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Soldier accused in prisoner beating comes home DAVID B. CARUSO Associated Press PHILADELPHIA It has been a bittersweet homecoming for Shawna Edmondson, one of four U.S. soldiers accused of beating prisoners of war at a detention camp in Iraq.The 24-year-old University of Scranton student and security guard quietly returned Friday to a hometown that rallied behind her when she and other members of her Ashley-based Army Reserve unit were charged with abuse and misconduct.Edmondson, who accepted a demotion and a discharge rather than face a court martial, said her welcome in northeast Pennsylvania has been warm, but mixed. Amid the...

Like a frenzied pack of howling curs, America’s malignant Left ravenously feasted upon the Abu Ghraib scandal when it broke. The opportunity it provided for them to engage in a wholesale orgy of America bashing was an allure they could not resist. In short order, horrified gasps of moral outrage were heard from leftist mainstream media as their headlines blared, “House of Horrors…sadism at Abu Ghraib prison!” (U.S. News and World Report) and “sexual depravity, sadism and violence orchestrated by US soldiers” (Chicago Tribune). Soon, pictures of Iraqi prisoners were being gleefully brandished as evidence that American soldiers were, indeed,...

Apparently, being the parent of a child murdered by a Muslim terrorist gives one moral credibility. There is no other way to explain the vast attention paid to the ideas of Michael Berg, father of Nick Berg, the American who was slaughtered by the Islamic sadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That is also the only explanation for the all the attention Cindy Sheehan has received. It is not because of the intellectual and moral depth of her worldview. But the attention paid to Michael Berg has been very helpful in enabling many more people to understand the thinking and values of...

An Iraqi Soldier distributes the contents of a food bag to residents of the "1st of June" area of Abu Ghraib, during a joint Coalition/Iraqi foot patrol, June 25. Photo by Sgt. Philip Schratwieser, 1st Infantry Division. BAGHDAD — U.S. and Iraqi Soldiers conducted a combined patrol through Abu Ghraib to deliver supplies, disrupt insurgents and foster relationships, June 25. The area they patrolled is called the "1st of June," as Iraqis often name areas after significant dates in their history.Leading the patrol was a platoon from the 24th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division. As a result of the agreement...

IT WAS the stench that hit us first, gusting like a chemical cloud across the prison courtyard. The smell, unmistakable to anyone who has scented it, of human flesh slowly decomposing just under the surface of the earth. One by one, the grave diggers, toiling in a dust storm under a blazing sky, lifted the crumbling bodies from the clay-lined mass grave stretching along the prison lawn, in the shadow of an empty watchtower on top of the sprawling prison block. Each of the 13 corpses pulled from the ground was still dressed in his blue-and-white-striped prison pyjamas, his hands...

The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it. Taken during his years as a detainee at the US-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, this is the only known photograph of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. But while he may lack the photogenic qualities of his hero, Osama bin Laden, he is fast becoming the new poster-boy for the global jihadist movement....

From yesterday, Thursday, February 25, 2010:Intel bill pulled over controversial added interrogation provision "A controversial bill that would have levied criminal punishments on intelligence officers for harsh interrogations was pulled Thursday evening [Feb 25, 2010] . House Republicans charged Democrats with trying to sneak a provision into the intelligence authorization bill that would establish criminal punishment for CIA agents and other intelligence officials who engage in “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” during interrogations."... Intelligence committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) added the language, originally offered by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), to his manager’s amendment, which makes several changes to the bill...