What if Newsweek's story was accurate?

[skip fox]

Perhaps not flushing a Koran, but throwing on to the ground and stamping on it in front of detainees. . . . No matter what one thinks of our service people, I, for one, don't doubt the insensitivity of many US young men and women in the armed forces. (They're young, they're taught to hate, they're away from home, etc.)

IF (I'm not saying it happened) someone was deliberately insensitivity with the Koran in order to bait, afflict (whatever) prisoners, what would be the greater crime?

1.) After investigation claiming it never happened in order to stop uprising/deaths?

2.) Printing the facts?

I'd say #1 is worst. IF it happened, it's time for us to confront it. The news has an obligation to seek and print the truth, not to bolster a country's chances in quelling dissatisfaction. We can only truly appear to be religiously sensitive when we are actually religiously sensitive. And if it takes news exposure to lead to reform, so be it.

Anyway, that's my opinion.

[Ganja Ninja]

1. I don't think there's any "if" about it.

I think Time reported the truth and didn't anticipate the backlash.

[madhat]

7. Ditto -- there is no "what if"

It is obviously true. Of course we do this sort of thing.

[tridim]

2. Ignore the root problem and blame the messenger

Typical commander cuckoobanana reaction.

[bowens43]

3. Of course the story was true.....

so were the memos that caused Dan Rather so many problems. The media doesn't have the backbone to stand up to the neo-cons.

[Jacobin]

4. The story only got recanted because it caused riots

Why would a source make that claim and only renege after the riots and bloodshed? I think the obvious answer is to take the heat off.

Flushing a Koran seems pretty mild compared to the other things that have been reported (and not denied) from Gitmo.

[forgethell]

5. On the other hand,

there's really nothing wrong about using the Koran as toilet paper in our culture. So they get a little offended. So what? Whatever their rights in their countries, we have the right to express our opinions in any contemptuous manner whatever. And Muslims have been known to burn the American flag and desecrate the Bible. What makes them so special??

Time for them to grow up and learn that in this world not everybody believes that Allah is God.

[hughee99]

9. Well said...

Any American could buy 100 copies and use it for TP in the bathroom if they wanted to. Can we really consider something torture if any American can go out and do it in public for all to see and not even get arrested? While this is not a good idea politically, I don't believe that this violates any laws (either domestic or any international agreements that the US is party to).

[forgethell]

11. Exactly my point.

Unless there was an order not to do this, the soldiers didn't violate any laws. I read this morning that some yahoo cleric in Afghanistan is calling on the United States to hand 'em over to an Islamic country for punishment. I laugh.

16 People have been killed, last count I saw. I don't know, but I would bet they are all rioters. It probably isn't either very Christian or very liberal of me, but I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for rioters of any nationality or religion.

[Tinoire]

13. Oh barf. Total fucking barf.

Total fucking barf.

How poetic it would be if some terrorist organization whisked you off, isolated you in some hell hole somewhere and shat on something very sacred & precious to you- the only picture you had of your mother perhaps. You sound like Limbaugh defending the right of sadistical pervers to express their "opinion in any contemptuous manner whatever." Just another little ole frat prank huh?

Oh and mind you it's not "OUR" opinion. It's YOUR opinion.

:puke:

Oh boo-hoo, boo-hoo, why do they hate us? :cry:

[hughee99]

15. What punishment do you propose

for those "sadistical pervers" who participated in this?

[bullimiami]

6. telling the truth is forbidden. loyalty is mandatory.

of course its true or it wouldnt have been such a big deal.

[forgethell]

12. That

doesn't follow, logically.

[IChing]

8. Documented through other time lines and witnesses

The story has been told through other news' sources over time.
there is no IF

[alcuno]

10. Like these...

"The allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo published by Newsweek on May 9, 2005, are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it. Prior to the Newsweek article, the New York Times reported a Guantanamo insider asserting that the commander of the facility was compelled by prisoner protests to address the problem and issue an apology.

One such incident (during which the Koran was allegedly thrown in a pile and stepped on) prompted a hunger strike among Guantanamo detainees in March 2002. Regarding this, the New York Times in a May 1, 2005, article interviewed a former detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, who said the protest ended with a senior officer delivering an apology to the entire camp. And the Times reports: "A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans." (Neil A. Lewis and Eric Schmitt, "Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantanamo Bay," New York Times, May 1, 2005.)

The hunger strike and apology story is also confirmed by another former detainee, Shafiq Rasul, interviewed by the UK Guardian in 2003 (James Meek, "The People the Law Forgot," Dec. 3, 2003). It was also confirmed by former prisoner Jamal al-Harith in an interview with the Daily Mirror (Rosa Prince and Gary Jones, "My Hell in Camp X-Ray," Daily Mirror, March 12, 2004).

The toilet incident was reported in the Washington Post in a 2003 interview with a former detainee from Afghanistan:

Desecration of the Koran was also mentioned by former Guantanamo detainee Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost and reported by the BBC in early May 2005. (Haroon Rashid, "Ex-Inmates Share Guantanamo Ordeal," May 2, 2005.)

[JRob]

16. I'm never surprised at anything but the fact that people are surprised. nt

[killbotfactory]

14. It is accurate

Like the whole Rather bs, they're not denying the content of the article, they are saying it was wrong of them to report it.

This despite numerous other sources saying that incidents like this have happened.

[skip fox]

17. My point: if we do something horrific, it's not the fault of reporting,

but only reporting (or bringing it to attention) will keep us from repeating such horrific deeds.

I have no doubt the administration is blaming Newsweek for insensitive actions that were committed by those under its authority. Working within the context they were provided (plus their age, hatreds, insensitivities, etc.), they probably committed such acts.

If our news organs go along with this sham (if it is), claiming that no one desecrated the Koran (for whatever reasons), then we have belittled the one avenue of free speech which might help us be the nation we claim to be.

[Pacifist Patriot]

18. As I said to Bob Koehler today...

"No news is worse than bad news. At least when you have bad news you know what work needs to be done."

[skip fox]

19. well said

We can't maintain a free country (IF we have one) by sicking our heads in the sand.

[Chicago Democrat]

20. My opinion: THis happened alot...

The soldiers do whatever would cause the most outrage.

Ergo it must have been standard policy!