Update [2005-5-16 8:20:43 by susanhbu]: Atrios –“It’s the fabulous Karl Rove poison the messenger approach to news. Don’t like reality? Make up a new one!” — Juan Cole, Buzzflash, WNYC, whohijackedourcountry, The Common Ills, and — of course — FrontPage Mag, Little Green Footballs, and SisypheanMusings have picked up this story.

SisypheanMusings, Booman, and I are having an “exchange” in the comments section. Join us there! (You know how we liberals love to foment riots by extremists.)

Of note: Juan Cole‘s informing entry is in particular worth reading.

Cross-posted at DailyKos. The pressure on Newsweek must be intense. The entire rightwing media machine descended on the magazine, blaming its report for riots in Afghanistan, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia. Even a UK newspaper headlined Newsweek’s guilt for the global riots. What did Newsweek publish?

“May 9 issue – Investigators probing interrogation abuses at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay have confirmed some infractions alleged in internal FBI e-mails that surfaced late last year. Among the previously unreported cases, sources tell NEWSWEEK: interrogators, in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a Qur’an down a toilet and led a detainee around with a collar and dog leash. …”


That’s it. But today we’re seeing these reports everywhere:

Newsweek magazine backed away Sunday from a report that U.S. interrogators desecrated copies of the Quran while questioning prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay naval base — an account blamed for sparking violent riots in Afghanistan. (CNN)


Even the Pentagon is pinning all the trouble on Newsweek:

Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita blamed Newsweek’s report for the unrest in Muslim countries.


“People are dying. They are burning American flags. Our forces are in danger,” he told CNN.


But there are a couple problems with the blame-Newsweek tack:


1. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, in a U.S. State Dept.-issued press release on May 12, said the Newsweek story isn’t a chief cause of the riots: ” [H]e has been told that the Jalalabad, Afghanistan, rioting was related more to the ongoing political reconciliation process in Afghanistan than anything else.”


2. I’ve found four reports to back up Newsweek‘s sources on the desecration of Korans belonging to Guantanamo detainees. I can probably, easily, find more. Below:
The four instances I found:


1. From The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 20, 2005:

Lawyers allege abuse of 12 at Guantanamo


By Frank Davies


Inquirer Washington Bureau


[…………………..]


Some detainees complained of religious humiliation, saying guards had defaced their copies of the Koran and, in one case, had thrown it in a toilet, said Kristine Huskey [an attorney in Washington, D.C.], who interviewed clients late last month. Others said that pills were hidden in their food and that people came to their cells claiming to be their attorneys, to gain information.


“All have been physically abused, and, however you define the term, the treatment of these men crossed the line,” [attorney Tom] Wilner said. “There was torture, make no mistake about it.” …


2. From the Center for Constitutional Rights, New York City, NY and linked as a footnote in a Human Rights Watch report:

72.They were never given prayer mats and initially they didn’t get a Koran. When the Korans were provided, they were kicked and thrown about by the guards and on occasion thrown in the buckets used for the toilets. This kept happening. When it
happened it was always said to be an accident but it was a recurrent theme


3. From the Center for Constitutional Rights, New York City, NY and linked as a footnote in a Human Rights Watch report:

74. Asif says that ‘it was impossible to pray because initially we did not know the direction to pray, but also given that we couldn’t move and the harassment from the guards, it was simply not feasible. The behaviour of the guards towards our religious practices as well as the Koran was also, in my view, designed to cause us as much distress as possible. They would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet and generally disrespect it. It is clear to me that the conditions in our cells and our general treatment were designed by the officers in charge of the interrogation process to “soften us up”’.


4. From the Center for Constitutional Rights, New York City, NY and linked as a footnote in a Human Rights Watch report:


Statement of Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed, “Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay,” released publicly on August 4, 2004, para. 72, 74, available online at:
http://www.ccr-
ny.org/v2/reports/docs/
Gitmo=compositestatementFINAL23july04.pdf,
accessed on August 19, 2004. The disrespect of the Koran by guards at Camp X-Ray was one of the factors prompting a hunger strike. Ibid., para. 111-117.


There are more. This should suffice for now.


I see this incident this way: Newsweek has good sources for its allegations, but has backed off because it’s find itself in a public relations nightmare.


Newsweek has foresaken journalism to save what it perceives as its own hide.


I hope you’ll all speak up, amplify, and point out areas where we might look further:


I will repeat the inflammatory headlines I found at rightwing blogs yesterday:


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


Following all this, and surely some pressure from the Pentagon — since a Pentagon spokesperson (see above the fold) has blamed Newsweek for the riots, Newsweek began a hasty retreat.

_______________________________


Update [2005-5-16 0:14:51 by SusanHu]:


The tale of two stories at the Washington Post:


“British Intelligence Warned of Iraq War“

By Walter Pincus

May 13, 2005

— Page A18 —

“Newsweek Apologizes: Inaccurate Report on Koran Led to Riot”
By Howard Kurtz

May 16, 2005

— Page A01 —