THE HORROR, CONT'D. Likely to become a Media Log standing head in the days to come. Reuters is now reporting that two Iraqi prisoners in US custody may have been murdered - one by an Army soldier, the other by a private contractor hired by the CIA.

The English-language website of Al-Jazeera gives an indication of how the Abu Ghuraib story is playing in Arab and Muslim countries. This is from a story headlined "Abu Ghuraib Prisoners Speak of 'Torture'":

One of the released detainees who was forced to pose naked in a human pyramid has told Aljazeera that the acts committed against them were so horrible that he still could not get himself to speak about most of it.

"They wanted to humiliate us. It was disgusting", said Hashim Muhsin.

"They covered our heads with plastic bags and hit our backs with sharp objects, which added to our wounds".

"They then took off all our clothes, made us stand next to the wall and carried out immoral acts that I cannot even talk about", Muhsin continued.

He said "women soldiers took pictures of naked men and did not care".

The New York Times website reports that Democratic senator Tom Daschle and Republican senator John McCain are demanding that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld be held accountable. Rumsfeld is reported to be "deeply disturbed." Senator Ted Kennedy is quoted as saying:

We have a great sense of revulsion, not only because of these actions, but we also recognize what the dangers are for American troops if they are ever taken prisoners and the kind of treatment that they would be subject to. And this has been a major setback to our interests in that region.

Meanwhile, Josh Marshall notes that George W. Bush still hasn't apparently bothered to read the Taguba report. Marshall's headline: "Shaken, but Apparently Not Stirred."