The New York Times reports today on new allegations of torture in Iraq, perpetrated this time not by Americans but by some of those we helped bring to power.
Iraq's government said Tuesday that it had ordered an urgent investigation of allegations that many of the 173 detainees American troops discovered over the weekend in the basement of an Interior Ministry building in a Baghdad suburb had been tortured by their Iraqi captors. A senior Iraqi official who visited the detainees said two appeared paralyzed and others had some of the skin peeled off their bodies by their abusers.
U.S. officials issued a disingenuous response:
A joint statement by the American Embassy and the United States military ommand called the situation "totally unacceptable" and said American officials "agree with Iraq's leaders that mistreatment of detainees will not be tolerated."
The American statement apparently omitted the words "by anyone other than us."