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The American Abu GhraibsPrisoner abuse isn't limited to Iraq.

By Josh LevinUpdated Friday, May 14, 2004, at 6:47 PM ET

New Republic, May 24
Though the Red Cross wrote report after report documenting prison abuses in Iraq in 2003, the organization was powerless to share its findings. That's because the aid group trades access for confidentiality, relating its conclusions only to officials of the offending government, who can then simply ignore them. And since the Red Cross is the only organization allowed to see interrogations conducted in U.S. detention facilities, that means no human rights violations will see the light of day unless the government wants them to—or somebody leaks pictures to the media. … Another story reports that America has its own Abu Ghraibs—in Texas, Arizona, Virginia, Louisiana, etc. Abuse and rape in U.S. prisons, already a major problem, will only get worse with a growing inmate population and increased privatization of prison guards. Politicians, though, are loath to confront the issue because voters seem to care so little about the treatment of prisoners.

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Economist, May 15
The cover package on e-commerce reports that Web shoppers are getting older and less educated and spending more money—that is, they're "becoming just like offline consumers." One piece predicts that retail stores could be transformed into showrooms where you test products before buying online. The most interesting question, though, asks "if anyone can build an online version of Wal-Mart that could ruthlessly drive down costs." … A horrific genocide of black Africans by Arabs in western Sudan has driven 1 million refugees from their homes. If there's any good news in the country, it's that a second civil war, between the Islamist north and the pagan and Christian south, looks like it's winding down. One southern fighter, who sees George W. Bush as an "architect of peace," asks that "God grant him many fertile women with firm bodies and an election victory without problems in Florida."

Outside, June 2004
A salute to "crazy mofos" includes a profile of Kirk Jones, a sadsack who leaped into Niagara Falls last October looking for fame and ended up with a trip to a mental hospital. Now, Jones travels around with a second-tier circus, fielding questions about his solo flight and subsisting on a diet of cherry snow cones. Among the other crazy mofos: a man who "walked" 4,847 miles across open ocean with pontoons lashed to his feet and another who ran seven marathons in seven days four months after double-bypass surgery. … Up to 100 elite cyclists have died in the last decade, mostly of heart attacks and heart failure. The likely culprit is EPO, which increases blood-cell production but also thickens the blood for months after injection. Cyclists haven't been scared straight, though—one rider estimates 95 percent of the top athletes are blood dopers.

Reason Reason, June 2004
This month, 43,000 Reason subscribers are getting a personalized issue—with a bird's-eye view of their mailing address on the front cover. (Newsstand copies include a photo of editor-in-chief Nick Gillespie's house. There are some additional mock-ups here—look for a really tiny John Ashcroft.) Along with the cover shot, the issue includes specific information about your neighborhood—85.08 percent of In Other Magazines' neighbors have college degrees—and a custom ad from the Marijuana Policy Project that lists the voting record of your congressional representative. The cover story argues that the "database nation" that allows for this kind of direct marketing offers consumers more benefits than harm. Markets work better—and prices are lower—when it's easy to identify what consumers want. That's why it's not the databases that should be restricted, but rather the ways in which the government can pry into them.

National Journal National Journal, May 8; Foreign Policy, May/June 2004
Both magazines try their best to demystify al-Qaida. The National Journal's piece says the terror organization is "dead," its coffers empty, and its lines of communication sealed. But, along with the goal of snuffing out al-Qaida, the undertaking of a global war on terror gave governments worldwide an excuse to crack down on smaller, more locally focused insurgencies. While these terror groups didn't always share al-Qaida's ambitions, this post-9/11 crackdown has increased the global terrorist threat by giving Islamist radicals a common enemy: America. … Foreign Policy says al-Qaida was never a terrorist group. While Osama Bin Laden did create a recruitment network in Afghanistan, al-Qaida was more of a terrorist "venture capital firm" than a criminal organization. The piece also says terrorists won't soon deploy WMD—putting together a "dirty bomb" or acquiring a nuclear warhead are so difficult that conventional attacks, like the train bombing in Spain, are far more likely.

New York Times Magazine, May 16
A special issue on landscape architecture includes a Jane Jacobs essay on the proliferation of roof gardens, four proposals for how to landscape the World Trade Center site, and a profile of Belgian gardener-to-the-stars Jacques Wirtz, who is "just as happy designing a $75,000 garden—small potatoes to him—as he is designing one for $7.5 million." … Domains goes au naturel as well with a look at a Minnesota couple who live in a tree house, enjoy collecting pine cones, and buy their Levi's and sweatshirts at Goodwill. … Another story documents the construction of a 570-acre park in Germany on the site of a blighted factory. Mountain climbers rappel down old walls, an elevated railroad track became a walkway, and a 50-foot gasometer tank is now a practice ground for scuba divers.

New York Review of Books, May 27
Ghost Wars may have received less fanfare than Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies, but a review says Steve Coll's look at the CIA's operations in Afghanistan offers more insight into the genesis and failures of the war on terror. While the CIA funneled money to radical Islamists during the war with the Soviet Union, U.S. intelligence seemingly lost interest in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the surrounding area after the Soviets left in 1989. By the time the Taliban rose to power, the United States had pulled most of its operatives and was thus ignorant of the organization's tactics and its relationship with Osama Bin Laden. The CIA has yet to recover—sources inside Afghanistan are limited and very few agents speak the country's native languages.

Weekly Standard Weekly Standard, May 17
"We do not know how close the American effort in Iraq may be to irrecoverable failure," begins an editorial. The piece argues that, while not a "silver bullet," the best way to ameliorate the situation is to move elections forward. Holding free elections in September would both "change this subject" and recast the insurgency from anti-American to anti-freedom. ... Another piece weighs the unpalatable policies of the presidential candidates. George W. Bush, for instance, is "all hat and no cattle"—that is, all talk and no action—when it comes to curtailing the deficit. But for all his faults on fiscal responsibility, he's still a better choice than John Kerry, whose major pitfall is a desire to leave Iraq to "U.N. peacekeepers with an unblemished record of failure."

The New Yorker, May 17
Seymour Hersh's latest piece on Abu Ghraib includes a photo of a naked Iraqi bracing himself against prison bars as soldiers at his side hold dogs. While the piece describes photos that show the bleeding man "with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back," only the first shot in the sequence is shown. Hersh writes that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, brought in from Guantanamo to review Iraqi detention centers, is the one who stressed that prisons be used for interrogation. That suggestion "undoubtedly played a role in the abuses at Abu Ghraib." ... Another article questions whether educated, middle-of-the-road Iraqis really want secular democracy rather than Islamic theocracy. It was a mistake to think that, in the face of an American occupation, most Iraqis wouldn't fall "back on aspects of their culture and faith that offer a blind resistance to the new world that has been thrown open before them."

Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report, May 17
The Donald: Newsweek's cover story says Donald Rumsfeld's defining characteristics—his "imperious manner and biting questions, his obsession with control, his occasional slipperiness"—came back to bite him with the Abu Ghraib scandal. No one in Defense warned Rummy about prisoner abuse because the bullied/bullying DoD chain of command was fearful of reporting dissenting views. The piece also says the Red Cross reported abuses "tantamount to torture" in Afghanistan as far back as the fall of 2001. … Another Newsweek piece claims that, 18 months after the suspicious deaths of prisoners in custody in Afghanistan, no government reports have been completed. The article also reports that the additional photos and videos of abuse include scenes from other detention centers. … And Time says Rumsfeld "has taken a personal interest in coming up with a dollar figure to compensate Iraqis who have been wronged."

Prison stories: Time talks to an Iraqi whose friend was forced to simulate oral sex on him in Abu Ghraib. In the nine months he was in custody, he claims he wasn't interrogated or charged with a crime. Another prisoner says he was hung from a hook in his cell, and military translators shouted, "You are a terrorist!" at him, but he also wasn't interrogated. … U.S. News says that out of 38,000 military policemen, "fewer than 1,000" are trained to work in prisons because it's not a "desirable career path." … Another U.S. News piece reports that April was the deadliest month for U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Plus, there were more than 1,000 soldiers wounded last month, equivalent to the loss of one platoon each day. As a consequence, some units are being asked to report early, "a form of borrowing from the future that will eventually come due."

Not so intelligent: In the "Washington Whispers" section, U.S. News says that in April 2003, one Don Emilio Fulci made it to the top of the government's daily threat assessment. Then someone ran a Google search on Fulci, who was reported to be planning attacks on London and Washington, D.C. Turns out the shadowy terrorist is a character in the video game Headhunter. … A Newsweek item claims that in the last few years of Saddam's regime, the Iraqi government was a frequent target of nuclear flim-flam artists. For instance, U.S. intel ran across several file cabinets devoted to "red mercury," a supposed nuclear superweapon that doesn't really exist.

Get rich quick: U.S. News reports that Vegas companies are developing casinos in the Chinese territory of Macau after winning much-sought-after gambling licenses. The tiny landmass, a five-hour flight from roughly half the the earth's population, represents "one of the biggest business opportunities in the world." The Sands is building a "Macau Strip" with up to 20 resorts, and Wynn Resorts is breaking ground this year on a $550 million casino.