The Observer
...the broader allegations made in the Newsweek story are true. They are also old. Prisoner accounts of American interrogators abusing the Koran have been made before. The Observer reported Korans being trampled on and one being thrown into a toilet bucket in Kandahar on 14 March 2004.
Human Rights Watch has documented examples of Koranic abuse at Guantanamo. Last week it was revealed the Red Cross had given the Pentagon multiple reports of Koranic abuse at Guantanamo two years ago. The Red Cross had begun getting the accounts in 2002 and they continued until mid-2003, when the Red Cross submitted its reports to the Pentagon. The allegations ceased soon afterwards.
Another aspect of the story that garnered little attention was the irony of a White House mired in an Iraq war fought to find weapons of mass destruction lecturing a magazine for its faulty sourcing. 'There is a terrible irony here. The Bush administration is slamming Newsweek for relying on bad information and inflaming the Muslim world. Where have they been for the last two years?' said Jack Lule, chair of the journalism department at Lehigh University.
It seems that both the White House and Islamic politicians have therefore used Newsweek for their own ends. The Bush administration has shifted attention from genuine abuse with a barrage of anti-media invective that has left the Washington press corp cowed and afraid of criticism. At the same time it has rallied its own support by attacks on the mythical 'liberal media'.
Newsweek was lambasted, now we see that the stories are old and credible. So since W won't say it - "Sorry Newsweek." We hope the calls of sedition and outrage didn't hurt business. If it did, may I suggest that your lawyers look at suing Hannity first. I'd love that.
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