Free Republic

It was a day that would cost and change so much: Sept. 11. Now at commercial airports, we're willing to be scanned and scrutinized so a similar attack will never happen again. But national experts consulted by 11 News say we're making another mistake. Take Mary Schiavo, an expert in general aviation methods and security and the former Inspector General for the U. S. Department of Transportation. "The terrorists have moved onto other plans," Schiavo said. "And there's really nothing to stop them." So what's the problem? While Uncle Sam spends billons a year on commercial airport security, thousands of...

The headline on the top of the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Thursday was: "FBI told of Quran abuses." The wording of the headline and the prominence of the display give the casual reader the impression the story - written by Neil Lewis of the New York Times - was new, and that the story was true. Neither is so. Lewis' story was based on reports of interrogations by FBI agents of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 and 2003. He noted in his third paragraph that "they are accounts of unsubstantiated allegations made by the prisoners under interrogation."

In his recent column ["Media doing a poor job, but maybe not for the reasons you think," May 22], Rick Mercier said "there's nothing wrong with slamming sloppy journalism." Mercier then uses one of the weakest weasel words in journalism — "may" — as the linchpin of his argument: "And then let's acknowledge that the Newsweek article was not the first and only report of U.S. interrogators desecrating the Quran — there have been several others by U.S. and British news outlets and by groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross. So American interrogators may indeed be...

In the ‘70’s TV series Kung Fu, David Carradine’s Kwai Chang Caine, affectionately known as “Grasshopper”, is told by one of his masters that when he is so graceful that he can adroitly walk upon the rice paper without leaving a trace, his learning will be complete. He will then be ready to wander the world imbued with wisdom, powered spiritually, and armored impervious by the Shaolin arts. The more I read, hear and see of what emanates from the liberal MSM and the foreign press, the more I get the feeling that they demand of the United States a...

NBC Airs New Koran Desecration Rumors NBC's "Today Show" aired unsubstantiated claims on Tuesday that U.S. troops had desecrated the Koran on at least two occasions, in a report that echoed a now retracted Newsweek story that has inflamed the Muslim world and led to deadly riots. The "Today Show" broadcast also covered an allegation that U.S. troops had gang raped an Iraqi woman. Commenting on the impact of Newsweek's blunder, NBC Middle East correspondent Richard Engel said the magazine's Koran desecration story was just one of several circulating throughout Iraq. "There's one rumor spreading today in local newspapers," Engel...

NBC's "Today Show" aired unsubstantiated claims on Tuesday that U.S. troops had desecrated the Koran on at least two occasions, in a report that echoed a now retracted Newsweek story that has inflamed the Muslim world and led to deadly riots. The "Today Show" broadcast also covered an allegation that U.S. troops had gang raped an Iraqi woman. Commenting on the impact of Newsweek's blunder, NBC Middle East correspondent Richard Engel said the magazine's Koran desecration story was just one of several circulating throughout Iraq. "There's one rumor spreading today in local newspapers," Engel said. "It's been on the local...