Newsweek reported that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated copies of the Qur’an by placing them in toilets. In response, huge anti-U.S. demonstrations raged across the Muslim world, leaving 17 dead. Now, however, Newsweek says it got the story wrong. Maybe that’s what happened, or maybe they were just asked to say that so that the anti-American demonstrations would stop. It’s hard to tell what’s really going on these days. Regardless of whether copies of the Qur’an were really flushed down the toilet though, I think it’s safe to say that the people of the Middle East have had enough. With the Downing Street Memo, which shows clearly that WMDs were never an issue, and the fact that the Marines just decided not to prosecute the soldier caught on tape shooting an unarmed, wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque, you don’t need a lot more. A Qur’an in the toilet would just be the icing on the cake. Our credibility is shot to hell.
UPDATE: According to the Raw Story, Congressman John Conyers will be “issuing a letter cosigned by roughly 50 House members calling for a special prosecutor to investigate claims that the U.S. has violated the War Crimes Act at secret detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.”
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There was a Newsweek editor on CNN this morning (pre-recorded, I think) and the way he explained it made it sound more like their source had told them he wasn’t confident that the event happened. That’s a little ways away from being sure it didn’t happen.
This might be a CYA tactic by Newsweek, but I would assume that their source was in the military and would get pressure from the chain of command.
John Conyers has a possee.
Conyers is one of the few men in American politics that history will look kindly upon… if there’s anyone around to care about such things.
If you’re interested, you can sign a petition asking for Bush to explain the Downing Street Memo at this site:
http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/dsmemo/
OK, here is the thing. What kind of spin is this? I understand that these claims (desecrating the Koran) have provoked violence in Afghanistan, but what kind of fucking morons are these on both sides? THIS is what has pissed everybody off? Not the claims/truths that people have been detained with absolutely any charges, regardless of whether or not they are substantiated, and have been knowingly psychologically (sp?) and physically abused?
It really is getting hard to tell what’s really going on nowadays. In fact, I am now looking forward to the day I turn on the TV and get the test pattern or an Ameerican flag waving in the sunset.
My guess is that Newsweek was right about the story. There have, after all, been other mentions of Qur
Paul Krugman has finally brought the subject of the Downing Street memo to the pages of the New York Times. Here
I can’t say I blame the Muslim people for being angry. How would all those radical right wing Christians feel if those were Bibles stuffed into toilets? What on earth would give somebody the idea to do such a thing?
And you’re right, Chris…why isn’t more being done about Guatanamo Bay? Doesn’t the due process of law in this country entitle people to a quick and fair trial? How many years has it been?