Red Cross told White House of Iraqi Torture; White House did Nothing.

Front page of the WSJ: WSJ : "A confidential Red Cross report delivered to the Bush administration earlier this year concluded that abuse of prisoners in Iraq by U.S. military intelligence personnel was widespread and in some cases 'tantamount to torture.'"

And the White House did nothing? I guess they figured, "Ah, what does a bunch of nurses know about torture?"

Elsewhere : [globe and mail] House Republican Majority Leader and all-around fun-guy Tom DeLay said of Nanci Pelosi, Tom Harkin and John Kerry - amidst their criticism of the President and calls for Rumsfeld's resignation -- "They want to win the White House more than they want to win the war. I'm not questioning their patriotism. I'm questioning their judgment and their fitness to lead.”

So DeLay defends sodomizing Iraqi prisoners as part of that road to victory. And that it's perfectly consistent with violating the Geneva conventions while being President.

Oh, hadn't heard about the sodomizing? William Saletan gives a nice chronology -- which should be required reading -- of What the Department of Defense knew and when they knew it . Remarkable investigations by DoD began Jan 19, and 17 soldiers were suspended of duty while the investigation proceeded by Feb 23; and the Taguba report was final by March 3, saying that our solidiers had, in specific instances, threatened prisoners with rape; sodomized a detainee with a chemical light, maybe a broom-stick; forced groups of men to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped; and put one guy on a stand, connected wires to his hands and penis, and a sand bag on his head, telling him not to fall off or he'll be electrocuted.
By Saletan's telling: NONE of this happened because Rummy asked for information. All of it happened because lower level commanders demnaded the report, and acted upon it, and everything was known and action taken by March 3.

Oh, and all this before Bush (March 12) Rumsfeld (March 16) and Rice (March 19) publicly brag about how they closed the "rape rooms and torture chambers" of Saddam Hussein. Bush was bragging about the closing of the Rape rooms up through last week (April 15, April 19, April 23, April 30, May 3).