Iraqis Take Over The Torture, USA is OK with that.

This is what happened in Iraq on June 29th, the first day of the new, "soveriegn" Iraqi government:

A team of Oregon Army National Guard soldiers swept into the grounds of the Iraqi Interior Ministry after a guardsman saw men in plainclothes beating blind-folded and bound prisoners in the enclosed grounds of the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The Iraqi detainees said they had been beaten, starved and deprived of water for three days.

"In a nearby building, the soldiers counted dozens more prisoners and what appeared to be torture devices - metal rods, rubber hoses, electrical wires and bottles of chemicals. Many of the Iraqis, including one identified as a 14-year-old boy, had fresh welts and bruises across their back and legs.

The soldiers disarmed the Iraqi jailers, moved the prisoners into the shade, released their handcuffs and administered first aid. Lt. Col. Daniel Hendrickson of Albany, Ore., the highest ranking American at the scene, radioed for instructions.

But in a move that frustrated and infuriated the guardsmen, Hendrickson's superior officers told him to return the prisoners to their abusers and immediately withdraw. It was June 29 - Iraq's first official day as a sovereign country since the U.S. invasion.

That's right - withdraw. The story turns up on a regional paper called The Oregonian. Can you believe this crap? What did the US Army do? What did the Bush administration have to say to Allawi and his cohorts? Anything? Nothing?

"Well done"...???