A couple of major news organizations have picked up the “Iraqi prison rape” story – The Seattle Times and The Guardian (UK).

And if the U.S. military has no jurisdiction over these freelance cowboys, you can be sure no one else in Iraq does. So I guess they can do anything they like. This is a prescription for further trouble.

That’s actually a blog entry from my old hometown paper – bloggers are go! It’s a commentary on the item in the Guardian, which seems to be the first “major” running the story.

One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him…

…Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, speaking for central command, told the Guardian: “One contractor was originally included with six soldiers, accused for his treatment of the prisoners, but we had no jurisdiction over him. It was left up to the contractor on how to deal with him.”

She did not specify the accusation facing the contractor, but according to several sources with detailed knowledge of the case, he raped an Iraqi inmate in his mid-teens.

Okay, there it is. It’s not just the granola press (and I say that as a former granola) and a business-news radio program reporting this anymore. It’s so strange how this story seems to have been buried. Maybe they know it’s likely to inflame the Middle East even more – but covering it up just makes it fester.