Reality Check: Could a tiny item in Newsweek have caused Afghan rioting?

[BurtWorm]

Gen. Myers doesn't think so, according to Tim Grieve at Salon.com:


http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

Last week, Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan believed the protests in that country had resulted from developments there, not from a story in Newsweek. "He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine," Myers said.

[Oreo]

1. US State Department website backs that up

http://usinfo.state.gov/is/Archive/2005/May/13-299433.html

Afghan Riots Not Tied to Report on Quran Handling, General Says
Army investigating allegations of mishandling at Guantanamo Bay facility





By Jacquelyn S. Porth
Washington File Staff Writer



Washington – The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff says a report from Afghanistan suggests that rioting in Jalalabad on May 11 was not necessarily connected to press reports that the Quran might have been desecrated in the presence of Muslim prisoners held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Air Force General Richard Myers told reporters at the Pentagon May 12 that he has been told that the Jalalabad, Afghanistan, rioting was related more to the ongoing political reconciliation process in Afghanistan than anything else.

According to initial reports, the situation in Jalalabad began on May 10 with peaceful student protests reacting to a report in Newsweek magazine that U.S. military interrogators questioning Muslim detainees at the Guantanamo detention center “had placed Quran s on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book.” By the following day the protests in the city had turned violent with reports of several individuals killed, dozens wounded, and widespread looting of government, diplomatic and nongovernmental assets.

However, Myers said an after-action report provided by U.S. Army Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, commander of the Combined Forces in Afghanistan, indicated that the political violence was not, in fact, connected to the magazine report.

[Auntie Bush]

3. Now that is good news! For a change!

But of course bush* et al will keep on blaming the riots and all those deaths on Newsweek. Not their fault...

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. I highly doubt it.

The information has been out there for at least 4 months if not more. I realize Afghanis are not living in a communication vacuum but I have to wonder how widespread circulation of the story was. If the previous publication of U.S. atrocities hasn't generated rioting, why should this? They already know our administration has zero respect for their religion. This is hardly news.

The White House is asking us to swallow a rather large pill. Hopefully they will be the ones who choke on it.

[noamnety]

4. Definitely more than 4 months

As another DUer noted, the Washington Post published the story in 2003.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A29276-2003Mar25

The story didn't suddednly cause any riots 2 years after it was published.

[sam sarrha]

5. riots were against Cuntdelisas visit and against ilegal Iraq war