US Military: A Lot More Prisoners Were Killed In Custody Than We Thought

Ok, so today the military says that -- so far -- 26 prisoners may very well be the victims of homicide. That's 400% higher than the figure it gave to Congress just one week ago. Oops.

"Only one of the deaths occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, officials said, showing how broadly the most violent abuses extended beyond those prison walls and contradicting early impressions that the wrongdoing was confined to a handful of members of the military police on the prison's night shift," per the New York Times.

So today we find out that along with raping, sodomizing, torturing, and humiliating prisoners of war in violation of international law, US law, and common decency, we've been killing them as well. And we've been killing a lot more of them than we'd been led to believe.

Yesterday, we found out that Halliburton has ripped off the American people by war profiteering and overcharging for the fuel it provided. (In one case, it paid $87,000 for a shipment of fuel and charged the American people $27 MILLION -- now that's a markup.) And we just found out that the total amount of money it garnered was a LOT higher than we'd been led to believe. And the report detailing this was hidden from Congress and the American people until after the election.

So what other numbers will turn out to be wrong, as the truth comes out? Some possibilities:

1. We'll find out the number of civilian deaths in Iraq is much higher than previously reported.
2. We'll find out (again) that the number of insurgents and their allies is much higher than previously thought.
3. We'll find out that the cost of the war and occupation will continue to be much higher than previously thought/
4. We'll find out that Bush's dismantling of Social Security will create a debt load that is much higher than previously thought.

Any other suggestions?