From recent days

* The Red Cross's report of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, which suggests that up to 90% of the detainees were arrested "by mistake," has been leaked to the public. You can download it, along with other important documents related to the scandal, via antiwar.com.

* Seymour Hersh has another article in the New Yorker on how the DoD mishandled the disaster at Abu Ghraib, which includes new photos of abuse. Doug Valentine also reprises Hersh's role in getting the US to "unleash its dogs of war."

* The Washington Post ran a three-part series on "The Road to Abu Ghraib" over the weekend worth reading: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

* The Independent and Salon detail how two detainees -- a 16 year old boy and an Al Jazeera cameraman -- were subjected to "mock executions."

* As always, Tom Engelhardt has a nice summary of where the Iraq torture scandal sits right now.

* The Military Times wants Rummy to resign.

* The Scotsman reminds us that, usually, the US doesn't torture detainees. Outsourcing the dirty work is far more common.

* Wayne Madsen wonders if Israel has been helping out with "interrogations" in Iraq. The military and intelligence apparatus of Israel has plenty of experience with torture, after all.

* Amidst the torture scandal, Max Sawicky says we should support the troops, not the Pentagon brass. David Rieff, however, thinks we should start taking a critical look at everyone, lest the atrocities that have been committed elsewhere in Iraq flow down the memory hole, aided by an uncritical media.

* Jim Lobe opines that the revelations of torture in Iraq strike a deep wound in the American psyche because they call into question the national metanarrative of exceptionalism, righteousness, and benevolence.

* Danny Schechter asks, "where is the investigation of mainstream media's failure to report on the torture of Iraqis when it became known months before?"

* Mina Hamilton observes that while the abuse at Abu Ghraib is getting a lot of press, the atrocities in Fallujah are "barely noticed by the Western world."

* "Now that U.S. abuses and atrocities against Iraqi prisoners -- up to and including murder -- have captured world headlines," notes Adam Jones, "there is no excuse for not investigating alleged crimes that, although they are receding into history, may have been incomparably worse." Jones is speaking, primarily, of the Afghan massacre at Dasht-e Leili.

* The Washington Post reports of "deep divisions...emerging at the top of the U.S. military over the course of the occupation of Iraq."

* James Sterngold of the SF Chronicle reports that the Iraq war bill continues to swell. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that the increased military spending is raising difficult questions and pumping up parts of the economy.

* British troops are coming under scrutiny for the killing of 37 civilians. We might ask, what about the other ~10,000?

* Robert Higgs observes, "Saddam Hussein now languishes in U.S. custody; his government has been overthrown; no weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq, and therefore 'disarming' the Iraqis of such weapons proved unnecessary. In short, the declared U.S. mission has long since been accomplished fully. Why then does the U.S. government persist in slaughtering the Iraqi people?" In a similarly-themed article, Ray McGovern says, declare victory and get out already.

* Norm Dixon reviews how the Bushies exploited 9/11 to push through their Iraq agenda.

* Conceding that the "war on terror" is being lost, Michael Meacher writes in the Guardian that the "al-Qaida threat will never be resolved until the US adopts a more balanced Middle East policy and is prepared to put the necessary pressure on Israel to secure a viable Palestinian state. And rather than pursue a self-defeating policy of enforced regime change against suspect countries, it would be much better to identify countries where conditions are likely to encourage the proliferation of terrorism, and to try to pre-empt this by well-structured international economic aid programmes."

* Ken Dilanian of Knight Ridder reports that a "series of recent developments in the war on terrorism, barely noticed in the United States, suggests that global Islamic extremism is spreading."

* Fareed Zakaria: "Whether he wins or loses in November, George W. Bush's legacy is now clear: the creation of a poisonous atmosphere of anti-Americanism around the globe."

* The events in Iraq are overshadowing what's going on in the Sudan. Some backgrounders on the Darfur conflict are available here.

* More than 1,100 Gazans have been left homeless due to IDF incursions and house demolitions over the past 10 days, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

* Gabriel Ash explains why he won't vote for John Kerry, restating the argument put forth by Gabriel Kolko months ago.

* The investigation into the death of Emmett Till, the black teenager who was murdered in 1955 during the early stages of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, has been reopened by the Justice Department. Professor Kim has more on this.