The latest from Iraq:
Talk of a secret detention center at the Interior Ministry compound had surfaced in Baghdad this summer. Officials of the ministry, whose ranks are made up mainly of former members of Shiite militias, have repeatedly acknowledged some human rights abuses by their forces but never confirmed the rumors of a secret torture center run with the help of intelligence agents from neighboring Iran.
The first official acknowledgment of the allegations came Monday, when Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, the Interior Ministry’s undersecretary for security, said an investigation would be opened into unspecified reports that ministry officers tortured suspects detained in connection with the country’s insurgency.
We rightfully must speak out against this nonsense, because turning Iraq from a tyrannical pro-torture government into a democratic pro-torture government isn’t much of a win. But President Bush should, even though he never will, understand that our moral ground is now quicksand on this. Well done.