Digby on Newsweek
So Newsweek has done the cowardly thing and retracted their story about the Koran being desecrated at Guantanamo, allegedly because the source used for the story was untrustworthy and should not have been used int he first place. Colour me unimpressed. Looks like they’ve been leaned on.
The wingnuts are of course using this decision to push their usual story about the liberal lying mainstream media out to blame America for all wrongs in the world, but sane people hopefully will know better than to shoot the messenger.
Truth is, thanks to the way the US has framed its War against Terror, this story was not just plausible but expected. Fromt he begging The War Against Terror has resembled a crusade against Islam with its images of Islamic countries invaded, Islamic men taken prisoner and tortured and Islam’s holy places occupied. The language used by the US’ leaders, from George Bush on down to senior commanders like Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, talking about the war in Iraq as a “crusade against Satan” has done nothing to change this impression.
The Newsweek story then was less the direct cause than an excuse for the riots, which would not have happened if the US hadn’t lost all its credits with most Muslims. Digby put it best:
This little item in Newsweak is a pretext for action against interrogation techniques that are already well known. Which is why the quasi retraction over the week-end is such a chickenshit display of cowardice on the part of Newsweak. This is old news to anybody who’s been paying attention. The jihadists know it, those of us following the story know it and the government certainly knows it. The riots last week in Afghanistan and now around the world are orchestrated to gin up support and their followers are already pissed off enough about this stuff to get with the program quite easily.
Newsweek couldn’t stand the heat and is now frantically trying to get out of the kitchen. Having retracted the story they must now hope this is the end of it, but they’ll soon learn the wingnuts are not that easily satisfied.