11/22/2004

FOUND IN FALLUJAH . . . Run quick, Chicagoans, and get yr Trib with its p-1 James Janega latest from Fallujah, where Marines found torture chambers and terrorist banners and more.

(It’s P-1 in hard copy, with jump to last pg of first section, story of the day, paired with Liz Sly’s out of Baghdad, an overview about coming elections, but it’s hard to find on the Trib’s web site, whose p-1 has the black-victim picture Trib editors love to run, going with YESTERDAY’S p-1 hard cover story with frightening, not to say scare, headline, "Poor live housing nightmare while investors reap benefits." Wait, Chi Trib site caught up to its hard copy sometime after 6:30, when it still had yesterday’s stories. Something wrong here: is this a Toonerville Trolley of a news operation, or isn’t it?)

Janega’s "Blood, knives, cage hint at atrocities: Tip leads U.S. to alleged al-Zarqawi house of torture" – a much more matter-of-fact announcement than yesterday’s – is his usual telling what he sees and hears. It closes with what’s written on the wall of a "dungeon-like room, pitch-black" except for Marines’ flashlights next to "a bloody fingerprint" – in English and Arabic the cryptic words:

"Put . . . "
"Kept . . . "
"Plan . . . "
" . . . to pass on"

– all in English and Arabic – and beside them one more word, "written only in giant Arabic loops:
"’Hope.’"

Janega also tells of:
* "a steel bar bolted into the bathroom wall," from which "a chain dangled,"
* "a cage tucked into a corner, cobbled together from rusted bits of wire, chicken coops, broken crates and twist ties . . . tall enough for a person to stand in,"
* "a disassembled hand grenade, rubber gloves and numerous bottles of chemicals," including potassium cyanide identified by a translator, who "at that point Sunday afternoon . . . was the only one who could talk."

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