So there's a report that some of the civilian contractors in Abu Ghraib and other Iraq prisons weren't civilian contractors at all -- they were Israeli intelligence agents.

Now, here's the thing: This report didn't come from Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya; it didn't come from that gathering horde of lefty anti-Semites you've heard so much about recently; nor did it come from Pat Buchanan. It came from the passionately pro-Bush NewsMax site.

NewsMax, of course, is notoriously lacking in credibility -- it's home to fable-spinners and truth-fudgers such as Gary Aldrich, Christopher Ruddy, Dick Morris, and Notra Trulock. I don't believe much of what I read there. But what the hell -- here's an excerpt:

"Israelis have been to Abu Ghraib and other prisons [in Iraq]," says one source familiar with the U.S. operations.

It was explained that the Israelis involved have been assigned as "civilian contractors" to work with Coalition forces in interrogating Iraqi POWs.

The "contractors" are said to be veterans of Israel's domestic intelligence unit, Shin Bet, as well as the more famous international intelligence agency, the Mossad....

It was explained that several of the "interrogation" techniques used by U.S. forces in Iraq have in fact been used by Israel "for years."

The technique of stripping Arab prisoners naked, to embarrass and humiliate them, has been used by Israelis, according to Arab diplomats at the U.N.

You want a conspiracy theory? You got one now.