NEWSWEEK LIED. PEOPLE DIED.

Newsweek has been forced into CYA mode when it was determined that allegations Michael Isikoff made about personnel at Guantanamo Bay were unsubstantiated. Its reckless and possibly baseless words resulted in riots and deaths and served to further tarnish America's image in the Muslim world, putting our troops there at greater risk.

From Reuters:

Editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.

The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza. In the past week it was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League.

On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the United States.

"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," Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.

...The Pentagon told the magazine the report was wrong last Friday, saying it had investigated earlier allegations of Koran desecration from detainees and found them "not credible."

Newsweek reported that Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita reacted angrily when the magazine asked about the source's continued assertion that he had read about the Koran incident in an investigative report. "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?" DiRita told Newsweek.

The May 9 report, which appeared as a brief item by Michael Isikoff and John Barry in the magazine's "Periscope" section, had a huge international impact, sparking the protests from Muslims who consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.

Although Newsweek apologizes in its upcoming issue, it does so in a very half-hearted manner. It points fingers at other media outlets, crying, "They did it, too."
(Excerpt)

NEWSWEEK was not the first to report allegations of desecrating the Qur'an. As early as last spring and summer, similar reports from released detainees started surfacing in British and Russian news reports, and in the Arab news agency Al-Jazeera; claims by other released detainees have been covered in other media since then. But the NEWSWEEK report arrived at a particularly delicate moment in Afghan politics. Opponents of the Karzai government, including remnants of the deposed Taliban regime, have been looking for ways to exploit public discontent. The Afghan economy is weak, and the government (pressed by the United States) has alienated farmers by trying to eradicate their poppy crops, used to make heroin in the global drug trade. Afghan men are sometimes rounded up during ongoing U.S. military operations, and innocents can sit in jail for months. When they are released, many complain of abuse. President Karzai is still largely respected, but many Afghans regard him as too dependent on and too obsequious to the United States. With Karzai scheduled to come to Washington next week, this is a good time for his enemies to make trouble.

Notice how Newsweek tries to deflect criticism by detailing other reports of the desecration of the Koran. The liberals at the magazine seem to be whining about how unfair it is that their story caused anti-American demonstrations and deaths, while the others said the same thing and got away with it.

They blame the violence on the U.S., reciting a litany of reasons why Afghanistan was ready to explode. In other words, the reader should focus on America's failure to establish stability in Afghanistan, rather than the fact that they published bogus information.

It's like Harry Reid apologizing for calling President Bush a "loser" and then retracting, saying the reasons for the name-calling were still valid. Similarly, Newsweek is sorry. It feels bad about the role it played in the deaths resulting from its story, but then again, it claims its reporting is right on target.

Amazingly, Newsweek actually concludes its non-apology apology by throwing out ANOTHER unsubstantiated story.

(Excerpt)

More allegations, credible or not, are sure to come. Bader Zaman Bader, a 35-year-old former editor of a fundamentalist English-language magazine in Peshawar, was released from more than two years' lockup in Guantánamo seven months ago. Arrested by Pakistani security as a suspected Qaeda militant in November 2001, he was handed over to the U.S. military and held at a tent at the Kandahar airfield. One day, Bader claims, as the inmates' latrines were being emptied, a U.S. soldier threw in a Qur'an. After the inmates screamed and protested, a U.S. commander apologized. Bader says he still has nightmares about the incident.

Such stories may spark more trouble. Though decrepit and still run largely by warlords, Afghanistan was not considered by U.S. officials to be a candidate for serious anti-American riots. But Westerners, including those at NEWSWEEK, may underestimate how severely Muslims resent the American presence, especially when it in any way interferes with Islamic religious faith.

SUCH STORIES MAY SPARK MORE TROUBLE?????

Why, in the name of God, would Newsweek end its explanation of how its reporting led to violence with another story that could spark violence?

If Newsweek was sincere in its apology and learned from its deadly mistake, Evan Thomas would not turn around and put out more of the same.

I'm beginning to believe that the heads of the MSM have lost their minds. Seriously.