of thousands turned out to protest today on the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. In London alone, 45,000 protested as they marched from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square.

Consider all that the Administration has done in the name of bringing freedom to Iraq:

• Detained hundreds of persons at Guantanamo for over two years without criminal charges or access to lawyers
• Engaged in interrogation techniques the Geneva Convention and civilized world deem to be torture
• Tortured and killed prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Bagram
• Shipped detainees to countries that practice torture and hid them from the Red Cross
• Sustained a loss of life of 1,500 plus American troops and thousands of Iraqi civilians.
• Spent billions of dollars when our economy at home is suffering and social security may topple from the deficit.

Consider that Osama bin Laden is still at large.

How much longer will the American people remain complacent about the unjust war being waged in their name?

Update: Politics in the Zeros has pictures and podcasts from the March 19 protests in L.A.