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molly ivins

German investigators in the case of the innocent man, Khaled Masri, who was “rendered” and tortured by the CIA, are recommending the indictment and arrest of those who kidnapped him.

The situation in Iraq is very bad on the Ashoura holiday.

US ground troops, not just air strikes, were used to save the hapless Iraqi force. In an NPR interview yesterday Bush claimed the battle was proof that the Iraqis were doing well fighting on their own.

“I will tell you, though, that this fight is an indication of what is taking place, and that the Iraqis are beginning to take the lead…

So my first reaction on this report from the battlefield is that the Iraqis are beginning to show me something.”

There is an attempt here to imply this person was a “contractor”; he was not, he’s a Pentagon official.

In job approval. 30 percent, according to Newsweek, which traditionally has a higher number than other polls. This means we’ll soon see polls with his numbers in the 20s.

Who did the United States bomb from 5:30am Sunday until well after sunrise Monday morning in Iraq? Is it “Sunni insurgents?” A Shi’ite group formed by Saddam Hussein? Or an apocalyptic death cult?

But political and security sources said they were followers of Ahmed Hassani al-Yemeni and described him as an apocalyptic cult leader claiming to be the vanguard of the Mahdi — a messiah-like figure in Islam whose coming heralds the start of perfect world justice. He had been operating from an office in Najaf until it was raided and closed down earlier this month.

The sources said captured gunmen declared loyalty to Yemeni.

The official story, so far, is that the gunmen killed were assassins on the way to kill Shia pilgrims in Najaf. But the New York Times story says:

But two senior Shiite clerics said the gunmen were part of a Shiite splinter group that Saddam Hussein helped build in the 1990s to compete with followers of the venerated Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They said the group, calling itself the Mehwadiya, was loyal to Ahmad bin al-Hassan al-Basri, an Iraqi cleric who had a falling out with Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr — father-in-law of the Shiite leader Moktada al-Sadr — in Hawza, a revered Shiite seminary in Najaf.

The clerics spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they had been ordered not to discuss Shiite divisions.

Either way, these people killed do not appear at all to be a force sent to kill Americans.

UPDATE: Juan Cole points out that the US was joining a group that is more pro-Iran, to kill a group that was fiercely anti-Iranian. And Reuters has the rundown for the rest of the country on Sunday. 29 bodies found, 20 more killed in Baghdad by bombings, three American soldiers dead.

AFP report

This is a crime and we all know who is responsible for cutting veterans’ benefits year after year for the last six years. It has to stop.

Dispatches from AP reporters in the crowd.

A retired Marine lieutenant colonel handed out signs to protesters, a symbol of the growing discontent with the war in Iraq among the uniformed ranks.

Chris Case-Grillo, who said he was a proud Marine for four years of active duty and 17 years as a reservist, said political leaders have let the military down.

“In the military, we have special trust and confidence in our leaders because we don’t have a voice. We go where we’re told,” said Case-Grillo, as he passed out signs that read “Iraq Escalation? Wrong Way.”

“War has to be the last resort. It can’t be done gratuitously.”

Case-Grillo, from Orange County, Calif., said he wouldn’t want to lose his stepsons in Iraq. He retired in 2001.

I think this father would agree.