WP: Kurtz
Whitaker is right. He should have foreseen the consequences on the Muslim “street” if he published an account, verified by a government source, of the United States of America desecrating a Quran by flushing it down the toilet. He might have considered whether that information would cause damage to our foreign relations and put our troops at increased risk. But Whitaker is not the person who decided to use religious humiliation and Quranic desecration as an interrogation technique. Someone else made that decision, and Rumsfeld signed off on it.
That makes the following all the more galling:
:::Flip:::
As Susan has made abundantly clear, there are multiple sources for Quranic desecration. In no way can the Pentagon claim that these charges are “demonstrably false”. In fact, they fit neatly into a pattern of abuse and sacrilege that we have seen emerge again and again.
It is no secret that we are torturing people, that we are using proxies to torture people, that we have been serial violators of the Geneva Conventions, that we have killed numerous captives, that we have tried to exploit Muslim concepts of ritual cleanliness by smearing fake menstrual blood on detainees and then denying them water for washing.
We may have used fake Qurans to flush down the toilets. It hardly matters if they were fake.
The salient point is this: We know Newsweek got the story right. And we know they, and their source, are retracting the story now because it is the national interests to do so. Fine.
But let’s be clear about where the blame falls. We can have this pantomime of outrage and lashing of Newsweek… it’s all part of the retraction process. But the real retraction would be the reversal of the decision to keep Donald Rumsfeld on as Secretary of Defense.
The brain-dead sheep overlook the obvious, yet are so fucking stupid, that they will chant the liberal media, hate American, unpatriotic bullshit chant. The brain-dead sheep, aiding and abetting the criminals in charge in the WH…. Sheep that chant the mantra of this dictatorship, MUST be held accountable.
Great rant! Very well reasoned. It does fall at Rumsfeld’s feet which makes the rants by the rightwing bloggers all the more despicable. They’re never accountable for any U.S. wrongdoing.
They believe the Pentagon when they call this story ‘demonstrably untrue’. How has it been demonstrated?
All that has been demonstrated is that everyone, except Pentagon officials, that have any contact with Gitmo, say we are abusing detainees.
arguments that the lives of torturers are endangered by reporting the torture.
I do not pretend to know what twisted tangleturd Washington has in mind with this mess, but this is hardly the first time that this and other atrocities have been reported.
Indeed, they are frequently linked by the crusadeers themselves in order to terrorize those who have not yet been seized, both at home and abroad.
And there is a standard response: “we are investigating some reports of isolated incidents involving a few bad apples that may have engaged in some conduct that may have contained an element of inappropriateness,” followed by show trials of a couple of disposable wetworkers.
And remember all this is for domestic consumption.
The recollections of victims have more credibility than either NewsWeek or Washington, with those to whom have been given the power to decide your future, or lack thereof.
When reports of flushing and urinating on the Koran first emerged, no one in the east was shocked.
The Majority World does not have unrealistic expectations about Americans.
is that we have two choices. Arrest our senior government officials and send them to the Hague for crimes against humanity, or fuzzifying all reports of Geneva violations by leaking/denying.
The leaking/denying is certainly better than just the leaking. But nowhere near as effective as the Hague route.
With putting our own trees to use ?? No wonder why this gang, wants to clear-cut the forests.
A great rant! Really, how can anyone fall for the idea that it’s the report of the crime that is to blame, not the crime itself?
And I’ve been roaming the net too, reading many earlier allegations of the same crime. It’s not anything new.
I’m still curious about the timing of the riots and the real story there.
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Part of interrogation technique is to undermine Muslim faith of Gitmo detainees. On BBC World, interview with former translator at Guatanamo Bay, Erik Saar and coverage in The Guardian.
May 01, 2005 — The situation at Gitmo, according to the 60 Minutes report I just watched, is worse than I thought. Before, I thought there may have been isolated abuses that are unavoidable anywhere you have human beings in charge, if you believe the 60 Minutes report, this is not the case- the abuse is rampant an institutional:
… the main interview is a former Army translator Erik Saar, who they refer to as a Sergenat.
However, Saar is credible and believable. So are the FBI e-mails from Gitmo detailing torture. This is unacceptable, a stain on the nation, a stain on the military, and heads need to roll. And I don’t mean several enlisted men and junior officers, a la Abu Ghraib. There are officers who are supposed to be responsible for what goes on there. Let’s hold them responsible.
[comment on blog balloon-juice]
The Guantanamobile Project
Like Susanhbu has written in her Newsweek diaries, the torture information was already spread throughout the Muslim World. Needed a slight spark to ignite, which has happened. The Bush | Cheney regime was warned before the Iraq invasion what would happen in the Arab world. The criminal torture practise made it all worse.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
He was on Book TV a couple weekends ago, and Dem Now! a few days earlier. He is credible. He had to clear his book with the Pentagon before publishing. I’m not sure how he can be discredited, or why anyone still thinks torture is a rare and independent occurence.
So, for the record, the United States Government targets the religious practices of detainees, exploits them and desecrates them in the attempt to gather information. This news is not new. The only people who seem to not understand this are here in America.
For the record, this is an institutional decision.
WH wants a full retraction. Sorry, haven’t learned the art of linking yet. Basically McClellan says this report is false and that Newsweeks apology is not good enough. We are screwed folks. They have literally taken away free speech. Newsweek is NOT responsible but the Torturer’s Actions. I repeat NEWSWEEK is NOT RESPONSIBLE. Can we get together on this and write Newsweek? All other media outlets that they are falsifying this by repeating the WH meme. How do we stop this insanity? When oh when will this REGIME of Fascists be taken out of power? I am sick, disgusted and almost out of hope. HELP!!!!!
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Shirt/blouse sleeves up, bare fists ready. It will be an endurance run. We don’t take prisoners, there is no surrender.
The opposition will make more mistakes than what they can cover up! The Rovian Act will lose credence. HaHa. Time is in our advantage, just be relentless. There are no turn-around victories.
Keep pecking away at the WH and address those emails also to our leaders and Scott “On the Rocks” McClellan.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Bush could roast and eat Muslim babies live on CNN and the next day both Internet and airwaves would ring with lively and heated debate on whether they should have just cut to Aaron Brown smilingly speculating on whether the Texas-bred Bush would add salsa.
AlohaLeezy, Is this the story: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050516/ap_on_re_us/newsweek_quran
Go up to address bar on your computer. HIGHLIGHT the address, and right click, then hit copy… Bring it on over, then right click and hit paste… Be sure to get the entire address… Your passion is marvelous, keep up the fight.
From the story: “Responding to harsh criticism from Muslim leaders worldwide, the
Pentagon promised to investigate the charges and pinned the deadly clashes on Newsweek for what it described as “irresponsible” reporting.”
Did anybody apologize for the lie of arresting of a number 3 bogeyman(in time for bliar’ theft of another election), who proved to be false? Anyone apologize for the WMDs lies ?? Anyone apologize for this illegal war, based on lies. What a sorry-ass bunch of leaders that is running(ruining) our country. Impeachment does not match the crime…
I was with ya all the way until the “And we know they, and their source, are retracting the story now because it is the national interests to do so. Fine.” line came along.
What’s “fine” about it? How is it in the “national interest”? Maybe you meant that’s how Newsweek sees it, not you, but you seem to be acknowledging that Newsweek has some cupability even if their report was correct.
only acknowledging that printing the truth in this matter is damaging to our national interests in a myopic short-term kind of way.
Of course, what is even more damaging is the truth itself, which was already in the public square.
I believe Newsweek is retracting because they are succumbing to pressure to disown the story, not because they made an error in reporting.
And I understand why they are agreeing to do this.
But this half-measure at damage control is not going to fix the problem. Only the removal from office of this administration can begin to repair the damage.
thanks for the tip my friend and kind words. I will never give up until this whole crew of war criminals id “frog marched” out of the WH!!
earlier in which he intoned in the most earnest and somber tones that the Newsweek report was damaging because “people have died”.
He neglected to indicate how many tens of thousands he and Bush have killed over our government’s reports of weapons of mass destruction.
From ThinkProgress:
The White House comments on Newsweek represent a significant shift from this approach. Now, instead of at least feigning responsibility, they are attacking Newsweek. The media may prefer RatherGate Part II, but this is the real story.