More in Sorrow Than in Anger

From one of today's leakfests, Before the War, CIA Reportedly Trained a Team of Iraqis to Aid U.S. by Dana Priest and Josh White:

Before the war in Iraq began, the CIA recruited and trained an Iraqi paramilitary group, code-named the Scorpions, to foment rebellion, conduct sabotage, and help CIA paramilitaries who entered Baghdad and other cities target buildings and individuals, according to three current and former intelligence officials with knowledge of the unit.

The CIA spent millions of dollars on the Scorpions, whose existence has not been previously disclosed, even giving them former Soviet Hind helicopters...

The greater good gained by destroying the classified nature of this operation is.... it'll come to me...

..After Baghdad fell, the CIA used the Scorpions to try to infiltrate the insurgency, to help out in interrogations, and, from time to time, to do "the dirty work," as one intelligence official put it.

In one case, members of the unit, wearing masks and carrying clubs and pipes, beat up an Iraqi general in the presence of CIA and military personnel, according to investigative documents reviewed by The Washington Post and according to several defense and intelligence officials...

I guess the idea is to campaign against prisoner abuse & torture--and I don't want the U.S. or any of its agents to pipe anybody into pulp. But if that's the motivation, it's just a guess, because the story makes no attempt to explain to readers why these particular sources chose to tell their side of the story. When the ombudsman is away, the cats will play. Also when he isn't.

No way will this be used against the U.S. in the propoganda war.