How High is the Iraq Prisoner Abuse Scandal on the Scandal Scale?

[Nametag]

Internationally, Watergate doesn’t even show up next to this. I remember trying to explain it to my Romanian friends:

“Nixon used the FBI and IRS to investigate and harrass his political enemies (perceived and real), paid political “operatives” to break into the opposition campaign headquarters, and lied and threatened and manipulated the office of the Special Prosecutor to cover up it all up.”

“OK; but what was the problem?”

[Cervaise]

@Larry Mudd

Of course, these last few years have been so freaking weird that at this point monkeys flying out of my butt would elicit only mild surprise.

Well, it depends: what kind of monkey?

[Mr.Duality]

@ftg

That’s the administration “spin”. The same people who said Saddam was friends with Osama and had WMDs. I.e., not in the least believable.

Berg himself told his family he had been held by Americans. The Iraqi police that were said to have held him have denied it. Ergo, the chances that he was held by regular Iraqi police is nearly 0%.

The Jordanian Terrorist Mastermind has been widely regarded to have been in US custody for at least a year. He is the Bush-Cheney “October Surprise” guy. (This was all pre-Berg.)

When the US magically decided that this guy was behind it, stomachs churned all over the globe. This is Not Good.

And to repeat: Berg was held by Americans, not Iraqis. Anyone that tells you otherwise is misinformed or lying. Since Bush spinners say this, you know what that means.

You could be right. See this,, which purports to be an account of emails between the Berg family and the U.S. embassy in Iraq.

Kudos to me for digging up the cite. I’m doing your work for you, Bub.