Ever since CIA Director Michael Hayden testified that he “wasn’t comfortable” with Doug Feith’s secret Pentagon intel operation that tried to link Saddam and al Qaeda, both Feith and Sen. Jon Kyl have been trying to get him to change his opinion. But they’ve failed, and now the WSJ is upset that Hayden is feeding the “Bush lied myth.”

Over the weekend, two Saudis and a Yemeni committed suicide in their cells at Guantanamo. In response, the State Department’s Colleen Graffy – who “coordinates efforts with a special envoy, Karen Hughes, in a campaign to improve the US image abroad, especially in Islamic countries” – described the suicides as “good PR move to draw attention.” In addition, Guantanamo’s camp commander Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris called the suicides “an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us.”

The comments caused a diplomatic uproar around the world and have led to renewed calls for Guantanamo’s closure. A few examples of the international displeasure from both conservative and liberal editorial boards:

- “In an editorial headlined ‘Bad Language’, the right-leaning Times [of London], normally a defender of Britain’s alliance with the United States, said such rhetoric ‘plays once again into the hands of America’s enemies.’” [Link]

- “France’s Le Monde newspaper condemned Graffy’s comments, saying that they ‘illustrate the gulf which separates American authorities from the rest of the world on this sinister question.’” [Link]

- “Britain’s Guardian newspaper called Harris’ remarks ‘cold and odious.’ ‘It is entirely in keeping with the clinical illegality of America’s treatment of terror suspects since 2001,’ the left-leaning newspaper said.” [Link]

- “Britain’s conservative Daily Mail newspaper said the officials had spoken ‘with utter insensitivity to world opinion’ in an editorial headlined: ‘From the high moral ground to the gutter.’” [Link]

- “Spain’s El Mundo newspaper called the comments ‘gruesome.’” [Link]

The administration immediately had to go “into damage control,” with State Department spokesman Sean McCormack saying, “I would just point out in public that we do not see it as a PR stunt.”

TinyRevolution marks the anniversary by highlighting a new op-ed by Vietnam-era whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg, and a flashback of President Bush’s answer when he was asked two weeks before the Iraq invasion, “What can you say tonight, sir, to the sons and the daughters of the Americans who served in Vietnam to assure them that you will not lead this country down a similar path in Iraq?”

This morning on Fox News, anchor Jon Scott and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) focused much of their discussion about President Bush’s Iraq trip on the six-minute helicopter ride from the Baghdad airport to the Green Zone.

After saying a top U.S. goal is “to take the battle to where radical Islam would plan and strategize” for an attack, Hoekstra said “today the President is going in their face” by traveling to Iraq. Scott added, “[C]learly a trip like this is not without risk,” since Bush “had to jump on a helicopter and fly at low altitudes. … The fact he was willing to undertake some of those risks says a lot about his confidence in the future.”

Watch it:

Full transcript below: Read more

Last night on the House floor, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) downplayed the violence on the ground in Iraq, claiming his wife is taking a greater risk by living in Washington, D.C. King said:

27.51 Iraqis per 100,000 die a violent death on an annual basis. 27.51. Now what does that mean? To me, it really doesn’t mean a lot until I compare it to people that I know or have a feel for the rhythm of this place. Well I by now have a feel for the rhythm of this place called Washington, D.C., and my wife lives here with me, and I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, she’s at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington, D.C. than an average civilian in Iraq. 45 out of every 100,000 Washington, D.C. regular residents die a violent death on an annual basis.

Watch it.

King’s stats are faulty. Read more

Yesterday on Fox News, Michelle Malkin mocked the suicides of three Guantanamo Bay detainees. Her reaction was so out-of-line that even O’Reilly took exception. Watch it:

Full transcript below: Read more

to meet with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He’ll be staying for five hours.