New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of [former US defense secretary Donald] Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."
The most important thing to remember as the anchors invoke the exit polls as holy writ is that there are no surveys whatsoever for individual House races. That's zilch, zero, zed. In short, we will not have on Election Night any reliable gauge to tell us for certain why voters made their decisions in contested House races. All the networks will be able to provide is a national survey that makes no distinction between the 375 districts where the outcome of the House race was preordained and the roughly 60 hard-fought contests. Needless to say, this limitation in the data will not prevent anyone from making sweeping generalizations about the meaning of the 2006 elections. But it might prevent you from believing them.
Often lost in the wrangling over exit polls is what crude instruments they actually are. When it comes to divining the hidden motivations of voters, exit polls are about as reliable as the shotgun that Porky Pig uses to go hunting. The list of questions has to be brief because most voters will not stand around on a chilly November day, with an illegally parked car or a squalling 2-year-old, answering a five-page questionnaire. Instead, this year the exit polls will be asking blunder-buss questions like, "How important was same-sex marriage for your vote for the House?" or "How important was the war in Iraq for your vote for the House?" Useful data -- especially since the only people polled are actual voters -- but far from the last word on the 2006 elections.
Analysts said they were also startled by the timing of the verdict, which came just days before a critical U.S. mid-term election that has turned into a de facto referendum on the Iraq War.
"Surely the Iraqi government must have understood the potential for this case to influence the domestic U.S. political situation and slightly improve the GOP's fading hopes of retaining a monopoly grip on power, thus avoiding any embarrassing and/or legally dangerous oversight hearings on the conduct of the war," said one analyst, who asked that his name be kept secret in order to conceal his identity. "And yet they went ahead and did it anyway. What were the odds of that?"
Still other analysts noted that the court made several controversial decisions -- such as barring a number of defense witness from taking the stand -- that seemed designed to hasten the trial's conclusion.
"If I didn't know better, I'd almost say the judges were trying to meet some sort of arbitrary deadline," said one Iraqi lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous in order to stay alive. "But that's simply not possible. Iraq, after all, is a country of laws, not men."
Likewise, historians and legal experts alike said they were mystified by the court's determination to prevent Saddam and the other Baath Party defendents from testifying or introducing evidence about the support they received from the U.S. government during Iran-Iraq War.
Bruce Jacobson, a software engineer from Ardmore, Pa., received three prerecorded messages in four hours. Each began, "Hello, I'm calling with information about Lois Murphy," the Democrat running against two-term incumbent Rep. Jim Gerlach in the Philadelphia-area district.
"Basically, they go on to slam Lois," said Jacobson, who has filed a complaint with the FCC because the source of the call isn't immediately known.
FCC rules say all prerecorded messages must "at the beginning of the message, state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call." During or after the message, they must give the telephone number of the caller.
"The way they're sent is deceptive. The number of calls is harassing. The way her stances are presented in these stories is deliberately misleading and deceptive," said Karlyn Messinger, another Murphy supporter from Penn Valley, Pa., who filed a complaint with the FCC.
NRCC spokesman Ed Patru denied any illegal intent.
"All of our political calls are in compliance with the law," Patru said.
Not so, said the Democrats.
"They are violating the regulations that were set up," said Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who said the DCCC employed one robocall this cycle and paid $500 for it.
"I think the real point here is that the Republicans are using a desperate campaign tactic that is misleading, at worst violating the law and at best is a page out of Karl Rove's playbook," Psaki said. "They clearly are attempting to mislead voters."