1115.org

This is worse than Kremlinology. (Fortunately, I’m a lot better than Nancy Grace.)

The U.S. military has served up another round of cryptic developments. This time we get to see how far up the chain of command the buck has stopped. Gen. Petraeus is calling the shots now, and conducting his own investigation, right down to collecting evidence, just like a real cop. Hopefully, at least one of his Ph.D. advisers regularly watches Law and Order SVU, so that they know exactly how this should be handled. If not, we’ll have to fall back on the hope that one of them stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

The U.S. military on Wednesday weighed into the politically explosive case of a Sunni woman allegedly raped last weekend by three Iraqi policemen, announcing its own investigation after the Shiite-run government dismissed her allegations as false.

The announcement, made to reporters by the chief military spokesman, appeared aimed at containing the growing political storm. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s exoneration of the three officers after an investigation lasting less than a day has enflamed Sunni-Shiite tensions over a case that strikes at the heart of Iraqi attitudes toward protection of women.
[…]
Al-Maliki announced an investigation Monday evening and cleared the officers the following morning.

With the issue threatening to spiral out of control, the U.S. military announced Wednesday that Gen. David Petraeus, the new top U.S. commander in Iraq, had ordered his own investigation, appointing an American officer to begin collecting evidence.

“Once the Iraqi government makes a decision on how they are going to move forward, there is an investigating judicial process established and they need this information from us, we will make that readily available to them,” chief military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said.

A bit strange on the face of it. The medical exam that was conducted Monday evening is all the evidence needed to address the political aspect of the situation. With the situation threatening to spiral out of control, one would imagine addressing the political aspect would be our first priority. Yet, Petraeus wants to stall for time.

Do I blame him? No sir. I say to myself, he must have a damn good reason. And if the medical exam confirmed there was no rape, there would be no good reason to stall. So when I swirl the tea-leaves, this is what they say to me:
• The medical exam confirmed rape.
• When a leader in Maliki’s position (head of a fragile coalition who we’re desperately counting on) very publicly takes a very controversial stance based on a key “fact” that is going to have to be repudiated, stall-and-crawl is the only sensible strategy.
• Petraeus is giving Maliki ample wiggle room to start moving away from exoneration to a real investigation.
• Not only does Maliki get a couple of days in which to finish making his 180 degree turn, but he is also handed the face-saving excuse of “new evidence”.