U.S. Probing Alleged Abuse of Afghans

American military investigators have opened a criminal probe into allegations of murder and torture involving an 18-year-old Afghan army recruit who died while in U.S. custody last year. The new inquiry, which will also focus on the alleged torture of seven other Afghan soldiers, was confirmed Monday by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.

The previously undisclosed death occurred in March 2003 after the eight soldiers were arrested at a remote firebase operated here by the U.S. Army Special Forces, according to witnesses and an Afghan military investigation.

...snip..snip...

In the end, none of the eight men was charged with a crime or linked to anti-government conduct.
The dead soldier, identified as Jamal Naseer, a member of the Afghan Army III Corps, was severely beaten over a span of at least two weeks, according to a report prepared for the Afghan attorney general. A witness described his battered corpse as being "green and black" with bruises.

Alleged American mistreatment of the detainees included repeated beatings, immersion in cold water, electric shocks, being hung upside down and toenails being torn off, according to Afghan investigators and an internal memorandum prepared by a United Nations delegation that interviewed the surviving soldiers.

Ignorance Is Bliss
Poll Question:
"Do you think Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was DIRECTLY involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, or not?"

Was - 42%
Was Not - 44%
Unsure - 14%

Poll was taken on Sept 2nd-4th.

More Bushisms

Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many O-B-G-Y-N's aren't able to practice their, their love with women all across this country.

Enough said. Vote him out!

UPDATE: Atrios has the video clip.

Republicans National Convention: The Lies, The Dishonor

• Fred Kaplan disects Zell "Zig Zag" Miller's and Dick "Haliburton" Cheney's lies
• Republican insulted each and every service person with their purple heart antics. Here and here.
• Here is just one of Bush's lies...

  In Saddam Hussein, we saw a threat. Members of both political parties, including my opponent and his running mate, saw the threat, and voted to authorize the use of force. We went to the United Nations Security Council, which passed a unanimous resolution demanding the dictator disarm, or face serious consequences. Leaders in the Middle East urged him to comply. After more than a decade of diplomacy, we gave Saddam Hussein another chance, a final chance, to meet his responsibilities to the civilized world. He again refused, and I faced the kind of decision that comes only to the Oval Office-a decision no president would ask for, but must be prepared to make. Do I forget the lessons of September 11th and take the word of a madman, or do I take action to defend our country? Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time.

  This is crap. We all know that Saddam was co-operating with weapons inspectors right upto a few days before the war. How does the media let him get away with it?
• Throughout the convention, everyone tried to connect Iraq with the 9-11 terrorist attacks inspite of the fact that the 9-11 commision has said there was no connection between Saddam Husein and Al-Qaeda.
• Bush, in his speech, mentioned allies in Iraq. Here is a little more information about the coalition of the willing.

  Again, my opponent takes a different approach. In the midst of war, he has called America's allies, quote, a "coalition of the coerced and the bribed." That would be nations like Great Britain (8300, 6.23%), Poland (2350, 1.76%), Italy (2800, 2.1%), Japan (500, 0.38%), the Netherlands (1300, 0.98%), Denmark (400, 0.3%), El Salvador (0), Australia (850, 0.64%), and others-allies that deserve the respect of all Americans, not the scorn of a politician.

  There are 112,000 US troops in Iraq, about 85%.
• Was it just me or did the cameras at the convention keeping zooming in on minorities and veterans? But they definitely stayed away from Mary Cheney. She is a lesbian you see.
• Washington Post has more on the distortions about Kerry.

Mark Fiore's Latest: Republican Games

The Daily Show
Daily Show has a clip of Bush's handling of the "War on Terror[ism]"
Check it out...

via Atrios

Stop Lying You Jerk

Comedian George Lopez, star of the ABC sitcom The George Lopez Show, was host of the fifth annual awards ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium. CBS bleeped one of his jokes when Lopez said he understood that President Bush speaks some Spanish. He then spoke in Spanish a phrase that, politely translated, means: "Don't lie to me." In English, he joked that it meant: "Good luck in your future endeavors."

According to NPR (about 2:40 into the audio clip), it means "Stop lying you jerk" in polite terms.

Detroit Terror Cell Hoax
Justice wants terror conviction tossed

In a dramatic reversal, the Justice Department acknowledges its original prosecution of a suspected terror cell in Detroit was filled with a "pattern of mistakes and oversights" that warrant the dismissal of the convictions.

In a 60-page memo that harshly criticizes its own prosecutors' work, the department told U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen on Tuesday night it supports the Detroit defendants' request for a new trial and would no longer pursue terrorism charges against them. The defendants at most would only face fraud charges at a new trial.

The Justice Department is "concurring in the defendants' motions for a new trial" and asks the court to dismiss the first count of the original indictment charging the defendants with material support of terrorism, the government's filing said.