Iraq Seethes over Abu Ghraib
11 Dead, 30 Wounded in guerrilla Violence

Three major bombings in Baghdad and shootings there and elsewhere killed 11 persons in Iraq on Thursday and left 30 wounded.

Bush is seeking another $68 billion for Iraq (and a little for Afghanistan). This thing is costing each American thousands of dollars. And it is certainly making the US less secure over time.
Bush's terrorism incubator in Iraq has already produced an increase in the sophistication of guerrilla attacks in Afghanistan. Now UPI says that the more canny techniques are even showing up among rebels in southern Thailand! The world will be living with the aftermath of Fallujah and Abu Ghraib for decades.

Iraqis are livid about the new Abu Ghraib photos that have surfaced.

The elected governor of Maysan province [Ar.] has filed a court case against the British soldiers who were depicted in a video beating Iraqi teenagers who had attacked their barracks.

Tom Lasseter reports on the lack of progress the US military has made in fighting the "insurgency" in Samarra, a largely Sunni Arab city north of Baghdad. I think we may conclude that this lack of "progress" derives from most people in Samarra being "insurgents" or the cousins of "insurgents."

After the revelation of new photos of torture from Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi Human Rights minister is demanding that the US turn over control of all prisons in Iraq to Iraqis.

But after the revelations about Shiite death squads inside the Iraqi police, the Americans think it is the Iraqi prison and police system that needs American supervision.

Reuters reports that a new Iraqi government is unlikely to be formed any time soon, since there will be difficult negotiations over key ministries, and since the Americans have inserted themselves into the negotiations.

The NYT reports on the rising political power of nationalist young Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who swung the prime minister position to Ibrahim Jaafari of the Dawa Party. Muqtada has a complex relationship to Iran, resenting Iranian influence in Iraqi Shiite Islam, but pledging to defend Iran from any American attack.