A group of conservative Muslim and Arab American officials on Tuesday went further than most in the GOP to accuse their Republican colleagues of trying to exploit the so-called "Ground Zero mosque controversy" for electoral benefits.

In a letter to Republican leaders, the group of authors criticized members of the party for abandoning the principle of tolerance that has defined the GOP from Lincoln to Bush. In the process, the authors -- who include former Bush administration official Randa Fahmy Hudome and former Reagan administration official and prominent D.C.-based lawyer George Salmon, as well as David Ramadan, who worked on both of George W. Bush's campaigns -- make similar philosophical and substantive arguments as other defenders of the proposed Cordoba House.

In its sharpest criticism, the group chastises the GOP for putting short-term electoral interests ahead of geopolitical concerns.

"While we share the desire of all in our party to be successful in the November elections, we cannot support victory at the expense of the U.S. Constitution or the Arab and Muslim community in America," the authors write. As President Lincoln so eloquently stated in his famous speech: 'a house divided against itself cannot stand.'"

This is, it appears, a direct shot against several current members of Congress (among them, Sen. David Vitter and the National Republican Senatorial Committee) who have already begun using the "mosque" debate as a political bludgeon. And while, the conservative Muslim and Arab-American community is far from the type of lobbying force that can change broader party strategy or tactics, their concerns aren't being offered in a vacuum. Others in the party, notably other veterans of the Bush administration, have tried to get their colleagues to tone down the rhetoric surrounding the Islamic cultural center as well.

Hudome, Ramadan and Salmon, meanwhile, have audiences in the top circles of the GOP (former RNC chair Ed Gillespie, for one, has talked with Ramadan about his concerns) owing primarily to the work they have done on behalf of the party in the past.

BELOW IS THE FULL LETTER.

August 17, 2010

Dear Republican Colleague:

We are writing to you today as loyal Americans who are active members of the Republican Party. We also happen to be proud of our Arab American and Muslim American contributions to the Republican Party.

We are deeply concerned by the rhetoric of some leading members of our party surrounding the construction of the Muslim Community Center in downtown Manhattan. These comments are not only constitutionally unsound, they are also alienating millions of Arab American and Muslim American voters who believe, as we do, in the principles of our party - individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law.

As you know, our party has had a long history of inclusion - beginning with our great President Abraham Lincoln, whose leadership on the slavery issue was monumental, and continuing through President George W. Bush whose public statements and actions on the differentiation between Islam and the terrorists who attacked us on 9-11 were critically important. We are particularly proud to note that President Bush appointed more Arab Americans and Muslim Americans to his administration than any other president in U.S. history.

That being said, it perplexes us as to why some vocal members of our party have chosen to oppose the construction of a cultural and religious center on private grounds. Not only does the First Amendment to our Constitution protect the right of these private citizens to worship freely, it also prevents Congress from making any law respecting an establishment of religion. Our party and the leaders in our party should not be engaged in judgment issues of the location of a cultural center and a house of worship in direct contravention of the First Amendment.

While some in our party have recently conceded the constitutional argument, they are now arguing that it is insensitive, intolerant and unacceptable to locate the center at the present location: "Just because they have the right to do so - does not make it the right thing to do" they say. Many of these individuals are objecting to the location as being too close to the Ground Zero site and voicing the understandable pain and anguish of the 9-11 families who lost loved ones in this horrible tragedy. In expressing compassion and understanding for these families, we are asking ourselves the following: if two blocks is too close, is four blocks acceptable? or six blocks? or eight blocks? Does our party believe that one can only practice his/her religion in certain places within defined boundaries and away from the disapproving glances of some citizens? Should our party not be standing up and taking a leadership role- just like President Bush did after 9-11 - by making a clear distinction between Islam, one of the great three monotheistic faiths along with Judaism and Christianity, versus the terrorists who committed the atrocities on 9-11 and who are not only the true enemies of America but of Islam as well? President Bush struck the right balance in expressing sympathy for the families of the 9-11 victims while making it absolutely clear that the acts committed on 9-11 were not in the name of Islam. We are hoping that our party leaders can do the same now - especially at a time when it is greatly needed.

While we share the desire of all in our party to be successful in the November elections, we cannot support victory at the expense of the U.S. Constitution or the Arab and Muslim community in America. As President Lincoln so eloquently stated in his famous speech: "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

As proud and patriotic Americans, we are grateful for all the rights our U.S. citizenship allows us, and we will always do our best to not only protect our rights but the rights of all others as well. May God Bless our nation, our freedoms, and our party.

David Ramadan
Vice Chair, Ethnic Coalitions, Republican Party of Virginia

Sherine El-Abd
President, New Jersey Federation of Republican Women

Randa Fahmy Hudome
Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy, Bush Administration

George Salem
Solicitor of Labor, Reagan Administration

Suhail Khan
Chairman, Conservative Inclusion Coalition

Forbes does them. So does the Princeton Review. Washington Monthly is in on the game. And, of course, there's the granddaddy of them all: U.S. News and World Report.

It seems that every day a new set of college rankings appears on the radar. Is it too much of a questionably good thing?

Some of the country's higher education critics have started to greet the rankings with a yawn. Evidently, the only thing surprising about the rankings is just how underwhelming they are.

Last year, CBS MoneyWatch's Lynn O'Shaughnessy called U.S. News' rankings "a high-stakes beauty contest." This year, she pokes fun at the inevitability of an Ivy League school taking the U.S. News No. 1 spot:

The magazine would save itself a lot of trouble if it just flipped a coin every year to determine who was No. 1 since there are only two contenders. Or perhaps the magazine could find a three-headed coin so Yale would also get a chance in the college rankings sweepstakes.

NPR's David Gura considers the larger picture:

Sure, the top 20 schools in both categories are rearranged annually, depending on undergraduate academic reputation, graduation and freshman retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and the alumni giving rate, among other things, but what does it really mean if, say, Harvard University supplants another Ivy League school, or the California Institute of Technology falls to No. 7? When I looked at schools, I was more-impressed by qualitative differences than quantitative ones. The quad! The library! The food! The stories about that much-beloved professor!

What do YOU think? Do the rankings mean anything to you? Join the discussion in the comments section.

WATCH: U.S. News and World Report senior education writer Kim Clark breaks down the rankings on the Today show.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More on College Rankings

Kobe Bryant was heckled Friday night in a restaurant in New York City with his wife and two daughters. According to the New York Post, some fans chanted "Go Boston" and "Celtics! Celtics!"

In perhaps a slight understatement, Bryant recently said that beating the Celtics in the 2010 NBA Finals was "enjoyable."

Bryant isn't the only NBA star who has been heckled during the offseason.

LeBron James has been jeered seemingly everywhere he goes ever since he decided to leave Cleveland and sign with the Miami Heat, whether he is in an amusement park or a friend's wedding. Even people wearing his jersey have been yelled at.

NBA fans have directed their taunts to LeBron's new teammate Chris Bosh as well. The 6-10 forward was heckled as he rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

More on NBA

Tyra Banks has issued a statement about the "America's Next Top Model" trailer featuring a contestant with seemingly the smallest waist ever. The clip showed Ann, six-foot-two, auditioning for the series and the judges beside themselves about the size of her midsection--Miss J was even able to wrap his hands around her. So what did Tyra say? Here's here full statement, as found on Grazia Fashion:

In an effort to create a fun and entertaining sneak peak of the upcoming cycle, America's Next Top Model released a trailer that was edited in way that misconstrued our overarching message.

As a leader in celebrating and promoting healthy body image, I must admit that I regrettably didn't see this clip before it was released to the public, (with multiple Top Model departments, it's just impossible to review everything) but on behalf of the Top Model team, these were not the intentions, and we truly apologize for any confusion, anger or disappointment it may have caused.

The passionate response the trailer has evoked proves that the message to promote and celebrate all different -- healthy and natural -- body types has resonated with our viewers and I'm so proud of every one of you who voiced your opinion and participated in this conversation. I have experienced body image scrutiny from one extreme to the next -- as an awkward, extremely thin pre-teen who couldn't gain weight no matter what I did, to later being slammed by the media for my fuller, curvier frame.

Driven by these personal experiences I am committed to expanding the definition of beauty which includes ALL shapes, sizes and proportions, from skinny to curvy and everything in between. It's about women telling the world to KISS their -- skinny, wide, droopy, flat, cellulite-covered or FAT -- you know what!

Through Top Model and my other platforms, I am able to connect with women directly. During this season of Top Model, you will see that Ann (the woman featured in the trailer) provided another opportunity for me to support a young woman struggling with her own body image issues (she's 6'2''; and is the receiver of countless stares and ridicule). Helping young ladies, like Ann and countless others that have confided in me, furthers and supports my core mission.

More on Models

CHICAGO — Trying to decide whether notes from jurors deliberating at the corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich are good for the defense or the prosecution has become a kind of parlor game for anyone closely scrutinizing the proceedings.

Much of it's guesswork, but many seem to believe the latest note – asking for transcripts of testimony from a former top Blagojevich aide – may be a more hopeful sign for prosecutors. Notes toward the end of last week seemed to offer the defense reason for optimism.

Tuesday is the 14th day of deliberations, and jurors are likely to start the day by going through transcripts of former deputy governor Bradley Tusk's testimony that the judge agreed on Monday to hand over to them.

Tusk testified that Blagojevich planned to hold up a $2 million grant to a school in then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel's district until his Hollywood-agent brother, Ari, held a fundraiser. Tusk testified that he ignored a Blagojevich directive to deliver the message to Emanuel, saying he thought the plan was "illegal and unethical."

Jeff Cramer, a former federal prosecutor not connected to the Blagojevich case, said Tusk was one of the prosecution's more credible witnesses because he, unlike other former Blagojevich aides who testified, never pleaded guilty to crimes or had immunity to appear.

"There's nothing good for the defense in this testimony," he added.

Nothing in the indictment of Blagojevich suggested that Emanuel – now President Barack Obama's chief of staff – was actually threatened. Emanuel has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Jurors sent a note to Zagel last Thursday signaling they were stuck on many of the 24 counts against Blagojevich and had agreed on only two. Zagel told them to deliberate further on 11 wire fraud counts that they had not considered.

Many observers took that note as a potentially positive development for the defense – a sign that jurors may, at the very least, were struggling to agree.

The jury then took the next three days off.

"I think we all woke up thinking (the jurors) will be back Monday, saying they are deadlocked," Cramer said. "This note says the government is still in the game."

The defense concern will now be that jurors will put too much emphasis on Tusk's testimony compared with other – perhaps weaker – testimony, said former federal prosecutor, Phil Turner.

"If jurors get that one transcript, they tend to look at it as gospel," he said.

Blagojevich, 53, has pleaded not guilty to all 24 counts, including charges he tried to sell or trade Obama's old Senate seat for a high-paying job or campaign cash. His 54-year-old brother, Robert Blagojevich, a Nashville, Tenn., businessman, faces four counts and also pleaded not guilty.

More on Rod Blagojevich

The University of Colorado needs to pass its green crown to Green Mountain College, a school in Vermont that celebrated last Earth Day by installing a biomass plant on its campus.

CU -- which was dubbed the greenest school in the country by Sierra Magazine last year -- dropped to No. 13 in this year's ratings, as the environmental editors placed extra scrutiny on energy sources to reflect its anti-coal stance.

More on Green Energy

Two weeks ago the Class-A affiliate of the New York Mets, the Savannah Sand Gnats, promoted an opportunity for a fan to light stuntman Ted Batchelor on fire before running the bases. Batchelor holds the Guinness World Record for the "Longest full-body burn without supplied oxygen" with a time of two minutes, 57 seconds. The Gnats fulfilled their promise on Saturday night and Batchelor successfully ran the bases. Scroll down to watch the video of the bizarre promotion.

WATCH:

More on Baseball

A Russian tycoon has told 6,000 workers at his private dairy company that they'll be fired if they've ever had an abortion, or if those who are "living in sin" don't get married within two months.

Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul says that he opposes developing plans for a mosque to be built in close proximity to "Ground Zero" in New York City.

The Tea Party-backed hopeful shared his take on the matter in an interview with Kentucky-based station WBKO on Monday.

According to the local outlet, Paul signaled his belief that members of the Muslim community would better off to make donations to the memorial site rather than construct a religious center close to where the World Trade Center towers stood prior to September 11, 2001.

During the sit down, the Senate hopeful also reportedly reiterated his skepticism of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants born in the country.

"We shouldn't provide an easy route to citizenship," explained Paul earlier this summer.

"I think we need to fight that out in the courts," he said. "If we lose, then I think we should amend the Constitution because I don't think the 14th amendment was meant to apply to illegal aliens. It was meant to apply to the children of slaves."

Despite expressing contentious positions during the interview with WBKO, Paul attempted to stay on message. He underscored, "I think the number one issue is the debt."

The conservative contender addressed the economic issue head-on at an event attended by Tea Party activists in Campbellsville, Ky. on Monday night.

The AP reports on what Paul had to say in criticizing federal payrolls as a sign of excess government spending:

Paul told about 20 tea party activists Monday evening in Campbellsville that the average federal worker makes $120,000 a year twice the salary of the average private worker. He said that bringing federal salaries in line with the private sector would save the government an estimated $47 billion a year.

Paul also took a poke at government workers in his speech, using a small business operator from London who has 56 workers as an example. Paul said that if the government took over his business, the 56 workers would complain they're having to work too hard and would want to hire more people so everyone could work less.

The Kentucky hopeful told WBKO he doesn't "think the traditional politicians are ever going to fix" the economic issues pervading the country.

"I bring a new perspective to things, and I'll force them to do things like balance a budget," explained Paul. "I see the future of Kentucky as being private jobs, where as the other side thinks we need more money in Washington. More people digging ditches and doing things like that."

WATCH:

More on 2010 Elections

More on Airlines

According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago.

More on Climate Change

Marin Software, a startup that creates search engine management software for advertisers and agencies, is now offering advanced applications for advertising on Facebook. Marin's Search Marketer platform now offers advertisers and agencies the ability to manage Facebook Ads alongside paid search programs on Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Advanced solutions for Facebook include algorithmic bidding, audience segmentation, and ad rotation features. Campaigns on Facebook can be segmented by gender, age, geography, or even likes and interests of audiences.

When we last left the story about the upstate New York man who is claiming he owns 84% of Facebook (Paul Ceglia), we had concluded that the digital "contract" Ceglia had produced was probably a fake. 

We had also noted that Ceglia needed to answer three questions before we were inclined to believe him:

1.  Where was the payment trail? Ceglia had only produced a $1,000 check stub, which only appeared to cover a single payment for contract development work on a Ceglia company called StreetFax.  There was no evidence that a second payment for $1,000 for 50% of "The Face Book" had been made.

3.  Where was the original paper-based contract and when would a judge and Facebook be able to examine it? 

2.  Why had Ceglia waited 7 years to file the claim?

Ceglia has since answered the last question, explaining that he only remembered the contract when he stumbled over it in his files last fall when the cops arrested him for grand larceny in connection with his wood-pellet business (Ceglia denies the charges).  We find that answer unconvincing, if amusing, because Facebook gained fame relatively quickly back in 2004 and 2005, and we suspect Ceglia would have remember the contract earlier if it were real.

So far, there's no word on the status of the paper-based contract.  Facebook has deemed the digital version a fake and pointed to several inconsistencies between the first and second pages of the contract to bolster this case.  Paper-based contracts are harder to fake than digital ones, so checking the original will help answer the "forgery" charge.

So that leaves the paper trail.

When he filed his claim, Ceglia produced a check stub showing a $1,000 payment to Mark Zuckerberg. This appeared to satisfy one of two payments in the digital contract.  It did not specify which of the two projects in the contract it was referring to (StreetFax, which appears to have been a real project, or "The Face Book," which Facebook says is the fabricated part of the contract. 

If Ceglia really had a contract with Mark Zuckberberg for $1,000 to buy half of "The Face Book," there ought to be a payment trail.  And the absence of one suggested that the whole claim was a fake. 

But now, according to the Wellsville Daily's John Anderson, who has been on the story from the beginning, Ceglia has produced an actual cancelled check to Mark Zuckerberg for $3,000.

Is this new check persuasive evidence of a payment trail for "The Face Book" project, which according to the contract Ceglia purchased a 50% stake in for $1,000?

No.

There are no marks on the cancelled check (a cashier's check) that tie it to "The Face Book."  There are also no marks that tie it to StreetFax, however, so Ceglia will presumably say that the $3,000 covered both the payment for "The Face Book" AND additional work-for-hire contract work on StreetFax.

Bottom line, the check does help Ceglia's case modestly in that it shows he paid more money to Mark Zuckerberg for something.  But Mark's story has always been that he did contract work for Ceglia, and this check could have just been for the contract work.  In short, there's nothing that proves (or suggests) that part of this $3,000 was to be used for a 50% ownership in "The Face Book."

For more coverage of this case from the Wellsville Daily, see these stories by John Anderson:

Here is the latest on the case moving:

http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/features/x1652684681/Facebook-back-to-Belmont

Here are two stories on the owning of Facebook:

http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/features/x109282307/Facebook-does-not-have-a-like-button-for-Ceglia

http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/highlight/x1693152058/Ceglias-Facebook-civil-suit-gaining-steam-in-court-and-with-the-media

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Guy Who Says He Owns Facebook Finally Explains Why He Waited 7 Years To Say So
• Checkbook Evidence Suggests Paul Ceglia's "Contract" For 84% Of Facebook Is Almost Certainly A Forgery
• And Now Three Questions For Paul Ceglia -- The Man Who Says He Owns 84% Of Facebook

CHICAGO — Political luminaries and members of the public are expected to attend the funeral services for former Congressman Dan Rostenkowski.

A Tuesday morning funeral Mass is planned at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Chicago, where Rostenkowski was baptized, confirmed and attended services all his life.

Rostenkowski served 18 terms in Congress.

He is known as one of the most powerful politicians of his time and is credited locally for bringing in millions of federal funds, although his legacy is tainted by a corruption conviction and federal prison time.

He died last week of lung cancer at age 82.

Rostenkowski burial is planned for Tuesday at St. Adalbert Cemetery in Niles.

AOL's hyperlocal Patch websites are like the Gremlins, right? They just keep on multiplying! Despite the fact that some of their employees are kind of pissed about working conditions, and that there's still no concrete evidence of how well Patch is doing in the traffic, ads, or becoming-profitable departments.

Earlier this year there were a paltry 30 Patches serving up community journalism in mostly affluent suburban locales with populations of around 15,000-75,000.

Today, that number has reached 100 with the launch of a Patch for Morristown, N.J. And The company also announced today that there will be 500 Patch sites nationwide by year's end, confirming what had been communicated in an internal memo back in February.

That means it will be recruiting an additional 500 journalists in 20 states, which seems to back up a claim AOL Media president David Eun made on an Internet Week panel in June that the company is on track to become the largest single hire-er of journalists in world, even if some of those journalists feel like they're working for a sweatshop. (We're still getting emails about Patch "horror stories.")

So the good news: Lots more community news hubs; lots more media jobs to offer. But will people keep wanting to take those jobs? (Probably.) And will Patch be able to sustain its wildly rapid expansion, or will its revenue model end up flopping?

Stay tuned...

In the meantime, check out Peter Kafka's interview yesterday with Patch Media President Warren Webster here.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• AOL's Patch Is A Sweatshop Of 70-Hour Work Weeks With No Vacation, Editor Says
• AOL Plans On Spending $50 Million To Build Hundreds Of Patch Sites
• Another Editor Bemoans AOL's Patch Labor Practices

Kim Kardashian graces the September cover of Allure (via Just Jared)

Inside she shares her beauty secrets and talks about her sex tape with Ray J, which arguably propelled her from Paris Hilton's sidekick to a boldfaced name herself.

On her sex tape: "Not my most proud moment, it was humiliating. But now let's move on. Not that I don't think it's no one's business, but I think I've done a good job with replacing negative things with positive things."

On her grooming routine: "I am Armenian, so of course I am obsessed with laser hair removal! Arms, bikini, legs, underarms...my entire body is hairless."

On her new $4 million home: "It was way above my price range, I saw it...and was like, 'This will be mine.'"

On her religious upbringing: "All the books we read before bed were, like, Bible-study books. Or little tales, like Samson and Delilah with cartoons. And my mom would have Bible study at the house with her girlfriends."

On her father, OJ layer Robert Kardashian: "I feel lazy when I'm not working. I learned all my business sense from my dad. He always believed in me, and I think the last thing he said to me before he passed away was, 'I know you're gonna be OK. I'm not worried about you.'"

More on The Kardashians

The Google Investor is a daily report from SAI. Sign up here to receive it by email.

GOOG On The Rise
Shares of GOOG are up with the broader markets after reports showed a slight improvement in the weak housing market and wholesale prices rose for the first time in three months. Stock specific catalysts for GOOG include continued Android and mobile traction; the release of Chrome operating system this fall; regained momentum in China; as well as progress in other newer initiatives (Google Me, gaming, etc.). The stock trades at approximately 13x Enterprise Value / EBIT, inexpensive relative to historical trading levels and the broader Internet group.

If Google TV Is Successful, It Could Change TV Advertising (Piper Jaffray)
Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray believes that Google TV is an opportunity for the company to change the future of TV advertising by bringing rich Internet data to target consumers and deliver traditional TV commercials on an individual basis. Gene estimates that the company could be in a position to add 1% to revenue in 2014 with testing starting in 2012. He believes that over time, this could be a meaningful contributor to revenue and give the company an additional growth driver (which investors are clamoring for).

Oracle Might Kill Android And Software Patents All At Once (RoughlyDrafted Magazine)
Daniel Eran Dilger is painting a gloomy picture of the future of Android if Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has his way. At issue is Oracle’s patent lawsuit against Google’s Android. This sounds like a simple patent shakedown or just an infringement case where Google will have to pay lots of money. However, Dilger believes it’s far more interesting because it could result in a concerted effort by Google to join Oracle and other tech giants to decommission the threat of software patent proliferation in the future.

Google Losing Search Share Even When Weeding Out Automated Searches (Business Insider)
ComScore has changed its methodology in measuring search market share. Interestingly, Google, which was perceived as losing share because of search gimmicks employed by Microsoft and Yahoo, lost share even with the new methodology. Henry Blodget at Business Insider believes that's the key message in the July results and the same message that has become loud and clear over the past year: The Google Market Share Express has come to a screeching halt. It now appears that Google will be lucky to cling to its mid-60% share.

YouTube Continues To Dominate Video Consumption (The Wall Street Journal)
Google-owned websites (YouTube, being the main source of traffic) continued to dominate U.S. online video viewing statistics in July with 143.2 million unique viewers, while Yahoo ranked a distant second at 55.1 million, according to comScore. Facebook jumped one slot to third with 46.6 million. In total, 85% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video in July with the average duration of 4.8 minutes per user.

Google Betting On Social Gaming (Forbes)
Google's recent acquisition spree (Slide, Jambool, investment in Zynga) obviously signals the company's devotion to social gaming to take on the likes of Facebook. Such a product would certainly have big implications for social gaming, an area that even traditional game publishers like Electronic Arts have been trying to break into.

Google Near Like.com Acquisition (TechCrunch)
Google is in the final stages of acquiring visual search and e-commerce firm Like.com for more than $100 million. It seems as though Google wants to experiment with a new kind of search technology that appears to be getting traction.

Revival Of Commercial Paper Use Led By Google (Bloomberg)
Google is leading a revival in commercial paper as non-financial companies grab the biggest share of the $1.1 trillion U.S. market from banks since 2002 amid lower borrowing costs. The company started a commercial paper program last month for as much as $3 billion. Many corporations boost commercial paper use to refinance more expensive debt, fund acquisitions and meet day-to-day expenses but use also signals a confidence in the economy.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Google Gains Meaningful Reach With DirecTV Partnership
• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: A 'Hold' Rated Stock As Other Belles Come To The Ball
• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Android Alone Is Outselling All Of Apple's iOS Devices

(AP) JERUSALEM - A former Israeli soldier who posted photos on Facebook of herself in uniform smiling beside bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners said Tuesday her actions were "thoughtless." But she insisted she did not humiliate the detainees and said she was surprised the pictures were viewed as offensive.

Eden Aberjil struck a defensive tone in a pair of radio interviews, claiming that she did not do anything wrong and that similar things take place "every day" in the army.

Both the Israeli army and Palestinian officials condemned Aberjil over the photographs -- one of which was accompanied by an exchange with a friend including jokes and sexual innuendoes. Because she has completed her mandatory service, however, it's unclear whether she will face any disciplinary action.

Speaking to Israel's Army Radio station, Aberjil called her decision to post the photos, taken in 2008 near the Gaza Strip, "thoughtless and innocent." But she added: "I still don't understand what wasn't OK."

"There was no statement in the photos about violence, about disrespect, about anything that would hurt that person. I just had my picture taken with someone in the background," she said. "When I understood that so many people were hurt by those pictures, I removed them."

In a separate interview, Aberjil lashed out at the international uproar over the pictures, which were vaguely reminiscent of the snapshots taken in 2003 by American soldiers at an Iraqi prison showing Iraqi detainees, humiliated and terrified. In contrast, the Israeli pictures showed no signs of physical abuse or coercion, and Aberjil denounced any comparisons.

"I did not humiliate those detainees. I didn't hit them, I didn't act toward them unpleasantly. It's completely different than the American soldier some are trying to compare me to," she told Israel Radio.

She said she was shocked by the international interest in the story, adding she had received calls from European and American media outlets. She attacked her local critics, saying they were more concerned about international criticism than protecting a soldier who bravely served her country.

"This is something that happens every day in the army, especially at bases like this," she said, without giving evidence. She called the army's criticism of her a "disgrace," saying she "endangered her life for the country."

Contacted by The Associated Press, Aberjil said she did not want to speak to the international media.

Palestinians are routinely handcuffed and blindfolded when they are arrested to stop them from trying to flee.

One photo showed Aberjil sitting beside a blindfolded Palestinian man slumped against a concrete barrier, while she leans toward him with her face upturned. Another shows her smiling at the camera with three blindfolded Palestinian men behind her.

The photos, taken in 2008 near the Gaza Strip, drew sharp criticism from the Israeli military, pro-Palestinian advocacy groups and Palestinian officials.

Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib condemned the photos and said they pointed to a deeper malaise -- how Israel's 43-year-old occupation of Palestinians has affected the Israelis who enforce it.

"This shows the mentality of the occupier," Khatib said, "to be proud of humiliating Palestinians. The occupation is unjust, immoral and, as these pictures show, corrupting."

Yehuda Shaul of Breaking the Silence, a group of former Israeli combat officers that criticizes Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, said the pictures showed how Israel's occupation of the Palestinians has become "so routine ... you lose the ability to see them as human beings."

Capt. Barak Raz, an Israeli military spokesman, said the pictures amount to "a serious violation of our morals and our ethical code."

Although her former commanders have been informed of the pictures, it is not clear whether the army can punish Aberjil because she has finished her compulsory military service.

A report released today reveals a 36 percent gap in the high school graduation rates between black and white males in Illinois. In Chicago public schools, the black male high school graduation rate is only 44 percent.

Social activists and civil rights leaders, among them the Rev. Al Sharpton, are planning marches and demonstrations -- including the unveiling of a nearly four-story-tall original sculpture on the Mall -- on Aug. 28 to coincide with a rally organized by Fox News personality Glenn Beck.

More on Glenn Beck