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’m just wondering, in case Newsweek got it wrong, where will the correction be published? You know, since it was anonymously sourced and all.


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:

Earlier this year, lawyers representing Kuwaitis held at Guantanamo said their clients told them that military police threw at least one Koran into a toilet. A released Afghan named Ehsannullah told The Washington Post in 2003 that U.S. soldiers taunted him by doing the same thing. Three Britons released last year also said Korans were put into toilets by U.S. guards.


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?

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