We're dubious, but we'll report it anyway. The U.S. says Saddam has provided useful information during his interrogation:

American officials have received useful information from direct interrogation of Saddam Hussein, a senior military official said Sunday.
The official would not say what the information was, but he said it allowed interrogators to confirm some suspicions and reject other information.

Speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, the official said both documents and the results of questioning of Saddam have allowed the military to hunt for some people involved in attacks on U.S. troops.

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by TChris

Amid increasing Republican support for an independent investigation of the intelligence upon which the Bush administration based its case for the war in Iraq, Vice President Cheney has reportedly told key lawmakers that the Bush administration is open to "a range of options." President Bush has stated only that he wants to know about the discrepancies between pre-war intelligence about WMD's and the post-war discovery that no WMD's can be found. It is unclear whether the "range of options" that Cheney mentioned would be broader than the inquiry envisioned by Bush. Would the administration support an independent investigation that would ask whether it selectively relied upon questionable intelligence to build a case for war?

Support for an independent investigation of some sort is growing in the president's party.

"A lot of Republicans are ready to get on the independent bandwagon," a senior GOP Senate leadership aide said.

They include John McCain (R-AZ) and former Defense Secretary William Cohen. But the real question is whether any investigation will be limited to "intelligence failures" or will expand to include the administration's use of that intelligence.

Don't miss this--Thanks for the Memories.

Buzzflash scores an interview with George McGovern, now 82, and points out he was right about Vietnam and he's right about Iraq:

"Let me say that one thing that Richard Pearle and Dick Cheney and George W. Bush have in common is that none of them have ever been near a combat scene. They're perfectly willing to send younger people -- other people's sons -- into war. They're very generous with that blood of the young men and women that they throw into combat so casually. But they've protected their blood and their limbs by never serving near a battlefield. That's true of the President. It's true of the Vice President. It's true of Pearle and Wolfowitz -- that whole crowd of neo-conservatives that have the ear of the President."

-- Former Senator George McGovern and 1972 Democratic Candidate for President.

Excellent article by George Hunsinger titled Iraq: The Case for War Crumbles over at Antiwar.com--with an ominous prediction at the end.

Via Cursor we learn that Reporters Without Borders has issued a report accusing the U.S. Army of "criminal negligence" in the April deaths of two journalists. They were killed when an M1 Abrams tank opened fire on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel. The report also charges that U.S. officials initially "lied about what happened." You can read the full report here (pdf).

A Pentagon official says there have been 21 suicides among U.S. troops in Iraq. 18 were in the army and the other three were in the navy and marine corps.

A total of 496 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq since the war began last March, 343 of them in combat and 153 in non-hostile incidents ranging from accidents to suicide, according to the Pentagon.

The 21 suicides represent nearly 14 percent of non-hostile deaths reported by the military, an increase over the proportion of 11 percent as of three months ago when the suicide number totaled 13....nearly 400 troops had been evacuated from Iraq for stress-related problems. The United States has about 123,000 troops in Iraq.

Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs Dr. William Winkenwerder told the media that the military is taking steps to prevent suicides, including establishing a toll free hotline and increasing the availability of military psychiatric specialists in Iraq.

We can't help but remember one soldier who didn't receive help when he complained about being over-stressed--instead he was sent home and charged with a military crime:

Georg-Andreas Pogany is the special forces soldier who was sent home from Iraq and charged with cowardice after asking to speak a counselor when images of a body blown apart kept resurfacing in his mind to the point where he thought he was having a nervous breakdown. The charge has been reduced to derelection of duty.

Read Pogany's recollection of events, as reported in the Denver Post:

We so hope this isn't true. If it is, it's sickening.

Yet, we're hard-pressed to come up with another explanation for the electroshock burns on this man's feet and arms and face. Go look at the pictures for yourselves.

Sadiq Zoman Abrahim, 55 years old, was detained this past August in Kirkuk by US Soldiers during a home raid which produced no weapons. He was taken to the police office in Kirkuk, questioned by the Americans there, then transferred to Kirkuk Airport Detention Center.... It was from this detention center he was transferred to Tikrit Airport Detention Center.

...the family searched the hospital, but was unable to find him. While there, hospital staff (who wish to remain anonymous) informed them they had someone in a coma by the name of Abrahim Sadiq Zoman, who was dropped off two days prior by the Americans. According to staff at the hospital, the only information provided by the Americans was the incorrect name and a medical report which said Mr. Abrahim had suffered a heart attack.

....The doctors at the hospital in Tikrit, after performing diagnostic tests, informed the family that Mr. Abrahim had suffered massive head trauma, electrocution, and other bruises on his arms. An EKG proved that his heart was functioning perfectly. The family was told that he was in an unrecoverable state and would be in a coma for the rest of his life from the obvious trauma suffered.
....Now, today, three months later Mr. Abrahim lies dormant, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, blinking slowly from time to time, yet completely unresponsive to any stimuli.

Among the questions raised:

How do you explain the massive head trauma, the burns on the bottoms of his feet caused by electrocution and bruises on his arms, if he had only suffered a heart attack as the medical report provided by the Americans states?

This is pretty big news. Pentagon lawyers say that Saddam has been a prisoner of war since his capture. Colin Powell sounds like he isn't happy about it. He's just in denial.

Whether or not Saddam is a prisoner of war could be key to how he is treated in captivity and eventually put on trial. The Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war forbid any kind of coercion in POW interrogations, for example.

....The general counsel office in the Pentagon - the Defense Department's top civilian lawyers - has determined that Saddam is a prisoner of war because of his status as former commander in chief of Iraq's military, spokesman Maj. Michael Shavers said Friday. The lawyers determined that no formal declaration of Saddam's status was needed, he said.

More on the differences:

... the Geneva Conventions say POWs can be tried only for crimes against humanity by an international tribunal or the occupying power - which in this case is the United States....POW status also would entitle Saddam to meet with representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross. No such meeting has happened. Some human rights groups have complained that other top former Iraqi officials in U.S. custody haven't been given access to Red Cross representatives.

Here is the full text of the Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949. For an explanation, go here.

The rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war are spelled out in the third Geneva Convention of 1949. The Convention requires that POW’s “must at all times be treated humanely,” and goes on to list a number of specific requirements: they must not be killed, seriously endangered, mutilated or subject to medical or scientific experiments. Furthermore, they must be protected against acts of violence or intimidation, and against “insults and public curiosity” (Article 13).

Via Cursor:

The Carnegie Endowment of International Peace's "WMD In Iraq: Evidence and Implications," concludes that "Iraq was not an imminent threat, that UN inspections were working far better than realized, that our intelligence process failed, that officials misrepresented the threat, and, importantly, that war was not the best-or only-option."

From the BBC (available at lexis.com)--also reported here:

Ousted leader Saddam Husayn has two years left to live as he is suffering from cancer in its advanced stage, the Kuwaiti news agency Kuna reported on 7 January, citing the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anba.

"Doctors confirm that Saddam will die in two years' time," the paper said, quoting "a high-ranking Iraqi source". "During his visit to the country, a high-ranking Iraqi source disclosed to Al-Anba that Saddam Husayn, who is currently being held captive, is suffering from lymphoma, adding that the ailment has reached an advanced stage," the agency said.

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In war news today, U.S. soldiers have been accused of killing an Iraqi couple, orphaning their five children:

US paratroopers fired on a house in this center of anti-American resistance, killing an Iraqi couple, orphaning their five children and enraging neighbors who insisted the pair were innocent.

In other war news, 35 American soldiers were injured in a mortar attack.

Update: 9 U.S. soldiers were killed today in an attack on a Black Hawk medivac helicopter.

Update: Read the letter from the mother of a killed Iraqi to President Bush. She says her son was murdered.