"Gunner Palace," the movie about the troops in Iraq, opens in theatres tomorrow. It sounds like a hit. Background is here and here.

You can view exclusive clips here and here. The trailer is here.

The death toll for U.S. soldiers in Iraq has reached 1,500.

Freeway Blogger should be on the move soon. Background here.

Human Rights First and the ACLU have filed suit in federal court against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over U.S. torture policies.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Illinois on behalf of eight men who were subject to torture and abuse at the hands of U.S. forces under Secretary Rumsfeld's command. The groups charged Secretary Rumsfeld with violations of the U.S. Constitution and international law prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

The complaint is here. More about the suit is available here.

This is an astonishing figure. The AP reports that more than 500,000 veterans will be homeless this year. That's 1/3 of all homeless men in America.

The VA says about half the nation's homeless veterans have some form of mental illness, and nearly 70 percent struggle with alcohol and drugs.

The VA's statement on homeless vets is here. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans is here and reports this is a crisis in the making.

The Freeway Blogger is preparing to launch another campaign...this time he will commemorate the 1,500th soldier killed in Iraq by posting 150 signs on San Francisco area freeways--including those in Marin, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose.

You can view examples of the signs here. Go ahead, join in, start a movement.

College student Alex Koppelman, writing for the Daily Pennsylvanian does some digging and reports:

In November of 2003, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan explained the administration's decision to fight against monetary compensation for these soldiers, tortured while serving the United States, saying, "These resources are required for the urgent national security needs of rebuilding Iraq."

But, I have learned over the course of the past week, billions more dollars might be available had the Bush administration not decided to essentially legalize fraud during the rebuilding of Iraq. Through executive orders signed by President Bush, as well as orders released by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led former government of Iraq and decisions by the Department of Justice, it has become all but impossible for contractors who did not fulfill their contracts or even committed outright fraud during the rebuilding of Iraq to be held accountable. This story has yet to be fully reported by any other news outlet.

Great job, Alex.

Sabrina Harman standing over the corpse of detainee Manadel al-Jamadi. She is not one of the navy commandos charged with abusing him. Her court-martials trial on other charges is pending.

Let's not get so myopic over Jeff Gannon that we lose sight of the forest....The Associated Press has obtained documents showing that a ghost detainee (one whom the U.S. hid from the Red Cross and didn't put on it lists) died after being hung from the wrists - after interrogation by the CIA. They call it a "Palestinean hanging."

Noah at Defense Tech writes:

You'd think that, two years into a war, a secondary, "supplemental" budget for the Pentagon would be for handling last-minute military contingencies. Responding to battlefield emergencies. Coping with unforeseen turns of events.

But you'd be wrong, unfortunately. Because major chunks of the
Pentagon's $82 billion supplemental defense bill are only distantly
related to the fights going on in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Noah also writes about the now admittedly-false claim by the Adminstration that there are plenty of Iraqi troops available to aid in the fight against the insurgents.

The Senate will hear testimony Monday from a former Coalition Provisional Authority official, Frank Willis, who will say the cash flowed large and loose during the war.

In sum: inexperienced officials, fear of decision-making, lack of communications, minimal security, no banks, and lots of money to spread around. This chaos I have referred to as a 'Wild West,'" Willis said in testimony he prepared to give Monday before a panel of Democratic senators who want to spotlight the waste of U.S. funds in Iraq.

The Sunday Observer reports that Abu Musal al-Zarqawi, the most hunted terrorist in Iraq, may be captured at any moment. The paper says he is in hiding in Kirkuk in Northern Iraq.

He came to Kirkuk from Mosul,' a source in the Kirkuk police department told Reuters yesterday, speaking anonymously. 'There's a possibility that he might be captured at any moment.'

What then? What difference will his capture make? Apparently not much, in terms of the war.

The results are in from Iraq's Jan. 30 election: The United Arab Alliance, backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, got the most votes with 47.6%, but fell short of a majority.

A coalition of largely Shiite parties tacitly backed by the country's most influential religious leader won the largest number of votes in election results released Sunday, but fell short of the majority that many of its leaders had expected.

The U.S. had backed a secular Shiite party led by Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. It received 13.6 of the vote. As predicted, the Sunnis were the big loser, with the two major Sunni candidates getting less than 2 and 0.1%, respectively.

Rumsfeld catches a break in the war-crimes lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of those abused at Abu Ghraib. It had named Rumsfeld as a defendant and sought to have the German prosecutor file criminal charges against him. Focus English News reports: