Rightwing laments the victims of Newsweek's foul lies!

[TexasLawyer]

Oh brother. Here's a very over-the-top "Newsweek lied, people died" story. I guess if people can fall for the Swift-Boat veterans story, they'll pretty much swallow anything. Is this going to be the last gasp of out free press?

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18078

Newsweek's Victims
By Ben Johnson
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 16, 2005

The Left’s journalistic jihad against the War on Terror inspired the deaths of 16 Muslims, the injury of at least 100 more, the destruction of numerous Western buildings, and untold hatred for U.S. troops stationed in the Arab world – with a lie.

The May 9 issue of Newsweek vouchsafed that a new report issued by the Southern Command (“SouthCom,” which includes Guantanamo Bay) would reveal that, “in at least one case,” a Gitmo GI attempting to interrogate Muslims “flushed a holy book down the toilet.” Leftist writer Michael Isikoff and partner John Barry cited an unnamed “senior U.S. government official” as the source for this tiny paragraph, oddly out of place with the larger story in which it was embedded. However, they did due diligence, Newsweek claims, by trying to verify the story with two subsequent officials who, respectively, gave no comment and did not specifically deny the charge. (The latter did not deny it, because he knew little about the report in question.) On the basis of one anonymous source, one “no comment,” and one non-denial from an uninformed source, Newsweek pressed forward with the damning release.

The trouble began when Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan held a copy of the prevaricating Newsweek story high aloft during a press conference, thundering, “This is what the U.S. is doing, desecrating the Koran!” Others helped Khan spread the Newsweek scoop. “The American soldiers are known for disrespect to other religions. They do not take care of the sanctity of other religions,” chimed in Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the pro-Osama chief of Jamaat-e-Islami (“Party of Islam”), which calls for the “Islamization” of Pakistan.

Soon riots had broken out throughout the Muslim world, from Malaysia to the Suez Canal, with violent crowds chanting “Death to America!” and burning American flags – and U.S. and UN government buildings. A Palestinian protestor stomping through the Jabalya refugee camp raging, “The Holy Koran was defiled by the dirtiest of hands, by American hands.” The strongest of uprisings took place in the Afghan mountain town and Taliban-stronghold of Jalalabad, with many demonstrations led by “remnants of the Taliban” (with its legendary tolerance for other faiths’ religious symbols).

<snip>

When asked about Michael Isikoff’s charges, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita inquired of his interviewer, “People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?”

<snip>

[wtmusic]

1. DiRita is human shit

and hopefully will hang with the rest.

[jmcon007]

2. and how many have died because of Bush's INTENTIONAL

false press releases leading up to the war? Where is the outrage here?
Well, let's see if Newsweek begins falling in line with the other media whores.

[indepat]

5. We can all see what happens to a media outlet when what it reports is not

pleasing.

[TexasLawyer]

3. Here's more over-the-top BS on Newsweek's "lies"

posted on Front Page Magazine's "War Blog." Maybe we should just give in and blame Newsweek for EVERYTHING-- the Iraq War, 9/11, Mount St. Helens, the Bhopal disaster, the Alamo-- Newsweek caused it ALL.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18076

quoting

www.belmontclub.blogspot.com


<snip>

Many ordinary bloggers, especially those with connections to the military, or those who have stumbled across significant open source information, self-censor themselves out of a sense of decency and caution whenever they come across information which may cause the loss of life. And they don't even make money from blogs, apart from a few bucks a month which go into expenses, the purchase of a few books or subscription to online information services. But not Newsweek, which is a professional and prestigious publication. Newsweek is admitting to starting an international political firestorm, which got actual people killed, caused civil disturbances, endangered the lives of American troops and significantly set back US efforts in the war on terror because they ran a story from an anonymous source who cannot even remember if he told them what they said he told them. Their efforts at "confirmation" yielded a denial and a non-denial from Defense officials, but no confirmation. In predicate calculus, Newsweek asserted P. Their attempts at confirmation yielded ~P and Null. Hence they concluded P, which is wrong, wrong and wrong. It is wrong from the pont of view of elementary logic. It would be wrong anywhere, even in the Andromeda Galaxy. But apparently it is right at Newsweek.

Newsweek magazine should forthwith compensate the Afghans who died as a result of their baseless, and I mean baseless, story. Even if it turns out, as result of further investigation, that a Quran has somewhere, somehow been flushed down a toilet by somebody, it will not alter the fact that as matters stand, their Guantanamo story hasn't got a leg to stand on.

[bluedeminredstate]

4. That LEFTIST Isikoff!!!

He really showed his leftist side as he hunted down lies on Clinton to serve to the Repugs! He has a major part in the impeachment - I guess that makes him a leftist, pinko LIAR! Not to mention a pal of Kathleen Willey and the true patriot, Linda Tripp.

:rofl:

[Skittles]

7. Isikoff is a right-wing whore

this is ridiculous

[cybildisobedience]

9. Is is possible even Isikoff will now see the error

of siding with the neo=cons lunatics who would sell him out in a second?
Could that be the only good thing that comes out of this -- that even right-leaning reporters like Michael Isikoff will start to realize what a dangerous situation we're now in and actually do his job?

[Skittles]

10. it depends -

if he has any shred of decency, yes. But, judging him from his performance on his knees for republicans during the Clinton years, I would have to say you couldn't find decency in that bastard if you used a microscope.

[Demeter]

6. Newsweek Should Tell It Like It Is

They should expose the BushCo pressure to defeat the press, and stand by the whole story and print even more about it.

Force these fascists hands--make them shut down a major corporation for illegal reasons!

[bunkerbuster1]

8. Is there ANY Rove talking point these morans won't parrot?

Ok, stupid question.

[RedCloud]

11. Should we flush Bibles down the toilet to help ease the outrage?

Sort of like the movie "Fail Safe" when we got to nuke not only Russia but one of our own cities as well. Maybe some evolution teachers from Kansas could start the flushing.

Up until newsweek reported its Pentagon approved story, our "way" was religious tolerance?

Massive illegal arrests, detainment and persecution of non-Christians across our land.

Murdering Afghanis and Iraqis when the Saudis financed 9/11.

Guarding oil supplies in Iraq instead of the "liberated" people.

Prison torture and human rights abuse.

This just shows that the good guys can't be good if the leadership is rotten.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. I'd rather flush the "Left Behind" books down a toilet. . .

than a Bible.

:evilgrin: