From the BBC

Iraq engulfed by tide of violence
By John Simpson
World affairs editor, BBC News

Manfred Nowak, the UN's chief anti-torture expert, captured the headlines round the world when he suggested that torture could be [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5371394.stm|worse in Iraq now than it was under Saddam Hussein].Torture is indeed at appalling levels in Iraq. Everyone, it seems, from the Iraqi forces to the militias to the anti-US insurgents, now routinely use torture on the people they kill.
Each day, bodies are found with appalling injuries, particularly in Baghdad.
At the Baghdad mortuary, I was told that more bodies now showed signs of torture than of a clean death.
But new figures show that the picture is worse in other ways.
The number of violent deaths for July and August reached a total of 6,600 - 13% higher than the figure for the previous two-month figure.
.......

Last year, President George W Bush said he would accept nothing less than complete victory in Iraq. For many months, as the situation there deteriorated even further, he went quiet about his promise.
But earlier this month, before the fifth anniversary of the attack on the twin towers, he repeated it.
That presumably had more to do with American politics than with the situation in Iraq.
But the latest crop of figures indicate that complete victory for the US, whatever that might mean, is now out of the question.
read more at the BBC

Seems like just about everyone wants to clamber onto the bus now Gus except, of course, our great war criminal 'besider' & his rodent band .....

‘The current situation in Iraq is "dire" according to former foreign secretary Jack Straw.

In frank comments, Mr Straw - now the Leader of the Commons - blamed "mistakes" made by the US administration in the aftermath of the invasion for the current problems.

His comments carry particular significance, as he was the member of the Government, after Tony Blair, most closely associated with the decision to go to war.’

Iraq Situation Dire, Says Straw

‘On Monday, a State Department spokesman conceded that then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice had indeed been briefed in July 2001 by George Tenet, then-director of the CIA, about the alarming potential for an Al Qaeda attack, as Bob Woodward has reported in his aptly named new book, "State of Denial."

"I don't remember a so-called emergency meeting," Rice had said only hours earlier, apparently still suffering from some sort of post-9/11 amnesia that seemed to afflict her during her forced testimony to the 9/11 Commission. The omission of this meeting from the final commission report is another example of how the Bush administration undermined the bipartisan investigation that the president had tried to prevent. Surely lying under oath in what was arguably the most important official investigation in the nation's history should be treated more seriously than the evasiveness in the Paula Jones case that got President Bill Clinton impeached. Nor is it just Rice who should be challenged, for Tenet seems to have provided Woodward with details concerning the administration's indifference to the terrorist threat that he did not share with the 9/11 Commission.’

Rice More Sordid Than Foley

‘In an interview with the New York Times Monday, former Attorney General John Ashcroft said he was never briefed in early July 2001 by then-CIA Director George Tenet about a purported terrorist threat against the United States by al-Qaeda the spy agency had received.

"Frankly, I'm disappointed that I didn't get that kind of briefing," Ashcroft told the Times. "I'm surprised he didn't think it was important enough to come by and tell me."

But Ashcroft was not being forthcoming. He was in fact warned about the possibility of a terrorist attack two months before 9/11 and told by his top officials in July 2001 to avoid traveling aboard commercial airliners because the FBI had received a credible "threat assessment" against the United States.

Moreover, on Tuesday, the State Department confirmed that in addition to Rice, Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had also been briefed by Tenet about al-Qaeda's efforts to attack the US within a week of the July 10, 2001, meeting between Tenet and Rice.’

Ashcroft Warned Pre-9/11