<![CDATA[Just Rounding Them Up]]>Der Spiegel seems to be the go-to place for accounts of the Bush administration’s record of just arresting large numbers of random people, sending them off to be "interrogated" or subjected to the now-familiar Verschaerfte Vernehmung tactics (or much worse in Syria, Egypt and elsewhere). Money quote:

On Jan. 27, 2007, Saafia was flown to Mogadishu in Somalia on an African Express Airlines flight (flight number AXK527), along with 84 other "terror suspects," including several children.

US citizens were present at each of these stops, Saafia’s husband Mounir Awad told SPIEGEL. "When we landed, we were immediately photographed by Americans in civilian clothing," he says, adding that he and the others were repeatedly insulted as "Qaeda bastards" …

Well, they looked nasty, especially those "Qaeda bastard" children. And every enemy we have is a subset of al Qaeda, aren’t they? Ask Rudy. Meanwhile, back on planet earth:

Colin Powell’s former Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson estimates that the US administration has arrested between 30,000 and 50,000 suspects during the past year. Eighty-five percent of them were innocent, according to Wilkerson. "We really have created a mess here. A terrible mess," Wilkerson says. "This has been incredibly damaging."

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