Posted on 05/15/2005 12:19:09 PM PDT by hipaatwo
Yesterday's London Times reports on the rioting and deaths triggered by Michael Isikoff's Periscope item in Newsweek on alleged abuse of the Koran at Guantanomo: "Newsweek sparks global riots with one paragraph on Koran." The new issue of Newsweek carries an account by assistant managing editor Evan Thomas on Isikoff's Periscope item: "How a fire broke out." Thomas appears to concede that Isikoff erred and explains how. Thomas writes:
Late last week Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita told NEWSWEEK that its original story was wrong. The brief periscope item ("SouthCom Showdown") had reported on the expected results of an upcoming U.S. Southern Command investigation into the abuse of prisoners at Gitmo. According to NEWSWEEK, SouthCom investigators found that Gitmo interrogators had flushed a Qur'an down a toilet in an attempt to rattle detainees. While various released detainees have made allegations about Qur'an desecration, the Pentagon has, according to DiRita, found no credible evidence to support them.
How did NEWSWEEK get its facts wrong? And how did the story feed into serious international unrest? While continuing to report events on the ground, NEWSWEEK interviewed government officials, diplomats and its own staffers, and reconstructed this narrative of events:
At NEWSWEEK, veteran investigative reporter Michael Isikoff's interest had been sparked by the release late last year of some internal FBI e-mails that painted a stark picture of prisoner abuse at Guantánamo. Isikoff knew that military investigators at Southern Command (which runs the Guantánamo prison) were looking into the allegations. So he called a longtime reliable source, a senior U.S. government official who was knowledgeable about the matter. The source told Isikoff that the report would include new details that were not in the FBI e-mails, including mention of flushing the Qur'an down a toilet. A SouthCom spokesman contacted by Isikoff declined to comment on an ongoing investigation, but news-week National Security Correspondent John Barry, realizing the sensitivity of the story, provided a draft of the NEWSWEEK periscope item to a senior Defense official, asking, "Is this accurate or not?" The official challenged one aspect of the story: the suggestion that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, sent to Gitmo by the Pentagon in 2001 to oversee prisoner interrogation, might be held accountable for the abuses. Not true, said the official (the periscope draft was corrected to reflect that). But he was silent about the rest of the item. The official had not meant to mislead, but lacked detailed knowledge of the SouthCom report. So Isikoff relied on a telephone call with an anonymous government official paraphrasing a forthcoming report, confirmed by placing a draft of the Periscope item before another anonymous government official. Isikoff never saw the underlying report or even had it read to him. Thomas also writes:
After the rioting began last week, the Pentagon attempted to determine the veracity of the NEWSWEEK story. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers told reporters that so far no allegations had been proven. He did appear to cryptically refer to two mentions found in the logs of prison guards in Gitmo: a report that a detainee had used pages of the Qur'an to stop up a crude toilet as a form of protest, and a complaint from a detainee that a prison guard had knocked down a Qur'an hanging in a bag in his cell.
On Friday night, Pentagon spokesman DiRita called NEWSWEEK to complain about the original periscope item. He said, "We pursue all credible allegations" of prisoner abuse, but insisted that the investigators had found none involving Qur'an desecration. DiRita sent NEWSWEEK a copy of rules issued to the guards (after the incidents mentioned by General Myers) to guarantee respect for Islamic worship. On Saturday, Isikoff spoke to his original source, the senior government official, who said that he clearly recalled reading investigative reports about mishandling the Qur'an, including a toilet incident. But the official, still speaking anonymously, could no longer be sure that these concerns had surfaced in the SouthCom report. Told of what the NEWSWEEK source said, DiRita exploded, "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?" Thomas doesn't offer any answer to DiRita's question. What does Isikoff have to say? How about another call to Isikoff's anonymous source for comment? Isn't that the least we could expect? But Thomas launches into an even more untrustworthy allegation collected by Isikoff:
In the meantime, as part of his ongoing reporting on the detainee-abuse story, Isikoff had contacted a New York defense lawyer, Marc Falkoff, who is representing 13 Yemeni detainees at Guantánamo. According to Falkoff's declassified notes, a mass-suicide attempt—when 23 detainees tried to hang or strangle themselves in August 2003—was triggered by a guard's dropping a Qur'an and stomping on it. One of Falkoff's clients told him, "Another detainee tried to kill himself after the guard took his Qur'an and threw it in the toilet." A U.S. military spokesman, Army Col. Brad Blackner, dismissed the claims as unbelievable. "If you read the Al Qaeda training manual, they are trained to make allegations against the infidels," he said.What is this doing in an article devoted to Isikoff's original Periscope item asking "How did NEWSWEEK did get its facts wrong?" Thomas appears to be having a hard time concentrating; his attention appears to be wandering. He winds up:
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... Wow. Bader claims abuse of the Koran during his detention in Kandahar, and Bader says he still has nightmares. He has no motive to fabricate anti-American stories. Thanks for passing on Bader's complaints, Mr. Thomas. I buy them completely. And thanks for the warning regarding such "stories" possibly sparking more trouble. We'll try to keep it in mind as we deal with our own nightmares.
Like Lawrence DiRita, I have a question of my own for NEWSWEEK. Is this how an elite newsmagazine confesses error and corrects the record when it makes a big mess?
UPDATE: Reader Otto Timmons has pointed out Mark Whitaker's editorial note on the subject:
Two weeks ago, in our issue dated May 9, Michael Isikoff and John Barry reported in a brief item in our periscope section that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that American guards at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had committed infractions in trying to get terror suspects to talk, including in one case flushing a Qur'an down a toilet. Their information came from a knowledgeable U.S. government source, and before deciding whether to publish it we approached two separate Defense Department officials for comment. One declined to give us a response; the other challenged another aspect of the story but did not dispute the Qur'an charge.
Although other major news organizations had aired charges of Qur'an desecration based only on the testimony of detainees, we believed our story was newsworthy because a U.S. official said government investigators turned up this evidence. So we published the item. After several days, newspapers in Pakistan and Afghan-istan began running accounts of our story. At that point, as Evan Thomas, Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai report this week, the riots started and spread across the country, fanned by extremists and unhappiness over the economy.
Last Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told us that a review of the probe cited in our story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Qur'an desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them "not credible." Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts. Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we. But 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. NEWSWEEK regrets it got a part of the story wrong. NEWSWEEK vows to continue looking into the charges. If there's no substance to the charges, they undoubtedly want to break that story. Pathetic.
/Sarcasm
I also am very angry at both NewsWatch on FoxNews and CNN's Reliable Reports, neither of which even mentioned a word about this newsleak debacle nor about cBS' twisting of Ken Starr's words to make it appear he supported the Dims, re the 'nuclear option'.
"I wasn't dumb enough to believe I could flush a book down a toilet."
Excellent point you've made. I didn't think about it but who in their right mind would try and flush a Quran down a toilet?
I don't think I'd kill anyone over it, but if someone abused the Bible with the intention that I get angry and provoked, they might get their wish...
I disagree wholeheartedly. I dont know if it was a panicky statement or not the man who said it is totally correct, That sonofabitch Isikoff got people killed. Newsweek got people killed. and not only that they set back the American agenda in Afghanistan by a year at least. Now I call that negligent homicide and treason. I fully believe the story was printed to harm the United States of America. They knew it would, and they printed it. Thats treason in anybody's book.
Good point about Foxwatch not mentioning this or the Ken Starr debacle---they are both media bungles....and that is supposed to be a show ABOUT the media...
But, they like to have the little twit Neil Gabler rag on Bush Adminstration every week and neither of those stories would look BAD on Bush....ugh
There is a guy on Fox right now a Steve Greer, an ex Green Beret that is on to remark about this Newsweek story and his response is:
Why are we giving them Korans in Gitmo anyway? He said that they get their energy from the Koran--he said a bed and 3 square meals a day is ALL they should get---then he said that we should actually be giving them BIBLES, so they can learn a different way ...
"If flushing a Koran down a toilet..."
I wouldn't want to clog my toilet. (Not that I'd allow a Koran in the house.)
Sharon goes up on the Temple Mount and "provokes" an uprising. Newsweek reports this non-story, and the hordes go crazy. I don't believe it for a minute. The Mohammadans riot, detonate themselves, etc., according to what their fanatical leaders tell them.
Substitute Ann Coulter,Tom DeLay or Halliburton as the authors of the Periscope piece and there would be a Congressional and media conflagration.
The calls for investigations and prosecutions would be deafening.
Can you believe this? It is all over the net.
I disagree with you. When you tell a lie that angers fanatics who then proceed to kill people, you share part of the blame. This is true of anyone. It is worse than shouting "fire" in a crowded theater.
But what is true of any individual is far more true of a person in the media who has the power to spread such an inflamatory lie far and wide, inspiring riots and killings all over the world, plus further hatred of America.
Even worse, Evan Thomas starts telling MORE inflamatory lies even while he is pretending to apologize.
As for Michael Isakoff, he is one of the worst liars at Newsweak. He built a strong reputation for serial lying during the clinton years.
And Newsweek, of course, willingly fell for this anti-US propaganda -- hook, line and sinker.
.
To the editing and writing staff of Newsweek,
Congratulations on your publication in Periscope concerning Korans being flushed down toilets by U.S. interrogators and your subsequent apology, stating that this story may have not been supported by fact. Congratulations again, for the deaths and rioting resulting from your due diligence and journalistic integrity in reporting this story. Congratulations for providing the Moslem world with more fodder, which will be used to recruit more jihadists to kill the infidels. Congratulations for any future deaths of Americans and others in the world that will result from your loose-lipped arrows of truth. Congratulations on your apology, which comes after arrow has left bow and the damage that results cannot be undone. Thank you so much for being sorry. You, of all people should know that words are a powerful weapon, and once they have been unleashed, they cannot be called back no matter how sorry you claim to be. Aside from the deaths and riots your journalistic work has already accomplished, congratulations also for this:
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- A group of Afghan Muslim clerics have threatened to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it hands over military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Quran.
The warning on Sunday came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-U.S. protests across the country since U.S. forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted U.S. President George W. Bush to handle the matter honestly "and hand the culprits over to an Islamic country for punishment."
"If that does not happen within three days, we will launch a jihad against America," said a statement issued by about 300 clerics, referring to Muslim holy war, after meeting in the main mosque in the provincial capital, Faizabad.
It’s fun to play God. Don’t you agree?
Jonh Major
El Dorado, CA
Just stunning.. he didn't even read the report..and then paraphrased the report.... I'm speechless.
Spikey needs to pay for this one......can't say oops....lets have a do over.
Newsweek has blood on their hands.
. . between their legs on a bad week of the month.
Great letter. I'll be calling them Monday.
Here are the e-mail addresses for Newsweek:
Letters@newsweek.com
Editors@newsweek.com
WebEditors@newsweek.com
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Very good e-mail.
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