[01.50 GMT] On the ground: New claims of Guantanamo torture (BBC News, UK) - the Amnesty report and initial comment on it was linked from this weblog yesterday. US troops raid Sunni complex (al-Jazeera); Allegations about freed German hostage (UPI, via a conservative blog). One should be cautious about spook-talk. The context and situation of the CPTers is, in any case, significantly different. It is 6 weeks, 4 days and 17 hours since they were abducted, points out FreeTheCaptives.

Reportage: A month ago, Spero News published Christian hostages in Iraq cause little stir on religious blogs. The situation is, largely, unchanged. It is partly to do with the medium, partly to do with perceptions of the "political" nature of CPT, and partly a result of the marginality of the peacemaking tradition within both Christendom and evengelical forms of Christianity, I suspect.

Politics: UK military officer slams US Iraq tactics (BBC, UK) and General Rose also speaks for me (Guardian, UK). But is the message getting through? See: Bush - war critics irresponsible (Daily Kos, USA) and Sunny Hundal's Don’t criticise us…. please? (Pickled Politics). Meanwhile, US army in Iraq institutionally racist, claims British officer (Guardian, UK).

Iraqi perspectives: The highly valuable Alive in Baghdad (of which more later) has a selection of Iraqi blogger links, with the protagonists coming from a range of angles. Some of you may remember Salam Pax, who blogged so perceptively during the decline and fall of Saddam's vile regime and it aftermath. He writes for The Guardian and a range of other media outlets now, and maintains a self-deprecatingly entitled everyday blog here. Though he hasn't been active since December '05, it seems. See also the film Voices of Iraq and the DemocracyNow Iraq section.