Talk about blaming the messenger — falsely, I might add — for the deadly riots in Afghanistan and in Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia over the “desecration of the Quran at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay”! Geeesh. (Sorry for so much boldface, but those are the headlines at these righty blogs.)
Newsweek sparks global riots with one paragraph on Koran
— Timesonline UK
RoP Riots Over Newsweek Article
— Little Green Footballs
299 Words from Newsweek … have yielded death in the streets of Kabul.
— Roger L. Simon
More on Newsweek’s Riots
— Sisyphean Musings
O.M.G. Look at this headline:
Afghan Riots Not Tied to Report on Quran Handling, General Says
“The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff says a report from Afghanistan suggests that rioting in Jalalabad on May 11 was not necessarily connected to press reports that the Quran might have been desecrated in the presence of Muslim prisoners held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. … Air Force General Richard Myers told reporters at the Pentagon May 12 that he has been told that the Jalalabad, Afghanistan, rioting was related more to the ongoing political reconciliation process in Afghanistan than anything else.”
— U.S. State Dept. USINFO, Washington File.
I’ll be darned. Well, never mind. Why let the chairman of the Joint Chiefs get in the way of bashing Newsweek? Sisyphean Musings adds … more below …
Cross-posted at DailyKos.
_______________________
Sisyphean Musings’ Tim Schmoyer muses:
I don’t remember, were Michael Isikoff and John Barry on the ballot or given War Powers? I mean, inflaming the entire Islamic world based on “sources tell NEWSWEEK” seems pretty heady stuff, ya’ know?
Tim added his musings just below this quote from a Washington Post article:
Riots began in Afghanistan and Pakistan this week in part because of a Newsweek report that military investigators had confirmed allegations by FBI agents on detainee abuse, including an incident in which at least one Koran was thrown into a toilet. But military sources said yesterday that FBI agents made no such allegation and that the military did not look into Koran desecration.
<P.
Emphases mine.
OKAY — I count at least two attorneys, several Kuwaitis, one Afghan, and three Britons among those reporting the desecration of the Koran. And WaPo says the riots occurred in part because of the Newsweek article.
Where does this rightwing joker get off accusing Isikoff and Barry of excessive hubris and war-mongering by using anonymous sources?
Are they all wrong? Is the WaPo right about Newsweek’s reporting? What do you think?
I’m disappointed in you, Suze. Don’t you realize that if it’s not reported in the mainstream press, it never happened?
Sheesh. Where ya’ been?
I’m sorry.
I can’t stay mad at you, sweetie.
P.S. What does RofP stand for? Little Green Footballs doesn’t explain.
P.P.S. I think it’s just terrible that Newsweek singlehandedly caused worldwide hatred of America.
Republic of Pakistan, I’m guessing.
Look at the little story I just found and added above the fold. Darn it all. What did Gen’l Myers have to get in the way of a good angle?
And then why did the U.S. State Dept. have to issue the story? Party poopers. It was so much fun bashing Newsweek.
That General Myers must hate America.
I read today at DKos that returning Gitmo prisoners have
been telling bad things about their sojourn there to people in Muslim nations.
Ungrateful ex-prisoners, I should say.
Gotta love it, it’s the same script as the AG photos, the Iraqis didn’t know they were being tortured until they saw those pesky photos.
Newsweek did all this? Well then, as Jon Stewart would say “Damn you Newsweek!”
A magazine article can singlehandedly start and inflame riots across ten countries? Who knew?
The warning came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-U.S. protests across the country since U.S. forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted President Bush to handle the matter honestly “and hand the culprits over to an Islamic country for punishment.”
“If that does not happen within three days, we will launch a jihad against America,” said a statement issued by about 300 clerics, referring to Muslim holy war, after meeting in a mosque in the provincial capital, Faizabad.
The statement was read out by Abdul Fatah Fayeq, the top judicial official in the mountainous, conservative province near the borders of Tajikistan and China.
Muslim clerics have traditionally been teachers and leaders in Afghan society and throughout its history they have rallied public opinion and sometimes led uprisings against unpopular rulers and foreign occupiers. link
.
Need to say no more!
Afghan Stone Age ¶ German troops stoned in Badakhshan province
by Oui Tue Apr 26th, 2005
© Steve McCurry
This is a world famous photograph taken decades ago of a young Afghan girl, by Steve McCurry and published Front Page for National Geographics. Recently, a documentary was made to revisit this Afghan woman. An iris scan was needed to proof the true person, she was found. An amazing story.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
and other crusader partner nations to repatriate their gunmen at this time.
The weekly news magazine said in its May 23 edition that the original source of the allegation was not sure where he saw the assertion that at least one copy of the Koran was flushed down a toilet in an attempt to get detainees to talk.
“We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst,” Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in the magazine’s latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday. link
editor got a call from Porter Goss. Message received and understood.
.
I won’t bother to translate full news report on Dutch TV – indicates OSI works globally.
Refers to Newsweek source within the Pentagon. After thorough search by Pentagon officials, indication is no such treatment of Quran at Guantanamo Bay can be proven.
[End of story]
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
greater success inside the US than out.
It is understandable that the US may have not anticipated some gentle questioning even on the domestic front, especially since it has been going on, and reported on, for years, and few Americans have expressed displeasure.
In the big picture, however, the story, like the fate of the US itself, has been placed firmly in the hands of the recollections of the survivors.
WTF?!