WAR: Newsweek May Have Erred in Koran Desecration Report

anyone else notice that there's this massive outcry from the right now to place some kind of control on the media to ensure accuracy now....

maybe this is more of a reason to plant the story....
they passed alot of legislation already that will enable them to control what is printed, most of which I doubt if most american (and probably many senators and representatives) know about. they've got everything in place except the "majority" at the polls.

Originally posted by RANT
See, if I were a conspiracy theorist (oh) this would stink of a hit on media credibility given the government source and prior Pentagon approval.

Well, if I was a REALLY nutty conspiracy theorist, I'd say considering that Newsweek is owned by prominent Republican supporter Lazard Frères Banking, that the whole thing is a planned operation to cause an uprising in the Middle East. The war machine has been starving a bit lately, it needs to be fed.

Soft money fund raising for the 1996 election reached a record $207 million through October 16 ...according to the advocacy group Common Cause. Republican Party committees raised some $111.6 million... The Republican National Committee received $103,100 from Chicago's J. Ira Harris and Lazard Freres.

The same could even be said for the photographic "revelation" of the Abu Ghraib (sp?) abuses.

[edit on 2005/5/17 by wecomeinpeace]

"CULTURE OF IMPUNITY
BLOOMBERG NEWS: President Bill Clinton will join the New York investment firm Lazard Freres following the end of his presidency in January 2001, Washingtonian Magazine reported, citing unnamed sources. Clinton would be paid a salary of $8 million with $2 million in possible bonuses and he'd join his friend Vernon Jordan who became senior managing director at Lazard Freres in January and may have helped arrange a post for Clinton, the magazine said."

prorev.com...

don't know if he took the job or not, but well, I am trying to find the link between Newsweek, and Lazard Freres and came across this...
playing all the bases? or is clinton or republican in dems clothing?

any links out there to the owners of newsweek....I was told that it was owned by the Washington post.

Originally posted by RANT
The only people criticizing Newsweek at this point are competitors and angry mobs. They're just fall guys at this point.

I'm not a competitor or part of any angry mob - the only problem I see with Newsweak at this point is the weak response they continue to display.

You can print or say almost whatever you want in our country, print untrue things that destroy lives, careers or get people killed and you need to be accountable for your actions. The larger your audience the more careful you need to be at what you say as it will have a greater effect.

The loss of readers & advertisers is almost enough control to keep other publications from doing what Newsweak did. I don't think we need any new laws. I would expect the wave of coming lawsuits will also take a toll on them. It wouldn't surprise me if it's parent company " The Washington Post” is considering unloading Newsweak & I'm sure there is already some folks over there updating their resumes.

It would almost be funny if they used the Patriot Act against Newsweak - maybe they already are doing searches without warrants etc, but since its all allowed in secret we will never know. ..........

Originally posted by dawnstar
anyone else notice that there's this massive outcry from the right now to place some kind of control on the media to ensure accuracy now....

maybe this is more of a reason to plant the story....

Ah! The conspiracies begin.

I don't think the American people would ever support any new legislation to alter our 1st amendment. As I have already suggested there are enough controls in place already. Otherwise there would be no freedom of speech. Newsweak will pay for what has happened without the destruction of our 1st amendment.


[edit on 17-5-2005 by outsider]

So, now news sources need the go ahead from the government to print all the lies and exageration they do print once in a while?... and since when have news media waited for the response from the US government to post an article, unless it was an interview?.....

What I see happening in here is that some people don't think the media can lie by themselves...it has to be the US govenrment behind it always according to them...

Like the media does not begin rumors that in many cases are lies and spread lies just to have a story to tell and make millions while lying....

Originally posted by dawnstar
anyone else notice that there's this massive outcry from the right now to place some kind of control on the media to ensure accuracy now....

Originally posted by outsider
Ah! The conspiracies begin.

I don't think the American people would ever support any new legislation to alter our 1st amendment. As I have already suggested there are enough controls in place already. Otherwise there would be no freedom of speech. Newsweak will pay for what has happened without the destruction of our 1st amendment.[edit on 17-5-2005 by outsider]

I agree that any attempt to alter the 1st amendment over this would quickly be interpreted as sedition, but it might be time for Newsweek to seek some "newsgroup therapy" from THE "MediaMasters".
Credibility Issues? Never Fear - The MediaMasters are Here

Regardless if Newsweek lied or not, most in the Arab world feels this is conspiracy and a coverup by the US govt. They don't believe it or buy the retraction.

Pakistan dismisses Newsweek retraction on Koran
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, head of a hardline six-party Islamic alliance in Pakistan, said Newsweek's retraction was unlikely to cool tempers in the Muslim world.

"Whatever (Newsweek) magazine has done now is under pressure (from the U.S. government)," he said. "It has not denied what it has reported and many people freed from Guantanamo Bay have narrated the same thing."

He referred to a report in the Tuesday edition of the Pakistani daily The News that quoted Hafiz Ehsan Saeed, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, as saying that the Koran was routinely desecrated at the U.S. prison.

I think this is a brain washing ploy by the government to condition us for bigger things to come.

Beleive it or not.

Okay, let's see what Newsweek's and the government's response is to this. Reports have come out for two years of similar disrespectful acts against the Koran at Guantanamo:

Desecration of Koran reported before

James Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at the prison who was investigated and cleared of charges of mishandling classified material, has asserted that guards' mishandling and mistreatment of detainees' Korans led the prisoners to launch a hunger strike in March 2002. Detainee lawyers, attributing their information to an interrogator, have said the strike ended only when military leaders issued an apology to the detainees over the camp loudspeaker. But they said mishandling of the Koran persisted.

Erik Saar, a former Army translator at Guantanamo Bay who has written a book about mistreatment of detainees at the military prison, said in interviews and his book that he never saw a Koran flushed in a toilet but that guards routinely ignored prisoners' sensitivities by tossing it on the ground while searching their cells.

And numerous detainees, whose stories are uncorroborated, have said to various media outlets that at detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan, the Koran was stepped on, tossed on the floor and placed in latrines.

"They tore the Koran to pieces in front of us, threw it into the toilet," former detainee Aryat Vahitov told Russian television in June 2004.

Do you think we'll get a retraction from the Russians??? **

Oh what a shame, theres more sources for this so Newsweek might have to take a number for their witch hunt.

Originally posted by subz
junglejake, the fact that there are muslims in the U.S army didnt escape me

I just disregarded their accidental desecration of their koran out of hand because any muslim would revere the koran equally thus making accidental desecration impossible.

[edit on 16/5/05 by subz]

Tell that to the extremist Muslims who have desecrated and used mosques as military headquaters, to set up ambushes, and have even attacked the mosques of other Muslims because they are of a different sect of Islam, killing other Muslims and probably even desecrating holy books in those mosques.

Why haven't Muslims called for a jihad against those extremist Muslims who desacrate other sect's mosques, for killing their people and desecrating the Koran in the process?

Well, actually they are doing this, but you don't see that much on the news do you?

[edit on 23-5-2005 by Muaddib]

And that pertains to this thread how? Your post shows evidence that American troops couldnt of desecrated the Koran?

My post shows evidence that you don't know what you are talking about when you proclaim all Muslims would not desecrate what is sacred to them, such as the Koran, when in fact Muslims have attacked mosques and other Muslims from different sects and in these attacks copies of the Koran must have been desecrated, since their holy book is bound to be in the mosques of other Islamic sects too.



[edit on 24-5-2005 by Muaddib]

Hmm I was talking about U.S Soldiers that might happen to be muslims. If you want to infer that they could be islamic extremists and could of deliberately desecrated their korans, fine.

You claimed "any Muslim would revere the Koran equally"...which is false.

Muslims have attacked each other because of differences in sects, idiologies, and ethnicity for a very long time. They have attacked each other's mosques, which are bound to have copies of the Koran which would be desecrated by the attacks. It is nothing new Subz.

[edit on 24-5-2005 by Muaddib]

Hmm ok I concede that point but it proves what exactly?

That you believe muslim U.S soldiers could of actually desecrated their OWN Korans to unsettle the prisoners? Youre giving credibility to the Newsweek story here.