Public policy, social issues, gender politics, religion, civitas, and other taboo topics fall under the hammer of Shava's iconoclasmic force of natural philosophy.
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Newsweek apology lukewarm with reason?
Sunday, May 15, 2005
11:15 PM
Newsweek says it can no longer verify it's story from last week that the Pentagon was investigating Gitmo interrogators who may have desecrated a Quran by flushing it down the toilet.
The report sparked riots in Afghanistan.
But is it Newsweek who is backpedaling, or is it the Pentagon?
In Newsweek's apology article, they note:
On Saturday, Isikoff spoke to his original source, the senior government official, who said that he clearly recalled reading investigative reports about mishandling the Qur'an, including a toilet incident. But the official, still speaking anonymously, could no longer be sure that these concerns had surfaced in the SouthCom report. Told of what the NEWSWEEK source said, DiRita exploded, "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?" [circular, eh? -- SN]
In the meantime, as part of his ongoing reporting on the detainee-abuse story, Isikoff had contacted a New York defense lawyer, Marc Falkoff, who is representing 13 Yemeni detainees at Guantánamo. According to Falkoff's declassified notes, a mass-suicide attempt—when 23 detainees tried to hang or strangle themselves in August 2003—was triggered by a guard's dropping a Qur'an and stomping on it. One of Falkoff's clients told him, "Another detainee tried to kill himself after the guard took his Qur'an and threw it in the toilet."
We'll probably never know what's at the bottom of this one, if it were overenthusiastic journalism, or a government retraction or coverup of a potentially damaging investigation.
Take it on the chin, Newsweek!
Hey, after recent purges due to bad-source reporting, do you think someone big at The Washington Post Company -- who owns Newsweek -- will fall on their sword?
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