Maj. David W. DiNenna is one of the MPs accused of abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. He was given two General Officer Memorandums of Reprimand, which is far less than Spc. Jeremy Sivits (one year in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge), PFC Andrew J. Sting (one year in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge), PFC Jeremiah J. Trefney (eight months in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge).

Several others are awaiting their court martial (Sgt. Javal S. Davis – Abu Ghraib

PFC Lynndie R. England – Abu Ghraib, Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick II – Abu Ghraib, Spc. Charles Graner Jr. – Abu Ghraib, SPC Sabrina Harman – Abu Ghraib, Maj. Clark A. Paulus – Camp Whitehorse, Sgt. Gary P. Pittman – Camp Whitehorse).

US News & World Report today posted some of the some of the annexes that are included in the Taguba report, for it was prepared by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.

DiNenna, the S-3 operations officer for the 320th Military Police Battalion at Abu Ghraib during the summer and fall of 2003, wrote several chilling emails that are now seeing the light of day.

Here is is the PDF, and here are some excerpts:

November 2, 2003

Have you ever experienced about 80 prisoners standing in line at 2130hrs at night, cold, and being told that the vendors do not have any more food? Well this is becoming an nightly routine, and because I was there I can tell you it is a very unpleasant experience. Why is it so difficult to bring enough food? That is what the MP (soldiers) are asking every meal due to the fact that they, not you, or me, have to deal with it every day. So I guess my question is who in the hell can fix this so that we can at least give the soldier the basic necessary tools to guard prisoners without them having to worry about a riot, fight, or other related problems in the compounds during meal times.

November 5, 2003

At the 1600 meal for the prisoners, the caterers were short well over 100 meals. SFC Bedene, S-4, gave the caterers the morning count of 3950 meals even though there were roughly 3700 prionsers on ground. Still the caterers came up short over 100 meals. This is happening on a daily basis.

November 7, 2003

As you know we had a very serious riot last night[…] this is an unstable situation[…] I have been to many prisoner riots since March and I can tell you that last night was one that could have turned real bad real quick[…] We must reduce the population real quick […] Please forward this to whoever can expidite the process

As you can see from the below SIR, the issues are that there are many Security Detainees that have been held for long periods of time and 1)NOT interrogated yet, or 2) have been questioned months ago and are still being held.

from a different email sent a half hour later…

The situation here is now critical. Last night we had a significant riot[…] we need the dogs. We have the housing for the dogs and handlers (the engineers are building kennels).

many more acounts here, a fascinating and terrifying look at iraq’s most infamous prison as the shit was going down. via Metafilter who, in their discussions this evening, have sorta missed the point of the testimony.

randomfrost + splink‘s trip to afghanistan has been squelched + sk smith

Chops ‘Fuck’ from PBS Show

PBS is usually a little slower to the trendy behavoir of commericial television, but the new Richard Dreyfuss cop drama is jumping on the (self-)censorship bandwagon, and the grey-haired star isnt happy to be caught in the jaws of conservativism.

“The new FCC regulations represent an unacceptable assault on our First Amendment rights, on everyone’s First Amendment rights, an act unworthy of a free country, an act of censorship,” Black told the critics. To underscore the irony of the required bleeping, Black added: “As for the word ‘f—,’ I stand with Vice President (Dick) Cheney, who recently used the word on the Senate floor and who said sometimes you have to use it unapologetically because it makes you feel better afterwards.”

Dreyfuss, speaking via satellite from New York, where he is starring in “Sly Fox” on Broadway even as he battles pneumonia, called the required deletion of the words “a real-world moral and ethical battle with grimly wrongheaded un-American types who play pick and choose when they define our freedoms of speech and religion as it fits their particular political needs.”

He added: “Officeholders should remember that we are not children and shouldn’t be patronized or protected from ourselves.”

– via Jeff Jarvis’ Buzzmachine

Who knew they said fuck on pbs in the first place?

the bulls won

the day the bulls called bullshit + two years ago with the bulls + raymi’s back

FCC Boss Launches Blog Aimed at High-Tech Industry

By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell has started his own Web log, or blog, to reach out to the high-tech community and bypass the scores of Washington lobbyists who typically skulk around his office.

Powell, who wants to avoid regulating new technologies like Web-based telephone service for fear of stifling innovation, said he started the blog to encourage the high-tech industry to get involved because its past practice of flying under the radar to avoid regulations would no longer work.

“Regulated interests have about an 80-year head start on the entrepreneurial tech community when it comes to informing regulators what they want and need, but if anyone can make up for that, Silicon Valley can,” he said in his first blog comments posted Thursday morning.

“I am looking forward to an open, transparent and meritocracy-based communication — attributes that bloggers are famous for!” Powell said, adding he wanted to get out of “the Beltway Washington world where lobbyists filter the techies.”

He specifically asked bloggers to send in their thoughts on the coming transition to digital television and possibly using airwave frequencies between television stations for new wireless services.

But, in typical blogger fashion, replies covered subjects well beyond his inquiry, including the FCC’s recent crackdown on indecent antics on radio and television.

“Simple question for you: Why is Howard Stern’s discussion of anal/oral sex fineable, and Oprah’s isn’t?” asked one Tony Pierce.

The FCC recently proposed fining stations that carried Stern’s show that included an explicit discussion of sex. The agency is also looking into talk show host Oprah Winfrey’s discussion about sex during her TV program earlier this year.

Regulations limit airing such talks to late-night hours.

Others did stick to the subject, questioning Powell about getting telephone companies to turn on unused fiber optic cable in order to cut prices for high-speed Internet. Some chastised the FCC chief for reaching out only to Silicon Valley.

Andrew Schwartzman, a public interest lawyer who has crossed swords and won a court battle initially halting Powell’s attempts to relax media ownership limits, also chided the chairman for not seeking input on other issues.

“I wish he would do the same outreach with the public interest community,” he told Reuters. Powell was criticized during the FCC’s review of media ownership limits for not holding many official forums for public input on the rules.

Powell attended some discussions but the agency held only one official event. The FCC is now holding official hearings on how radio and television stations are serving their local communities.

FCC officials were not immediately available to comment on how often Powell would be interacting on his blog. It can be found at http://www.alwayson-network.com/

thanks to jeff jarvis for the link, else i wouldnt had known my comment had been quoted.

msnbc ran it + cnn/money ran it + even express india in india ran it

i just hope that this food poisoning that i got last night eating some miso-whorni soup passes by then. its the hollywood bowl for petesake. how bad could it be?

the last time i was there was a while back when karisa and i saw santana. it was so bad that we walked as far up to the top of the bowl so we could talk all night. the problem was it sounded exactly like his record. even the solos were note-for-note, and he didnt want to play any of his old stuff cuz he was about to win all those grammys for that new one.

my true love is over too. shes sick too. we’re both very lucky that i always have far too much tp in the house. and theyre double rolls. why wouldnt you buy double rolls if you could?

at their most expensive, a huge multipack of tp is gonna set you back eight bucks. the day eight bucks breaks me is a day i deserve to crap in my cutoffs.

it came on during 60 minutes last night. kerry and edwards were smiling and laughing and interrupting each other like theyre never going to have the chance to open their mouths all summer. it started the agita.

chill out fellas, i said to the tv as i popped tums. so defensive. if i was them i would just laugh at everything.

q. sen kerry, they say that sen edwards has no experience to be vp.

a. ahahahahaha. tell whoever said that wisdom knows know age. america is young. america is the greatest country. especially if youre white. and handsome. like sen edwards. and male.

ahahahahaha.

male helps.

a blogger can dream cant he.

yes im delirious. yes im dehydrated. yes i want to talk about my excretions. but i will save that for later.

ive now read all the magazines in my bathroom.

if you know my magazine collection, you know how impressive that is.

we tried to watch the Dreamers last night on dvd. so bad.

trio was having a The Parking Lot marathon, so we kept going back over to that.

walk with fire + jaime + nay