Has The Shoe Thrower Been Beaten In US Custody?

Rumors are already flying that Muntander al-Zaidi is being physically abused at Camp Cropper (after Bush and Cheney, America is now instantly associated with the abuse of prisoners in the Middle East). At first, I assumed: naah. After Abu Ghraib and Camp Cropper and Bagram and the black sites and the Senate report, the Bush administration isn't still ordering the beating up and abuse of a prisoner, is it? Least of all a prisoner who has become a hero to much of the Middle East? They aren't that evil and that stupid, are they? But the BBC reports:

The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody. Muntadar al-Zaidi has suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.

We should treat the charges with skepticism, as with all charges of torture, until we know from clear evidence that the act has taken place (we do know that it has been official policy for years now). The Maliki government, meanwhile, is accusing the guy of being a drinker and drug addict. If the abuse turns out to be true and if it happened at Camp Cropper at the hands of US personnel, then we are in the middle of a public relations and military crisis - one that manages to bring all the idiocy and dumb cruelty of the Bush-Cheney years together.

I was wondering how Bush could make his legacy even more toxic in the few weeks left to him. Some thought it impossible in the middle of two failed wars, $10 trillion in debt; $32 trillion in new entitlement liabilties, and a second Great Depression. But we are always misunderestimating him.