ELECTROCUTION?

Time reports on the deepening mystery of what really happened at Abu Ghraib. We are getting information that electrocution of genitals, rape and murder are also part of the “coercive interrogation techniques” allowed at Saddam’s former torture-palace. All the more reason to find out if these methods were approved by higher-ups, all the way to the secretary of defense. I will be harangued for continuing to write about this. But it is a huge deal if torture has been sanctioned by this administration in secret and on the authority of only the president, against U.S. and international law. We need to know what is in the April 2003 memo entitled “Coercive Interrogation Techniques approved by the Secretary of Defense.” Did Rumsfeld authorize Abu Ghraib? Is he responsible? Is the administration knowingly scape-goating underlings for doing what they were told? The memo should help clear it up, and presumably exonerate Rumsfeld. So why won’t he clear his name? It should be subpoenaed, if necessary.

THE BBC EXPOSED: If you missed Tom Gross’s astonishing evisceration of the BBC’s news operation, go read it now. It’s devastating – and completely true.

BECAUSE THEY CAN: Don’t miss the Dallas Morning News’ reporting on how child-molesting priests have been protected by the Vatican and moved from country to country to avoid arrest and prosecution. It’s sickening, important and vital to keep our focus on.

THE PARTY OF GOD: Republicanism, reinvented as holy war. Or as close as Karl Rove and Ralph Reed can make it. My latest column on how the GOP is abusing faith for political ends, posted opposite.

APPEASEMENT WATCH: The foreign desk editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer went to Lebanon and Syria and discovered that the people there want to be friends with us – just not with our government. Stefan Sharkansky sticks the boot in.