“The reality of war in all its aspects needs to be reported and photographed. That is the patriotic, and necessary, thing to do in a democracy.” – Michael Getler, ombudsman of the Washington Post, May 9, 2004.
BBC WATCH: “His killers shouted “Allah is great” before holding what appeared to be a head up to the camera.” What appeared to be his head? Who do they think Zarqawi is: Penn or Teller?
OUR ALLIES, THE FRENCH: How Le Monde pictures America:
A STEP TOO FAR: You should check out Josh Marshall’s read of the ICRC report. As usual, he goes deeper than many others. He homes in on the critical passage:
“[M]ethods of physical and psychological coercion used by the interrogators appeared to be part of the standard operating procedures by military intelligence personnel to obtain confessions and extract information. Several military intelligence officers confirmed to ICRC that it was part of the military intelligence process to hold a person deprived of his liberty naked in a completely dark and empty cell for a prolonged period [,] to use inhumane and degrading treatment, including physical and psychological coercion, against persons deprived of their liberty to secure their cooperation.”
There is some troubling stuff in this report. Which is why it’s disappointing to read Marshall conclude the following:
The president’s stylized expressions of outrage and disgust are further revealed, I believe, as play-acting, like his feigned outrage over the outing of Valerie Plame by one of his top advisors and his pretended efforts to discover the culprits. More echoes of the search for the ‘real killers’.
Puh-lease. Trying to implicate the president himself in the Abu Ghraib horrors, trying to claim that his “disbelief and disgust” were somehow faked, seems to me to be excessive. To equate him with O.J. Simpson is a symptom of creeping Krugmanism.
The Dish 