Exploiting a Misconception

The First Lady's Trip

Agence France Presse reports: "US first lady Laura Bush said she would make the case for women to have more say in decision-making when she gives a speech at the World Economic Forum in Jordan this weekend. . . .

" 'The real purpose of the speech is to talk about how women want the same things that men do,' Laura Bush told Fox News television."

Here's a partial transcript and video of the Fox News interview.

Memo Watch

Douglas Jehl writes in the New York Times: "More than two weeks after its publication in London, a previously secret British government memorandum that reported in July 2002 that President Bush had decided to 'remove Saddam, through military action' is still creating a stir among administration critics. They are portraying it as evidence that Mr. Bush was intent on war with Iraq earlier than the White House has acknowledged."

Jehl provides some important historical context, including this: "Two former Bush administration officials, Richard A. Clarke, the former terrorism adviser, and Paul H. O'Neill, the former treasury secretary, have written books saying that Mr. Bush decided to invade Iraq by the summer of 2002. But the British memorandum, which records the minutes of a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair's senior foreign policy advisers, does provide some contemporaneous validation for those accounts, though only through secondhand observations."

Karzai's Visit

Agence France Presse reports: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai heads to the United States in a visit that threatens to be overshadowed by the most violent anti-US protests to rock Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban and new allegations of prisoner abuse by US soldiers. . . .

"And although last week's anti-US protests, which saw hundreds on the streets in cities across Afghanistan, were sparked by a Newsweek report that was later retracted, further allegations Friday threatened to ignite popular anger."

That's a reference to Tim Golden's story in the New York Times today, based on a 2,000-page confidential file of the Army's criminal investigation into the deaths of two Afghan detainees.

"Like a narrative counterpart to the digital images from Abu Ghraib, the Bagram file depicts young, poorly trained soldiers in repeated incidents of abuse. The harsh treatment, which has resulted in criminal charges against seven soldiers, went well beyond the two deaths."

Golden writes that "with President Bush's final determination in February 2002 that the Conventions did not apply to the conflict with Al Qaeda and that Taliban fighters would not be accorded the rights of prisoners of war, the interrogators believed they 'could deviate slightly from the rules,' " said one reservist.

Meanwhile, Jerry Markon writes in The Washington Post: "An American student charged in an al Qaeda plot to kill President Bush was tortured while jailed in Saudi Arabia, according to two doctors who examined Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, his attorney said yesterday in court papers."

Koran Watch

And in the wake of the White House insistence that Newsweek was wrong to suggest that American soldiers defiled the Koran, there are more reports that they did just that.

Carol D. Leonnig writes in The Washington Post: "The International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday that it repeatedly expressed concern to the U.S. government in 2002 and early 2003 about a series of credible detainee allegations that military guards at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba had mishandled and shown disrespect to the Koran. . . .

"The committee said the U.S. government responded with 'corrective measures' in 2003 and the allegations ceased."

Cam Simpson and Mark Silva broke the story in the Chicago Tribune yesterday.

And James Gordon Meek writes in the New York Daily News: "It wasn't tossed in a toilet, but disrespecting an inmate's Koran got at least one American soldier reprimanded at the Guantanamo prison for terrorists, the Daily News has learned."

Meek writes that "two reliable military sources confirmed the previously undisclosed reprimand at the Camp Delta prison -- contradicting Bush administration denials of any 'credible and specific allegations' about Koran desecration at Gitmo."

Supreme Court Watch

Joseph Curl writes in the Washington Times: "Preparations are already well under way within the White House to fill an expected vacancy on the Supreme Court, with at least one conservative legal organization having submitted its recommendations on who should sit on the nation's top court."

Calvin College Rebellion

Detroit News columnist Laura Berman writes: "The president may have been expecting a warmer welcome from Calvin College than he'll get Saturday.

"He's delivering a commencement speech to 900 graduating students."

Kathleen Gray writes in the Detroit Free Press about protest letters appearing in the local paper.

One letter, signed by one third of the faculty members at the Christian college, asserts:

"As Christians we are called to be peacemakers, slow to anger, and unwilling to accept the killing of innocents. We believe your administration has launched an unjust and unjustified war in Iraq. . . .

"As Christians we are called to actions characterized by love, gentleness and concern for the most vulnerable among us. We believe that your administration has fostered intolerance and divisiveness and has often failed to listen to those with whom it disagrees."

Gray writes that "about 100 students are expected to adorn their graduation gowns with armbands and buttons bearing the slogan: 'God is not a Republican or Democrat.' "

But any protests when Bush is there are expected to be respectful. And a lot of members of the Calvin community are delighted he's coming.

Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood writes for the Grand Rapids Press: "The last-minute ticket frenzy is on at Calvin College, with students scrambling for access to Saturday's graduation where President George W. Bush is to deliver the commencement address."