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Title: Take it for what it's worth Post by M.R. on May 15th, 2005, 7:25pm Updated: 05:53 PM EDT Newsweek Apologizes for Quran Article Errors Getty The U.S. military finds no credible evidence to support allegations of Quran desecration. Watch Broadband Video: Muslims Protest Against U.S. Talk About It: Post | Chat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON, (May 15) - Newsweek magazine has apologized for errors in a story alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, saying it would re-examine the accusations, which sparked outrage and deadly protests in Afghanistan. Fifteen people died and scores were injured in violence between protesters and security forces, prompting U.S. promises to investigate the allegations. "We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in a note to readers. In an issue dated May 9, the magazine reported that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that interrogators placed copies of Islam's holy book in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Whitaker wrote that the magazine's information came from "a knowledgeable U.S. government source," and before publishing the item, writers Michael Isikoff and John Barry sought comment from two Defense Department officials. One declined to respond, and the other challenged another part of the story but did not dispute the Quran charge, Whitaker said. But on Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told the magazine that a review of the military's investigation concluded "it was never meant to look into charges of Quran desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them 'not credible."' Rage in Islamic Nations Also, Whitaker added, the magazine's original source later said he could not be sure he read about the alleged Quran incident in the report they cited, and that it might have been in another document. "Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we," Whitaker wrote. Following the report, demonstrations spread across Afghanistan, and Islamic leaders gathered to pass a resolution calling for anyone found to have abused the Quran to be punished. Many of the 520 inmates at Guantanamo are Muslims arrested during the U.S.-led war against the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies in Afghanistan. Both the left and the right will sell your mother as a sleeper if it pays. Do ya wanna meet my mother...she's still a virgin...Mike |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by don on May 15th, 2005, 9:30pm Quote:
If the article is untrue or without foundation then the writer should be charged with involuntary manslaughter. |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by rumplestiltskin on May 17th, 2005, 1:40am jesus christ has given bush the right to bomb their babies, piss on their holy book and steal their oil...who can argue with that...relax Love den |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by vig on May 17th, 2005, 9:26am I wonder if we'll ever get to the truth in this one.... Do you think Newsweek would really make this up? |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by Bob P on May 17th, 2005, 9:36am Quote:
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by sandie99 on May 17th, 2005, 9:42am on 05/17/05 at 09:26:21, vig wrote:
I'm a firm believer in truth. Sometimes it seems to be a bad thing for a journalist... If having integrity means quitting the profession then I will, within a sec. I know that in many countries journalists have so called journalists' directions/code, which they are supposed (and most do) to follow. In Finland those jouralists' directions have been updated several times so that they, too, can live up to face the challenges of the changing times. But I hope that things will never comes to that point that even good newspapers and magazines start to make things up! All those journalists, follow this suggestion: become a fiction writer! NOW. Best wishes, Sandie journalist & writer to be |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by Pinkfloyd on May 17th, 2005, 9:55am on 05/17/05 at 09:36:34, Bob P wrote:
This is a lie being told by democrats to help enact legislation to make filling your gas tank a felony. (Receiving stolen property.) That would ensure every working American a free meal in jail, a free lawyer to get out of jail and free therapy to discuss their problems once they are out of jail. Free access to the prison library to enhance their education, free child care while the familes exercise their rights to conjugal visits, unemployment benefits now that they are out of a job and low income housing now that they have reduced their incomes. Think I'll go fill up my truck. ;;D Bobw |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by seasonalboomer on May 17th, 2005, 10:15am Remember the stories about the daycare center in Edenton, NC, where fantastical stories were created about daycare providers sadistically raping and ritually abusing dozens of children. The stories generated all kinds of rage toward the owners and employees. How could these people do these things to "children"? Whenever stories start to get "fantastical", like the idea that these guys being held in Guantanamo would be so affected by watching someone flush their holy book down a commode they would start spilling the beans on the worldwide plan to take down the infidels, I question the veracity. Look, I know the image they have created of these Muslims as fanatical, the way CNN always only shows films of people jumping and screaming in groups as the US flag burns, or flaggelating themselves at funerals, but the reality is, most of them just aren't the type to lose it over watching the printed page being flushed down a toilet. If we are led to believe everything they've said about the 911 killers, they were able to separate their mission from their front. They went to topless bars, engaged in "infidel-like" behavior and were easily able to make it through the day. So, therefore, if it has the aroma, the shape, and you saw the anus deposit it, it is thusly what it is. Too bad the Newsweek editors didn't see recent the movie about Stephen Glass (New Republic writer who fabricated dozens of explosive stories). |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by BobG on May 17th, 2005, 11:53am on 05/17/05 at 09:36:34, Bob P wrote:
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Title: Toilet Beta Testing Post by Mr. Happy on May 17th, 2005, 12:12pm I don't have a copy of the Quran, so I tried flushing this months edition of Ladies Home Journal. The only thing that happened was........it got wet. Living with 3 wimmen that seem to think a 1.5 gallon flush can get rid of 9 lbs of soggy toilet paper, the plunger has become a necessity. If somebody has developed a toilet that will swallow a Quran in one flush...... Count me in. RJ |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by seasonalboomer on May 17th, 2005, 12:27pm That's funny! Problem may have been coated stock doesn't absorb water well. I wonder if one those little New Testaments that the street corner preachers pass out would flush? Maybe after it sat awhile and absorbed. How could they get Americans to react? Maybe make us watch them flush handfuls of $100 bills down the toilet. Nevermind, that's what is happening. |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by thomas on May 17th, 2005, 12:30pm on 05/15/05 at 21:30:21, don wrote:
I was thinking along the lines of promoting mayhem and negligent homicide. Plus not only the writer, but the editor and publisher as well. |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by floridian on May 17th, 2005, 12:42pm on 05/15/05 at 21:30:21, don wrote:
Good thing we don't hold our leaders to that standard ... if the speeches are untrue or the grounds for the war cannot be substantiated, charge them with manslaughter charges from the 1622 American soldiers killed as a result. Oh, wait, they have already admitted that Saddam didn't have WMD and wasn't involved in 9/11. Newsweek screwed up. The administration that got us into the war screwed up royally. |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by karma on May 17th, 2005, 1:06pm You guys are a riot. Newsweek screwed, up so what. Its not like it hasn't happened before and won't happen again. Whats written in a mass media rag DOES NOT give any group of people the right to go on a murderous rampage. The problem is not Newsweek. It is much much deeper than what Newsweek publishes. Enciting American hatred, Bullshit! Encouraging deviant behavior, Bullshit! Mayhem and muder happened and we should all mourn the loss of life but get over Newsweeks blunder and look for the root of the problem. What would happen if American blacks decided to riot and murder over Vincente Foxe's derogitory comments? That would be justified? Bullshit! |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by Gator on May 18th, 2005, 3:45am on 05/17/05 at 13:06:44, karma wrote:
Since it has happened before, that makes it okay? Give them a pass since they were just doing what everyone else seems to be doing, right? No repercussions mean no deterrence to repeat occurrences, so yes, it will happen again. They didn't just "screw up." They caused the deaths of 15 - 17 people (depending on which story you listen to) and at least 100 more to be injured by printing a story that hadn't been vetted. No corroboration of statements, just someone said they think they remembered reading something possibly derrogatory. As it turns out, it appears that it may have been a Muslim detainee who flushed the book that is supposedly so holy to Muslims that to desecrate it means death. The root of the problem is a sincere desire to paint anything done by republicans and the president in particular in a bad light - no matter what the cost - by a seriously left leaning media. Print it now - verify later (if someone questions it) - apologize as necessary - fire someone if the shit gets too deep. The incident did deepen anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world. No bullshit there. Newsweek's apology and retraction did little or nothing to convince Muslims the story wasn't true. No bullshit there. The incident did lead to riots, deaths and injuries. No bullshit there. If Blacks decided to riot and kill innocent people over Foxes' comments, it would be just as wrong, but the mainstream media would still be giving El Presidente Foxe a pass. No bullshit there, either. |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by karma on May 18th, 2005, 7:12am Gator, If you want to believe newsweeks screwup was a political statement then no matter what anyone says,"it is so" in your mind. What the media prints does not ever justify fanatical, murderous behavior. To blame Newsweek for what happened is naive. Would you believe a child if he tells you he ran away from because he was forced to study? Of course not! I at least would release that there is a much deeper problem at home than studying. The root of the problem in that region is the clashing of two very different cultures. This was a desperate attempt by a small group of people to gain attention and foster the notion that all Muslims despise the infidels. It is a desperate attempt to draw the poor and uneducated into a belief that their life is worth more dead than alive as long as they have fullfilled a bastardized version of religious belief. Like you I am not poor or uneducated. We both have a future. Many in this region desperately want what we have but they see no possibility to succeed. They are torn between the rigidity of a faith based upbringing and the uncertainty of the unknown. The unknown being an influx a foreign ideals, beliefs and morals. When the known involves violence, death and glory and the unknown is unknown it takes a mighty strong person to be an individual, especially when being an individual may lead to an unglorious death. If you want to blame newsweek for intentionally making a political statement, I've got no problem with that but do not blame newsweek for inciting violence and hatred. The problem is much deeper than that. |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by Gator on May 18th, 2005, 11:09am Karma, the phrase "perception is truth" applies to all of us. There is more than one problem here. The problem I was addressing was the mainstream media's lack of concern for truth or who gets hurt where their political ideology is concerned. The problems in the Muslim world are entirely another thing. You are right - no matter what Newsweek printed, it didn't justify violence. The violence was, however, a predictible outcome of the Newsweek story - true or not. The fact is, the story gave the fanatics fuel to pour on an already smoldering fire. A bigger question would be, "Was the story really necessary?" What good would the story have been had it been fully vetted and corroborated? The riots would have still occurred. People would still have died. For what? For a news outlet to get some perverse credit for "breaking the story?" Is that glorious distinction worth peoples lives, Afghani or American or anyone else's. I don't think I could sleep at night knowing that something I had done had caused the lives of so many people. I know most Muslims just live their lives day to day trying to survive and really not paying too much attention to what the rest of the world says or does - just like us. Unfortunately, there are dangerously fanatical groups of people (in all religions) who want to take the most extreme interpretations of their religion and force them on everyone else. In the case of Islam, you either believe and convert or the faithful followers are commanded to kill you. If they die trying so much the better. Yes, the Christian Bible says if you don't believe in Jesus et al you will burn in hell, but no person is justified in killing you because you refuse to believe. |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by Jonny on May 18th, 2005, 7:06pm on 05/18/05 at 07:12:54, karma wrote:
No, it does not, but it paints a fucking bullseye on every soldiers back that we have over there. like they dont have enough to fucking worry about!!! Seems to me that these scum sucking, American hating, mental midgets could do some fucking investigating before they print that shit.....dontcha think? Its a no brainer...really! |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by Charlie on May 19th, 2005, 3:11am Here is a tiny tiny speck in a mountain of what is mostly an attempt at good journalism, often iffy, sometimes nothing but bullshit and now and then a relevation. A thing like this happens all over every day. The difference is that it our better magazines and newspapers, such as this one will admit a mistake when pressed. They are better self-policed today than ever. Our founders gave journalism a pass because they knew better. Politics 200 years ago in newspapers make even Karl Rove look good. It was brutal. Freedom of the press means that it's okay to make mistakes and when caught in a blunder, it's a good thing to own up. Newsweek did. Worse mistakes, lies, or shitty politics gets into print by the hour. It's silly. Charlie |
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Title: Re: Take it for what it's worth Post by karma on May 19th, 2005, 7:01am Quote:
Quote:
It should be pretty clear what I think the motive is. |
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