Bush today:

I knew we were at war when they attacked us. As a matter of fact, I was down here in Florida. It didn’t take long to figure out what was going on.

The Memory Hole reminds us just how long it took.

Many are asking why and how the photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib got in the hands of a small television station in Australia. The answer may lie in the decisions of the Bush Administration to allow senior officials escape punishment while forcing low-ranking soldiers to take the fall.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the use of military working dogs during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay when Major General Geoffrey Miller was the base commander. Miller then brought that technique with him in his efforts to “Gitmo-ize” Abu Ghraib.

But just last month, Gen. Miller took the military equivalent of the 5th Amendment and refused to testify at the trial of two soldiers accused of using attack dogs to injure and intimidate prisoners.

Donald Rumsfeld is still Secretary of Defense. General Miller is still in charge of detainee operations in Iraq. But nine low-ranking soldiers have been convicted of abuse, and now these two dog handlers were left to hold the bag. That may be too much for some soldiers in possession of Abu Ghraib photos and videos, and may have led them to seek other avenues to hold high-ranking officials accountable in this tragedy.

– Ken Gude

The Bush administration has outsourced the operation of six of the nation’s largest ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country with troubling ties to international terrorism. The $6.8 billion sale would mean that the state-controlled Dubai Ports World would control “the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.”

Some facts about the UAE:

– The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

– The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia.

– According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system.

– After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden’s bank accounts.

A bipartisan group of seven members of Congress is calling on the Treasury Department to suspend their approval until they investigate the national security implications of the sale. Such an investigation is required by federal law but hasn’t yet been conducted. You can read their letter here.