[UPDATE: I have two subsequent diaries to this one, here and here.]

The other day I serendipitously came across a website which had an article/column by Bob Pappas, described as a retired Marine Colonel who served 2 tours in Vietnam.  The article was about the Newsweek Koran abuse story, entitled Elite Media, “Dan Rather,” Bias at Newsweek: What’s New?.  At the end of his column Mr. Pappas listed his email address for anyone who wished to correspond with him.  For reasons I can’t quite explain to myself I took him up on his offer.

More after the break . . .
But before I jump into our correspondence, I’d like to give you a feel for the Colonel.    Here are representative samples of his opinions, attitudes and beliefs taken from his own columns.  As you can see from the links, he gets published at a number of online websites on the right.  The statements I’ve excerpted may be snippets, but I think it fair to say they aren’t taken out of context, nor do they twist his meaning (of course, you can always read each entire column to confirm this for yourself if you wish).

From Liberals and Exit Strategy:

Undoubtedly the terrorists, including American “liberals” such as Professor Ward Churchill, Michael Moore-the-Corpulent and other “usual suspects” would attack in a heartbeat if they could get away with it; and, alas, if the “mainstream media,” academia and Hollywood have anything to do with it, that too would be “our fault.”

From Old  Europe and Liberals, “Get Used to It”

The “long knives” are taking no time going after the President following his re-inauguration. Interestingly, detractors on both political “left” and “right” mock the President while mainstream America breathes a sigh of relief that it had not only re-elected a man of principal, integrity and resolve, but dodged a bullet in the process. (As noted previously there were only two viable choices and picking Kerry, a certifiable liar and traitor wasn’t this writer’s idea of who should lead the nation.)

From  To Understand “Ya Gotta” Know the Story

No honest reader of the Bible can authoritatively argue that there is license to persecute Jews because it is illogical, and more importantly, it is directly contrary to Jesus’ teachings. That noted, given that results flow from actions one can logically conclude that the persecution they have experienced for 2000 years flows from their rejection of and the horrendous acts that their leaders and they perpetrated upon the Messiah of God. One should not condone it but can understand how it plays out; call it the “Barabbas strain.”

And lastly, From  ‘Advocates’ for the ‘Poor’?

Democrat Party machinery is finally being revealed for what it is, a bunch of rich racists who create, then prey on the fears of the elderly,minorities and women for the purpose of “exacting from each according  to their ability, and to each according to their needs.” Regarding this last, those who understand, understand; those who don’t, didn’t and probably never will.

So what did I email the good Colonel about?  Well, see for yourself.  Here’s my first email:

To:  Cheetah@gulf1.com
Re:  Elite Media, “Dan Rather,” Bias at Newsweek: What’s New?

You wrote (posted at this website http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=14728&catcode=13 on Tuesday, May 24, 2005):      

When Newsweek published the inflammatory article about interrogators at Guantanamo flushing a Koran down the toilet, this writer believes that both the reporter and the editor knew precisely what they were doing. Tragically, it was intentional that they wrote the story and in the business sense it was a “mistake” to publish it but otherwise, the story itself was a lie.

* *

Today, from the ACLU website:

NEW YORK — New documents released by the FBI include previously undisclosed interviews in which prisoners at Guantánamo complain that guards have mistreated the Koran, the American Civil Liberties Union said today. In one 2002 summary, an FBI interrogator notes a prisoner’s allegation that guards flushed a Koran down the toilet.

The disclosure comes on the heels of controversy over a Newsweek report saying that government investigators had corroborated an almost identical incident. Newsweek ultimately retracted its story because a confidential government source could not be confirmed.

. . .  

According to the FBI documents, a detainee interviewed in August 2002 said that guards had flushed the Koran in the toilet. Others reported the Koran being kicked, withheld as punishment, and thrown on the floor, and said they were mocked during prayers.

The release of the FBI interviews follows the disclosure last week of Defense Department documents regarding other cases in which military personnel mistreated the Koran and used a religious symbol to taunt detainees.

**

Now that these reports have issued regarding internal FBI and Defense Department documents which document flushing the Koran down a toilet, will you retract your statement that the abuse of the Koran described in Newsweek’s article was a lie, or do you think the FBI and Defense Department documents are part of the left wing liberal conspiracy you imply exists in the “mainstream media”?

Here was the response I received from him today:

Dear Mr. XXXX,
I note that your exerpt from the ACLU claims that internees make the allegations. Not a whole lot different than the allegation upon which Newsweek based its fallacious story. Has it occured to you that you have chosen to believe the enemy, those who would behead you for sport, ahead of those who risk their lives to protect you? I stand by my statement.
Semper Fidelis,
Bob P

Here’s my reply shortly after Noon EST:

Dear Mr. Pappas:

Thanks for your response to my email.  You ask me if I considered whether the allegations contained in the recently released FBI reports were lies concocted by “the enemy”.  To answer you: yes, yes I have.

Is it possible that all these allegations are lies?  It’s possible (anything is possible) but consider the following:

  1.  The Defense Department has released documents that evidence systemic abuse of the Koran, and also evidence a specific training program put in place at Guantanimo to avoid future abuse.  Obviously someone in the military believed the allegations or they wouldn’t have put in steps to stop the abuse from continuing.
  2.  These FBI reports were conducted in 2002, before prisoners were allowed to mix together.  If they are lies, it’s an amazing coincidence that so many of them independently came up with the same lies.
  3.  The FBI reports (collected at the ACLU website) specify whether upon further investigation the allegations made are considered to be unreliable.  The reports on the Koran abuse in question do not so indicate.
  4.  These reports were also specifically excluded from the initial disclosure pursuant to the ACLU’s FOIA request, and the ACLU was required to obtain a  court order compelling the Federal Government to turn over copies of these FBI reports to the ACLU.  Clearly someone in the Federal Government was concerned enough about the validity of the allegations that they actively sought to keep them secret.
  5.  Whistle blowers in the military have come forward with reports which authenticate other allegations made by the Guantanimo detainees (for example, allegations of beatings and of humiliation regarding religious practices such as that where women interrogators attempted to sexually arouse detainees, touched their genitals, and threw what they claimed to be menstrual blood on them, all things anathema to observant Muslims).  These practices of attempted religious desecration which have been confirmed support the allegations of Koran abuse evidenced in the FBI reports.

I’ve yet to hear any evidence that demonstrates these allegations are not credible.  Instead we keep seeing more and more details come out about the systematic abuse, both physical and psychological, that is being inflicted on the detainees held at Guantanimo and elsewhere.

I’d also like to point out that Newsweek’s story was sent to the Pentagon for vetting before it was published (an unprecedented move in itself) and the officials there did not object to the story regarding Koran abuse.  Indeed, the later objection to the story by the Administration never denied that the abuse took place, but only that it did not appear in the specific report where Newsweek’s source had claimed he had seen it.  

As for the claim that Newsweek intentionally planted this story in order to discredit our armed forces, and is thus responsible for the deaths of rioters and soldiers, I notice that you didn’t address the remarks made by President Karzai and General Myers, that the Koran desecration story was not responsible for the riots in Afghanistan.  Now perhaps both Karzai and Myers are lying, but I suggest that there is a strong likelihood that they were telling the truth.  At the very least, their comments should give any reasonable person pause before jumping on the “Newsweek killed” bandwagon.

I don’t think it does our country our soldiers any favors to cover-up the torture and abuse of detainees in this “War on Terror” nor to lay the blame at the feet of a few “rogue elements”  as you claim in your article.  I would hope that you would support a full and independent investigation of these allegations to either clear the reputations of our Armed Forces or discover the truth and place the blame on those to whom it rightly belongs.  This would be the American way to respond to these claims, not with increased secrecy, cover-ups and the smearing of the reputations of those (whether whistleblowers or in the Media ) who have reported about these charges.

Here is the link to the ACLU webpage which contains further links to the FBI and Defense Department documents that have been released so far in response to the FOIA requests:  http://action.aclu.org/site/PageServer?pagename=torturefoia

I hope you will avail yourself of the opportunity to review those documents yourself before reaching any definitive conclusion about who is lying about these claims of abuse and torture.

If I get any further response back, I’ll let you know.

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