Free Republic

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...