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Links To Further Headlines
Why Islam Was Enraged By Newsweek
BY HILLEL HALKIN
May 17, 2005
"Oops, sorry. It looks like we were wrong." Thus Newsweek apologizes for its story in last week's issue that American intelligence
interrogators in Guantanamo desecrated the Koran in front of Muslim prisoners and flushed it down the toilet - an error that
has to date cost the lives of 16 people killed in the anti-American riots that the story set off in various parts of the Islamic
world.
One wonders why a supposedly responsible magazine like Newsweek didn't manifest a tad less credulity toward a report indicating
that American intelligence is run not only by anti-Muslim barbarians, but also by total imbeciles. Who else would think that
the way to get a terror suspect to be more cooperative is by treating his holy scriptures as excrement? The strong tendency
in today's world to believe that America is in the hands of cretins has, apparently, its supporters in the American media,
too.
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Khaleej Times Online >> News >> SUBCONTINENTApology over retracted Quran desecration story not enough, Pakistan says(AP) 17 May
2005 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan on Tuesday spurned as “not enough” an apology and retraction by Newsweek
of a report alleging desecration of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay. Information
Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the report “insulted the feelings of Muslims ... just an apology is not enough. They
should think a 101 times before publishing news that hurt hearts.” His comments came a day after the Foreign
Ministry reiterated a demand for a probe into the alleged desecration. The report triggered bloody riots in Afghanistan
and protests in other Muslim countries, including Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism. On Monday, the
US magazine withdrew its story in its May 9 edition that interrogators at the US prison placed copies of Islam’s holy
book in washrooms and flushed one book in the toilet to get inmates to talk. In retracting the story, Newsweek editor
Mark Whitaker said that “based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation
had uncovered Quran abuse at Guantanamo Bay.” In New Zealand, visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuiri
said Newsweek’s retraction of the story “will definitely help” defuse some of the anger in the Muslim world,
but “unfortunately some damage has been done.” Qazi Hussain Ahmed, a hardline Pakistani Islamist leader
and opposition lawmaker, on Monday rejected Newsweek’s apology. “The objective of the change in their statement
is to cool the anger among Muslims of the world,” Ahmed said. He said Islamic groups in Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia,
Britain, Turkey and other countries would go ahead with planned rallies on May 27 to protest the alleged desecration.
Quran story retracted
Newsweek says its report on allegations of desecration
of holy book, which sparked riots, can't be verified
The 10-sentence item said an upcoming report by the U.S. Southern Command in West Miami-Dade was ''expected'' to include
the alleged Koran incident among various abusive techniques used "to rattle suspects" at Guantánamo. Since then, Pentagon
officials and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said investigators found "no credible allegations
of willful Koran desecration."
No 'credible' allegations? C'mon, boyz and girlz, we all know what double speak
is. Certainly this regurgitation in the face of faux pax leaves open the gaping hole for propaganda modification and
back sliding. The calculated module of 'blowback' to the week late translation of the Newsweek article serves as another
geomagnetic storm for diversion away the real problem.....not the interrogation-torture-mind rape syndrome.....but
the stench of the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We don't see anywhere near the pressure for this 'source'
to cough up his trade secrets as those media geneous' in the Wilson-Plame Affair. Get real.
John
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