Iraq took a lethal step closer to disintegration and civil war yesterday after a devastating attack on one of the country’s holiest sites. The destruction of the golden-domed Shia shrine in Samarra sparked a round of bloody sectarian retaliation in which up to 60 Sunni mosques were attacked and scores of people were killed or injured.

The bomb attack has enraged the majority Shia population, who regard the shrine in the same way that Roman Catholics view St Peter’s in Rome.

In a number of respects civil war in Iraq has already begun. Many of the thousand bodies a month arriving in the morgues in Baghdad are of people killed for sectarian reasons. It is no longer safe for members of the three main communities ­ the Sunni and Shia Arabs and the Kurds ­ to visit each other’s parts of the country.

- The Independent

“January 2003 the President invited three members of the Iraqi opposition to join him to watch the Super Bowl. In the course of the conversation the Iraqis realized that the President was not aware that there was a difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. He looked at them and said, ‘You mean…they’re not, you know, there, there’s this difference. What is it about?’”

- former U.S. dilpomat Peter Galbraith

I’m going to repeat something I said a week or two ago, because the post went up over a weekend and a lot of you probably missed it — please be sure to click through the ads from time to time. It’s probably the easiest thing you can do to support this site, and as I said before, they’re usually pretty self-selecting, so chances are you might find something you’ll be interested in anyway.

I especially want to encourage you to click through the altweeklies.com ad running over in the right hand column. The fortunes of my strip are tied closely to the alternative press, so with one click you (a) support me, (b) support the altweeklies, and (c) demonstrate to the latter your support for the former.

I know a lot of you will ignore this, but my sincere thanks go out to those who don’t ..

From Human Rights First. PDF file here.

This groundbreaking study describes more than 20 detainee deaths in detail, to illustrate both failures in investigation and accountability. One such case involves Manadel al-Jamadi, whose death became public when prison guards were depicted in a photograph from Abu Ghraib giving the thumbs up over his dead body. No U.S. official has been punished for this death.
 
As long as commanders can get away with this unlawful behavior, the problem of torture and abuse will persist. Not only did commanders fail to give troops clear guidance, they inadequately investigated the cases – and they must be held accountable for unlawful acts about which they knew or should have known.

Profiling: “Hey, look at that dark-skinned driver! We’d better pull him over and make sure he didn’t steal that car!”

Not profiling: “Hey, look at that hereditary oligarchy with ties to Osama bin Laden! Perhaps it would be a bad idea for them to control a vulnerable piece of our national infrastructure!”

I hope this helps clear things up. I’m all about bridging the gulf of understanding.

(Hat tip: Atrios.)

…context. Contra Malkin, this isn’t about liberals suddenly recognizing the wisdom of profiling. It’s about conservatives acknowledging blatant corruption and incompetence, for once.

Reading Arianna’s account of her appearance on Hannity and the Other Guy reminded me of a debate I’ve had over the years with a few friends who are occasionally invited to appear on these shows. The argument in favor of doing so is that it’s important to make the noble, if futile, effort to counter the relentless flood of utter bullshit Fox unleashes upon its viewing public each night. And I’m not unsympathetic to that view — attempting to counter relentless floods of bullshit is pretty much what I do for a living, after all. Still — I can’t help but wonder if the Fox evening lineup wouldn’t be irrevocably crippled if everyone of a left/liberal persuasion simply stopped accepting the invitations. No one’s ever going to keep Hannity and O’Reilly from bloviating, of course, but they’ll certainly look a lot sillier doing it in a vacuum. And face it, Arianna: the few masochistic liberals watching these shows already mostly agree with you, and as for the rest of that audience, the ones who don’t understand that “fair and balanced” is meant as ironic Orwellian doublespeak, not literal truth — you’re not going to win them over. You’re just not. So why keep feeding the beast?

Just say no to Fox News.

What White House staffer wrote a memo saying this?

No written communications from the White House to the Departments — all information about the program would be transmitted verbally… documents prepared would not indicate White House involvement in any way.

That was by Fred Malek, during the Nixon administration. His official title was “Special Assistant to the President.”

Malek was writing to H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s Chief of Staff, about Nixon’s “responsiveness program.” This was a scheme to politicize as much of the federal government as possible in support of Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign. As the memo shows, Malek was extremely concerned that the program not be traced back to the White House. Unfortunately for Nixon, it was discovered and investigated as part of Watergate. (More details can be found in a recent Colbert King column.)

So, what’s Malek doing these days?

Well, he’s long been an influential member of the Republican establishment. (His rise was only slightly slowed when it turned out he’d carried out an order by Nixon to tally the number of Jewish staffers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in search of a “Jewish cabal.”)

And as Scooter Libby’s new website shows, Malek is part of the Libby Defense Fund’s “Advisory Committee.”

Which raises a natural question:

Why does Scooter Libby want the support of a political hatchetman from the Nixon administration who not only engaged in extremely unsavory activities, but then was caught trying to cover them up?

Is it because Fred Malek has completely changed since 1972, and Libby’s completely innocent, so they can have long discussions about the importance of ethics in governmental service?

Or…is Libby hoping for advice from Malek on how to avoid the mistakes he made?

In any case, the hubris of the Republican machine is flabbergasting. Again, Malek was Special Assistant to the President…while Libby, in addition to being Cheney’s Chief of Staff, held the title of “Assistant to the President.”

You’d think—just for the sake of PR—they’d want to keep Libby away from predecessors who’d done horrible things for presidents who later had to resign to escape impeachment. But apparently, no.

BONUS FOOTAGE: It takes a special kind of man to write a memo saying “be sure not to write anything down.”