To the Hague with the lot of them

* emptywheel thinks that maybe khalilzad is leaking the unhappy-talk cables to the press.

* via here:

"Bill O’Reilly: Now to me, they’re not fighting it hard enough. See, if I’m president, I got probably another 50-60 thousand with orders to shoot on sight anybody violating curfews. Shoot them on sight. That’s me… President O’Reilly… Curfew in Ramadi, seven o’clock at night. You’re on the street? You’re dead. I shoot you right between the eyes. Ok? That’s how I run that country. Just like Saddam ran it. Saddam didn’t have explosions - he didn’t have bombers. Did he? because if you got out of line, you’re dead."

* kleiman:

"I will never forgive these people for the way they have dishonored our flag. To the Hague with the lot of them!"

* there's an interesting conversation at demnow about reporters getting kicked outta gitmo. It's a bit complicated, but here's David Rose:

"Well, this is very interesting, what Carol (LAT reporter) has just said, because it's clear that she wasn't even told to leave until the following evening. So while they're using -- when speaking to us, the O.S.D., the Office of the Secretary of Defense, is using the American reporters as a reason for not letting us in; when expelling the Americans, they’re using us, the Brits, as a reason for them having to leave. In fact, both these statements are untrue. They hadn't told the Americans to leave. There was no reason at all not to let us go and use the clearance that we had obtained. Equally, we were not threatening to sue or making any other kind of complaint. We were just very angry that we had been told we had clearance to go, and suddenly it had been revoked, and no reason was being given."

* arkin:

"Fabulous money and an inscrutable industry produce "national security." The world of consulting businesses and Beltway bandits and corporate "Washington offices" and think tanks and special interest groups needs a fresh look. That look needs to stretch beyond the ethics paradigm, and it needs to go outside the partisan world. This is a Democrat as much as a Republican problem.

If there is an ethical crisis in Washingotn and government today, it is that much of government values and produces a product that seems to have no relationship to delivering services to the citizens. The profits involved in producing that product ensures that government today -- at least for those who see $$$ in their future -- is no longer public service; it is resume padding."