From It Was Top Down, Stupid: The Bush administration's "bad apples" theory goes sour by Phillipe Sands, posted on Slate on Wednesday, June 18, 2008, at 1:19 PM ET:¹

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Unless the United States takes remedial actions, it is likely there will be criminal investigations abroad. Why? Because, as acting CIA General Counsel John Rizzo once told Congress, "a crime is a crime." The same point was made to me by a European judge and a prosecutor who have looked at the materials. There can be no doubt that the aggressive interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani (aka Detainee 063, alleged to be the 20th hijacker) amounted to torture and violated Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (prohibiting cruelty and torture) and the 1984 Convention Against Torture. As a war crime and an act of torture, it can thus be prosecuted anywhere in the world.

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This is not good news for a nation that likes to pride itself on truth, justice, freedom and humanity.

It gets worse, of course:

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This is not just the story of a crime. It is also a cover-up—how the administration spun a false narrative, seeking to blame those on the ground at Guantananmo.

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Remember "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up" from the Nixon years? Read the whole article -- it's quite sobering.

For further information, here are two excellent write-ups about the latest revelations, particularly due to their multiple original source references:

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Clear Evidence of War Crimes: Stern Letters to Come? by Meteor Blades

WaPo: General Accuses WH of War Crimes (Update x2) by abundance

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Another excellent piece, this time showing how an old hand at GOP media manipulation tries to cover the collective exposed bottoms of the Bush Administration and the Republican party, comes from our very own Jeff Huber:

Newt the Impaler

This is an aggressively enhanced Open Thread.

¹ Hat-tip SaintMars.

Crossposted to DailyKos and Docudharma.

What follows is an excerpt reprinted from the piece Danse Macabre 03: The Return of Ja(a)far [Donald Rumsfeld], which was published by ePluribus Media in December 2006.

With all the back-and-forth rumbles about Iraq, Iran, peak oil, the "long war" and such, I thought a reprint of this particular section would be enlightening. It briefly review a paper written by Rudy Jaafar regarding that author's perspective and commentary about the US role in the determination of the social and political future of the Middle East.

I strongly urge people to read the original piece by Rudy Jaafar in its entirety, and request that people add -- in comments -- any additional insights or references that could help educate the public about the regions cultures and history.

Donald Rumsfeld’s short lived Office of Strategic Influence spawned a termites’ nest of truth ministries; the Office of Special Plans, the Information Operations Task Force and the Iran Directorate are just a few of the ones we know about.

The Pentagon’s latest information warfare effort involves a network of foreign language web sites that promote U.S. interests. I doubt whether anyone at the Pentagon seriously thinks foreign language web sites are going to win over any foreign hearts and minds, but foreign language web sites could be neat placea to plant covert propaganda that can migrate into the domestic press without anyone knowing it originated at the Pentagon, huh?

Via Federal News Radio (hat-tip to JRichards for the heads-up):

January 11, 2008 - 6:33am -- By BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press Writer

BALTIMORE (AP) - The revelation that the Army threw out the conviction of the only officer court-martialed in the Abu Ghraib scandal renewed outrage from human rights advocates who complained that not enough military and civilian leaders were held accountable for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Those critics found an unlikely ally in the officer himself, Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, whose conviction on a minor charge of disobeying an order was dismissed this week, leaving him with only an administrative reprimand.

Jordan told The Associated Press on Thursday he believes many officers and enlisted soldiers did not face adequate scrutiny in the investigation that led to convictions against 11 soldiers, none with a rank higher than staff sergeant.

He said the probe was "not complete" and that a link between abusive interrogations at Abu Ghraib and in military prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan was not adequately established.

Under the logic of the Bush League, failure and incompetence gets rewarded -- people fail upward, and spectacularly so, until they have nowhere to go but out -- to roam free among the public.