Earlier this week, an Arab League monitor observing the situation on the ground in Syria announced on Al Jazeera that he had quit the mission, calling it “a farce.” “The regime is not just committing one war crime, but a series of crimes against its people,” said Anwer Malek.

But today, Sudanese Gen. Mohammed al-Dabi, the head of the Arab League’s Syria monitoring mission, denied Malek’s claim and instead deflected criticism back on Malek. Reuters reports:

“General Mohammed al-Dabi, the head of the Arab monitors’ mission to Damascus, has confirmed that what the monitor Anwar Malek said to a satellite channel does not relate to the truth in any way,” the Arab League said in a statement.

“Since he was assigned to the Homs team, Malek did not leave the hotel for six days and did not go out with the rest of the team into the field giving the excuse that he was sick,” the statement said, adding that Malek had asked to travel to Paris for treatment but then left suddenly on his personal account.

Human Rights groups criticized the Arab League last month for choosing al-Dabi to lead the mission because of his links with allegations of Sudan’s own human rights violations.

Reuters notes that Malek wasn’t the only monitor in Syria to criticize the Arab League’s mission, reporting that another unnamed observer said “he was hoping to leave Syria because the mission was ineffectual.”

Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton endorsed Mitt Romney in an appearance on Fox News last night. Bolton was offered a cabinet position as Secretary of State in a prospective Newt Gingrich administration but his endorsement of Romney puts the hawkish former diplomat squarely in the Romney camp. Bolton told Greta Van Susteren that “Romney is conservative enough for me” and Romney is an acceptable candidate only because Bolton isn’t running himself:

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: Tell the viewers. Who are you endorsing sir?

JOHN BOLTON: Well I’m going to support Mitt Romney. I’ve thought about this very hard and it’s an extraordinarily important decision for the Republican party. [...]

BOLTON: Well let me put it this way, looking at the whole range of prospective candidates there was only one prospective candidate who met my test as the ideal conservative but he decided not to run.

VAN SUSTEREN: Who’s that? I guess that’s you?

BOLTON: I guess he’s sitting here. So faced with everyone else, I followed the William F. Buckley Jr. test which is to find the most conservative candidate who is capable of getting elected. There are obviously two variables there. But in the words of that old song, “gimme that old time religion, Romney’s conservative enough for me.”

Watch the clip:

Bolton’s controversial past might not give a boost to Romney’s presidential campaign but it offers some indication that the hawkish foreign policy wing of the Republican party is shifting into the Romney camp. Bolton’s career as U.N. ambassador was only made possible by a recess appointment after the Senate refused to confirm him and he has maintained close ties to the Islamophobic far-right and regularly calls for war with Iran. In 2010, he wrote the foreword for Islamophobes Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller’s book “The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America.”

Over the summer, Bolton teased Fox News viewers — where he appears as a paid commentator — with the possibility of a presidential run but later announced he would not be running.

A video that surfaced Wednesday that allegedly depicts a group of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan urinating on corpses that they called “dead Taliban” could complicate nascent peace talks in the decade-long war there. The act portrayed on the video faced universal condemnation from the military, politicians, and the Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

With the U.S. expected to begin talks soon with the Afghan Taliban insurgency, all parties were quick to distance themselves from the act. The Marines said in a statement that the actions “are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps.” In a separate statement, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said a criminal probe was being launched and added:

This disrespectful act is inexplicable and not in keeping with the high moral standards we expect of coalition forces.

ISAF strongly condemns the actions depicted in the video, which appear to have been conducted by a small group of U.S. individuals, who apparently are no longer serving in Afghanistan.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said of the incident, “I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.” Panetta has ordered an investigation to the matter.

Afghans offered across-the-board condemnation as well. “It was inhuman and despicable, an unforgivable act which we condemn in the strongest terms,” said a Taliban spokesman. Karzai called the act “completely inhumane” and asked that those found responsible by an investigation get the “most severe punishment” possible.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who served in the U.S. military, said:

Here’s a handful of obviously undisciplined young people of the hundred and some thousand Marines that we have. And it makes me so sad. There should be an investigation and these young people should be punished, but it does great damage. It makes me so sad.

Not everyone, however, was saddened by the events. Anti-Muslim activist Pam Geller wrote in favor of the incident. “I love these Marines,” she said, adding, “Perhaps this is the infidel interpretation of the Islamic ritual of washing and preparing the body for burial.” A former Republican National Committee researcher tweeted wondering, “this is a story?” He added: “I could care less. Liberal media at work.” Michael Goldfarb, a neoconseravtive Republican operative (a former McCain campaign spokesman), lobbyist and, as of recently, chairman of a new conservative online media venture, retweeted the comments from the RNC researcher.