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gnjsdad
Guest
Inaccurate or not, the damage is done. Given what we know occurred at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, this wouldn’t be far-fetched at all – which is why Muslims are reacting the way they are.
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David_Paul
Guest
Oh yeah sure. What the liberal media (which wants Americans dead so Democrats will win the next election) reports on those two prisons is far, far worse than sawing off people’s heads and plowing airliners into building.
Get a grip man. Come back to planet earth.
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Lisa_N
Guest
Oh PUH-LEASE. You compare some guy pictured with women’s underwear on his head or fake menstrual blood dripped on a prisoner with suicide bombings, riots, and beheadings. Well at least you’ve got your priorities clear.
Lisa N
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gilliam
Guest
Everyone should realize that the typical punishment for speaking out against Saddam, right up to the liberation, was to have your tongue cut out and left to bleed to death.
Those who passed information to the West about anything, were killed, their sons, brothers, and fathers were also killed.
Today, the Baathists and Islamisists in Iraq kidnap kids, and threaten to kill them unless their father blows himself up.
We are fighting real evil here. Remember, the devil wants us to think the his agents are fine, it is us who are fowled up.
Those who passed information to the West about anything, were killed, their sons, brothers, and fathers were also killed.
Today, the Baathists and Islamisists in Iraq kidnap kids, and threaten to kill them unless their father blows himself up.
We are fighting real evil here. Remember, the devil wants us to think the his agents are fine, it is us who are fowled up.
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Sgt_Sweaters
Guest
Too bad apologies don’t make up for 16 deaths. Blatant irresponsibility.
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Thekla
Guest
What is interesting is that when the British detainees who were released from Guantanamo told their stories, it was generally ignored. But an “unnamed source in the Pentagon” says there has been an investigation and it’s worth being printed in Newsweek.
"But the Newsweek report was only the latest in a series of allegations by detainees that go back at least to March 2004 when three British detainees were released from Guantanamo.
The three Britons alleged in a joint statement that Guantanamo guards kicked and threw around prison-issued Korans and on occasion threw them in buckets that served as toilets."
"But the Newsweek report was only the latest in a series of allegations by detainees that go back at least to March 2004 when three British detainees were released from Guantanamo.
The three Britons alleged in a joint statement that Guantanamo guards kicked and threw around prison-issued Korans and on occasion threw them in buckets that served as toilets."
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Thekla
Guest
They had only to look at what the British detainees had said.
"But the Newsweek report was only the latest in a series of allegations by detainees that go back at least to March 2004 when three British detainees were released from Guantanamo.
The three Britons alleged in a joint statement that Guantanamo guards kicked and threw around prison-issued Korans and on occasion threw them in buckets that served as toilets."
"But the Newsweek report was only the latest in a series of allegations by detainees that go back at least to March 2004 when three British detainees were released from Guantanamo.
The three Britons alleged in a joint statement that Guantanamo guards kicked and threw around prison-issued Korans and on occasion threw them in buckets that served as toilets."
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Thekla
Guest
Old, old, news from our lazy media.
"The allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo published by Newsweek on May 9, 2005, are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it. Prior to the Newsweek article, the New York Times reported a Guantanamo insider asserting that the commander of the facility was compelled by prisoner protests to address the problem and issue an apology.
One such incident (during which the Koran was allegedly thrown in a pile and stepped on) prompted a hunger strike among Guantanamo detainees in March 2002. Regarding this, the New York Times in a May 1, 2005, article interviewed a former detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, who said the protest ended with a senior officer delivering an apology to the entire camp. And the Times reports: “A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans.” (Neil A. Lewis and Eric Schmitt, “Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantanamo Bay,” New York Times, May 1, 2005.)
The hunger strike and apology story is also confirmed by another former detainee, Shafiq Rasul, interviewed by the UK Guardian in 2003 (James Meek, “The People the Law Forgot,” Dec. 3, 2003). It was also confirmed by former prisoner Jamal al-Harith in an interview with the Daily Mirror (Rosa Prince and Gary Jones, “My Hell in Camp X-Ray,” Daily Mirror, March 12, 2004).
The toilet incident was reported in the Washington Post in a 2003 interview with a former detainee from Afghanistan:
Desecration of the Koran was also mentioned by former Guantanamo detainee Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost and reported by the BBC in early May 2005. (Haroon Rashid, “Ex-Inmates Share Guantanamo Ordeal,” May 2, 2005.)
"The allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo published by Newsweek on May 9, 2005, are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it. Prior to the Newsweek article, the New York Times reported a Guantanamo insider asserting that the commander of the facility was compelled by prisoner protests to address the problem and issue an apology.
One such incident (during which the Koran was allegedly thrown in a pile and stepped on) prompted a hunger strike among Guantanamo detainees in March 2002. Regarding this, the New York Times in a May 1, 2005, article interviewed a former detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, who said the protest ended with a senior officer delivering an apology to the entire camp. And the Times reports: “A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans.” (Neil A. Lewis and Eric Schmitt, “Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantanamo Bay,” New York Times, May 1, 2005.)
The hunger strike and apology story is also confirmed by another former detainee, Shafiq Rasul, interviewed by the UK Guardian in 2003 (James Meek, “The People the Law Forgot,” Dec. 3, 2003). It was also confirmed by former prisoner Jamal al-Harith in an interview with the Daily Mirror (Rosa Prince and Gary Jones, “My Hell in Camp X-Ray,” Daily Mirror, March 12, 2004).
The toilet incident was reported in the Washington Post in a 2003 interview with a former detainee from Afghanistan:
Desecration of the Koran was also mentioned by former Guantanamo detainee Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost and reported by the BBC in early May 2005. (Haroon Rashid, “Ex-Inmates Share Guantanamo Ordeal,” May 2, 2005.)
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Panis_Angelicas
Guest
Random thoughts:
eBay must be very grateful that Catholics are not “religious extremists…”
So, Americans allegedly desecrate a book of sacred religious writings and their senior officer apologizes…
Have we heard apologies from the terrorists who sawed the heads off of innocent human beings?
With the reports of those desecrated pages comes rioting in the streets, resulting in over a dozen deaths…
And the liberal media thinks we’re “religious extremists”…
Does MSM have no concept of religious extremism, how to fuel it, and what can happen once that fire is ignited?
Of course they do…
Yet, they tossed a match onto gasoline…
Americans are now revolting: Everywhere across the USA, one can hear the flushing of toilets as Americans desecrate their issues of Newsweek.
eBay must be very grateful that Catholics are not “religious extremists…”
So, Americans allegedly desecrate a book of sacred religious writings and their senior officer apologizes…
Have we heard apologies from the terrorists who sawed the heads off of innocent human beings?
With the reports of those desecrated pages comes rioting in the streets, resulting in over a dozen deaths…
And the liberal media thinks we’re “religious extremists”…
Does MSM have no concept of religious extremism, how to fuel it, and what can happen once that fire is ignited?
Of course they do…
Yet, they tossed a match onto gasoline…
Americans are now revolting: Everywhere across the USA, one can hear the flushing of toilets as Americans desecrate their issues of Newsweek.
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Fitz
Guest
Panis Angelicas:
This is one lawsuit I would applaud. How terribly irresponsible of Newsweek.
I never have subscribe to this publication and sometime I read it at the doctors office. I hope people do revolt and they notice it. I really want them to notice it. I wish the families of those soldiers or other citizens that were killed during this rioting would sue Newsweek.
This is one lawsuit I would applaud. How terribly irresponsible of Newsweek.
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space_ghost
Guest
…lets see here… Newsweek got the story wrong, discovered their source was incorrect, has apologized several times… and that’s still not ok… we are a christian bunch, and the last thing any of us are going to do is forgive…
we go into a country and kill thousands, discovered our sources were wrong, didn’t apologize… and we are going to continue to kill and we know from our own intellegence now that we entered into this mess given bogus information…
… i irony is amazing…
we go into a country and kill thousands, discovered our sources were wrong, didn’t apologize… and we are going to continue to kill and we know from our own intellegence now that we entered into this mess given bogus information…
… i irony is amazing…
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Franze
Guest
Do you like the calumnies, IMO not
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gilliam
Guest
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wabrams
Guest
Just rememeber, if Fox News or Newsmax first broke the story then back tracked, no one here would have a problem.
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space_ghost
Guest
…given our recent history can you not understand their skeptisism?
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gilliam
Guest
space ghost:
Nope. But that doesn’t mean our media should propagate enemy propaganda either. This is a war about winning hearts and minds above all else.
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gilliam
Guest
As seen from Iraq:
The “Quran desecration” crisis has made the news all over the last several days but it seems over now as the original source says now that the reports of the descretion were incorrect.
Michelle Malkin links to an article on the Times (UK) online that covered parts of the issue:
*AT LEAST nine people were killed yesterday as a wave of anti-American demonstrations swept the Islamic world from the Gaza Strip to the Java Sea, sparked by a single paragraph in a magazine alleging that US military interrogators had desecrated the Koran… *
*The unrest began this week after Newsweek published an allegation that American military interrogators had desecrated the Islamic holy book in an effort to rattle detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The report said that they had placed the Koran on the lavatory inside inmates’ cells and had “in at least one case, flushed a holy book down the toilet” . *
I thinks this irresponsible and reckless behavior at the end of the media must not pass unquestioned (some reasonable punishment won’t be a bad idea though) because people were killed in some countries just because some reporter thought it was cool to write about a subject considered irritating by millions of people. I’m not trying to justify the riots here; on the contrary, I’m against them but (and correct me if I’m wrong) one must not put matches near gasoline.
I haven’t payed any attention to this story from the beginning plus, it’s technically impossible to flush a 700 page medium sized-if not large-book down a toilet!!
What is interesting is that Iraq witnessed no demonstration at all, not even a single statement of denoencemnet from anyone although Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya kept running updates on this subject almost every news-hour and have always talked about the descretion incident as if it were confirmed news.
If this is to indicate anything I think it indicvates that Iraqis are more concerned about their own lives than they’re about the “issues” of the Islamic world’s dignity and more important (and here I see our community approaching a turning point) is that people are giving the media less credit than they used to do.
Update: FOX video clip covering the Newsweek’s screw up and “apology” here and a longer one here.
The “Quran desecration” crisis has made the news all over the last several days but it seems over now as the original source says now that the reports of the descretion were incorrect.
Michelle Malkin links to an article on the Times (UK) online that covered parts of the issue:
*AT LEAST nine people were killed yesterday as a wave of anti-American demonstrations swept the Islamic world from the Gaza Strip to the Java Sea, sparked by a single paragraph in a magazine alleging that US military interrogators had desecrated the Koran… *
*The unrest began this week after Newsweek published an allegation that American military interrogators had desecrated the Islamic holy book in an effort to rattle detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The report said that they had placed the Koran on the lavatory inside inmates’ cells and had “in at least one case, flushed a holy book down the toilet” . *
I thinks this irresponsible and reckless behavior at the end of the media must not pass unquestioned (some reasonable punishment won’t be a bad idea though) because people were killed in some countries just because some reporter thought it was cool to write about a subject considered irritating by millions of people. I’m not trying to justify the riots here; on the contrary, I’m against them but (and correct me if I’m wrong) one must not put matches near gasoline.
I haven’t payed any attention to this story from the beginning plus, it’s technically impossible to flush a 700 page medium sized-if not large-book down a toilet!!
What is interesting is that Iraq witnessed no demonstration at all, not even a single statement of denoencemnet from anyone although Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya kept running updates on this subject almost every news-hour and have always talked about the descretion incident as if it were confirmed news.
If this is to indicate anything I think it indicvates that Iraqis are more concerned about their own lives than they’re about the “issues” of the Islamic world’s dignity and more important (and here I see our community approaching a turning point) is that people are giving the media less credit than they used to do.
Update: FOX video clip covering the Newsweek’s screw up and “apology” here and a longer one here.
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gilliam
Guest
from: rogerlsimon.com/
Austin Bay is calling it "The Press’ Abu Ghraib". And now even The Huffington Post is getting on the band wagon.
BTW, I may seem to be taking this lightly, but there is a strong argument to be made that this is more serious than Rathergate. This is journalism at its most insidious and dangerous. *Newsweek *may end up having to fire some of its editorial staff, as well as the reporters involved. I watched their Washington bureau chief Dan Klaidman on the Geraldo Show tonight and he looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. His answers were weak and evasive. How strange and almost willfully unaware it is that they do not realize, after all this time, the obvious truth about dealing with a crisis - get out front with complete honesty and total transparency, not just a half-hearted semi-apology. But perhaps they don’t understand what being transparent is anymore. That is the behavior of a nomenklatura. And like the more famous nomenklatura, some day we may look up and find they are not there.
UPDATE: The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, himself obviously a member of that clase media, does triple hand stands and double contortions in the Monday morning WaPo to appear somewhat even-handed or even mitigating in a situation that is a disaster for the parent company as well. (As I’m sure most of you know, the Washington Post owns Newsweek.) Still the truth leaks out in some mighty peculiar quotes from Michael Isikoff, the co-author of the story, who says:
“Obviously we all feel horrible about what flowed from this, but it’s important to remember there was absolutely no lapse in journalistic standards here,” he said. “We relied on sources we had every reason to trust and gave the Pentagon ample opportunity to comment. . . . We’re going to continue to investigate what remains a very murky situation.” [ellipsis Kurtz’s]
Well, I don’t know how “horrible” Isikoff feels, but I’m sure he’s having second thoughts in the sense of that old LA Weekly cartoon, “Nuclear War? There goes my career!” But if that’s his idea of “no lapse in journalistic standards,” he would have fit right in writing apologies for Beria in Pravda. And as for the issue of the Pentagon not commenting, consider this. Newsweek sends you an article saying that an “anonymous source” has seen US soldiers in Guantanamo dumping the Koran down a toilet. You never heard anything about this but Newsweek claims to have a source who has. And you do not know who the source is and you don’t know what he’s seen. Do you deny or do you wait? I would wait, because (unlike Newsweek obviously) I do not want to be caught in a lie.
No, Mr. Isikoff, that dog won’t hunt and you know it… As for me, I know what to stuff down my toilet - Newsweek. *I thought you said it wouldn’t fit.-ed *I meant my outhouse.]
rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2005/05/more_on_newswee.php
Austin Bay is calling it "The Press’ Abu Ghraib". And now even The Huffington Post is getting on the band wagon.
BTW, I may seem to be taking this lightly, but there is a strong argument to be made that this is more serious than Rathergate. This is journalism at its most insidious and dangerous. *Newsweek *may end up having to fire some of its editorial staff, as well as the reporters involved. I watched their Washington bureau chief Dan Klaidman on the Geraldo Show tonight and he looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. His answers were weak and evasive. How strange and almost willfully unaware it is that they do not realize, after all this time, the obvious truth about dealing with a crisis - get out front with complete honesty and total transparency, not just a half-hearted semi-apology. But perhaps they don’t understand what being transparent is anymore. That is the behavior of a nomenklatura. And like the more famous nomenklatura, some day we may look up and find they are not there.
UPDATE: The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, himself obviously a member of that clase media, does triple hand stands and double contortions in the Monday morning WaPo to appear somewhat even-handed or even mitigating in a situation that is a disaster for the parent company as well. (As I’m sure most of you know, the Washington Post owns Newsweek.) Still the truth leaks out in some mighty peculiar quotes from Michael Isikoff, the co-author of the story, who says:
“Obviously we all feel horrible about what flowed from this, but it’s important to remember there was absolutely no lapse in journalistic standards here,” he said. “We relied on sources we had every reason to trust and gave the Pentagon ample opportunity to comment. . . . We’re going to continue to investigate what remains a very murky situation.” [ellipsis Kurtz’s]
Well, I don’t know how “horrible” Isikoff feels, but I’m sure he’s having second thoughts in the sense of that old LA Weekly cartoon, “Nuclear War? There goes my career!” But if that’s his idea of “no lapse in journalistic standards,” he would have fit right in writing apologies for Beria in Pravda. And as for the issue of the Pentagon not commenting, consider this. Newsweek sends you an article saying that an “anonymous source” has seen US soldiers in Guantanamo dumping the Koran down a toilet. You never heard anything about this but Newsweek claims to have a source who has. And you do not know who the source is and you don’t know what he’s seen. Do you deny or do you wait? I would wait, because (unlike Newsweek obviously) I do not want to be caught in a lie.
No, Mr. Isikoff, that dog won’t hunt and you know it… As for me, I know what to stuff down my toilet - Newsweek. *I thought you said it wouldn’t fit.-ed *I meant my outhouse.]
rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2005/05/more_on_newswee.php
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space_ghost
Guest
… this war is about oil…
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gilliam
Guest
space ghost:
The 1991 war was about oil. The Liberation of Iraq has never been about oil. The US never figured to win oil reserves by liberating Iraq. You really need to read the history. I would highly recommend you start with Woodward’s Plan of Attack.
- Status