Bush's Senioritis

From the Temko interview:

Temko: "Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq obviously is --"

Bush: "Still looking for them."

Temko: "Still looking for them, exactly. (Laughter.)"

Bush: "That was a huge disappointment."

Who's Responsible?

Bush's chance at avoiding infamy in the history books depends at least in part on whether the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere is seen as the work of a few soldiers -- as he insisted to Boulton -- or as a systemic outgrowth of decisions by White House policymakers.

The evidence for the latter view is being strengthened by a massive McClatchy Newspapers investigation that started rolling out yesterday. Its conclusion: "[T]hat the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad." And that it wasn't an accident.

In Sunday's installment, Tom Lasseter writes about the "dozens of men -- and, according to several officials, perhaps hundreds -- whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments. . . .

"The investigation also found that despite the uncertainty about whom they were holding, U.S. soldiers beat and abused many prisoners.

"Prisoner mistreatment became a regular feature in cellblocks and interrogation rooms at Bagram and Kandahar air bases, the two main way stations in Afghanistan en route to Guantanamo. . . .

"One former administration official said the White House's initial policy and legal decisions 'probably made instances of abuse more likely. . . . My sense is that decisions taken at the top probably sent a signal that the old rules don't apply ... certainly some people read what was coming out of Washington: The gloves are off, this isn't a Geneva world anymore.' . . .

"The McClatchy investigation found that top Bush administration officials knew within months of opening the Guantanamo detention center that many of the prisoners there weren't 'the worst of the worst.' . . .