Politics Newsweek

[Queen Anne's Lace]

Newsweek printed a story based on faulty sources and 15 died. The Bush administration started a war based on faulty intelligence and thousands of people died. If Newsweek has to issue a retraction and apologize, then I expect the same thing from the president.

[post="1346021"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

I'm mostly Republican, but I wasn't too excited about the way we entered the war and they way it's been carried out. I would die happy if the administration admitted they were wrong.

 

[sugababyboo]

[post="1346040"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right]

You and many others! I just don't seeing it happening any time soon.

 

[Jamison]

You and many others!  I just don't seeing it happening any time soon.

[post="1346060"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

Oh it'll never happen...just wishful thinking on our part.

But it seems so hypocritcal to demand an apology from Newsweek, when the Bush Administration lied about the reasons for going to war and thousands died.

 

[noggi16]

Thats not the issue. Newsweeks story and its subsequent media coverage incited riots. This isn't about government policy.

 

[Jamison]

Thats not the issue. Newsweeks story and its subsequent media coverage incited riots. This isn't about government policy.

[post="1347424"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

And the Bush Administration's faulty information for going to war has caused over 24,000 deaths...

The point ms.katejones was making is that you can almost look to them comparitively. Both have caused death, and both used faulty information for their story. Yet Newsweek has to issue a retraction and apologize, yet the Bush Administration can get away with it.

 

[noggi16]

Well lifes not fair. And they are the government so they can get away with it.

 

[Jamison]

Well lifes not fair. And they are the government so they can get away with it.

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I'm sorry but that seems really callous when over 24,000 people have died in Iraq. At least 22,000 of them innocent civilians.

You try telling telling them that "Life's not fair."

 

[noggi16]

Thats not the point and I think thats evident. No one is denying the loss of life is sad, but hell will freeze over before Bush or Blair apologise for doing what they have.

The point is, Newsweek don't run the country. Bush does. Thats the difference.

 

[Jamison]

Thats not the point and I think thats evident. No one is denying the loss of life is sad, but hell will freeze over before Bush or Blair apologise for doing what they have.

The point is, Newsweek don't run the country. Bush does. Thats the difference.

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I think it's obvious that we all realize that. That was even stated on the previous page. We all know that they will never ever apologize for what they've done, but feel that it's hypocritical for them to make Newsweek apologize, when they won't.

 

[ms.katejones]

I think it's obvious that we all realize that.  That was even stated on the previous page.  We all know that they will never ever apologize for what they've done, but feel that it's hypocritical for them to make Newsweek apologize, when they won't.

[post="1347551"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

Exactly. It makes no sense for the White House to castigate Newsweek for inciting a riot based on misinformation when they did the same thing with the war.

 

[Jamison]

Now we have a new scandal with The New York Post and The Sun for printing photos of Sadaam Hussein in his underwear while he's been in custody.

Somebody violated the Geneva Convention to give this pictures to the media, and people in Iraq are not happy. Let's hope it doesn't cause the same awful riots that the Newsweek story did.

 

[sugababyboo]

I just wanted to add that on last night's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" they made fun of this story by trying to flush down a copy of Paris Hilton's autobiography.

 

[Jamison]

Red Cross warned U.S. over Quran
Allegations of mishandling preceded Pentagon guidelines
From Elise Labott
CNN Washington Bureau




WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross gathered "credible" reports about U.S. personnel at the Guantanamo Bay naval base disrespecting the Quran and raised the issue with the Pentagon several times, a group spokesman said Thursday.

Simon Schorno said the allegations were made by detainees to Red Cross representatives who visited the detention facility throughout 2002 and 2003.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday the Pentagon in 2003 issued strict guidelines on how U.S. personnel should handle the Quran.

Schorno said the Red Cross heard no more allegations about mishandling of the Quran after the guidelines were issued.

Boucher said the United States works closely with the Red Cross and acknowledged the group "had heard some concerns about the handling of Qurans, which it shared with the U.S."

But he said actions taken in respect of detainees' religious practices at Guantanamo include providing them with Qurans, indicating the direction to Mecca, providing the call to prayer and serving meals according to Muslim customs.

"We have very extensive guidelines about how Qurans are to be handled, who they're to be handled by, the wearing of gloves, how they're to be moved and transported, in order to ensure that no such concerns will arise," Boucher said.

Schorno did not provide specific instances of alleged desecration, instead addressing only to the general issue of disrespecting the Muslim holy book.

"The fact that ICRC documented these allegations, documented them and formalized them, I think makes a difference," Schorno said. "We researched them and found they were credible allegations."

Although Red Cross employees did not personally witness any mishandling of Qurans, Schorno said, they documented and corroborated enough reports from detainees to share them with Pentagon and Guantanamo officials in confidential reports.

Schorno said the Red Cross would not have raised the issue if it had been an isolated incident, but he would not offer specifics about the number of complaints.

"The very fact that we brought up the issue speaks for itself," he said. "We don't make such reports for minor problems."

U.S. officials have often downplayed such complaints about Quran desecration because they came from detainees.

Teams of Red Cross representatives have been making six-week visits to the U.S. detainee camp in Cuba every three months since 2002.

A Red Cross team is currently on the ground at Guantanamo, Schorno said.

A recent Newsweek magazine article alleged that U.S. investigators had concluded that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, in one instance by flushing the Muslim holy book down a toilet.

Newsweek subsequently retracted the report, saying its government source had indicated doubts about his information after publication.

The Bush administration blamed the report, at least in part, for deadly violence that erupted in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world.

Human Rights Watch said that despite the Newsweek retraction it also had received reports from Muslim detainees -- at Guantanamo Bay, in Afghanistan and in Iraq -- that U.S. interrogators had repeatedly sought to offend their Islamic beliefs in order to humiliate them.

"Several detainees have alleged to Human Rights Watch and others that U.S. interrogators disrespected the Quran," according to a statement issued by the group Thursday.

Reed Brody, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch, noted the Newsweek story "would not have have resonated had it not been for the United States' extensive abuse of Muslim detainees and the government's failure to fully investigate all of those implicated."

The group also denied Newsweek's report caused the damage during last week's anti-American rioting in Afghanistan, blaming instead "violent protesters and poorly disciplined Afghan police and troops."

U.S. officials have acknowledged that investigations are ongoing into reports of religious intolerance -- including desecration of the Quran -- by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.

"We do listen when people raise questions about the handling of the Quran, and we have made very clear what our policies are," Boucher said.

"The policy and practice that we follow at Guantanamo is to respect the religious rights of the prisoners."

"If there are credible instances that are called to our attention of where those rules were not followed or the policy is not carried out thoroughly, then we investigate," he said.

"We make sure the practices are corrected and improved."

 

[Sex-Dwarf]

You think that the News week story is an isolated incident? , no chance. That is just the tip of the iceberg with regards to what is going on in Abuh Ghraid prison, Guantanamo bay and Bagram airbase. One US army commander is quoted as saying that the geneva convention does not apply in this case because they are not considered prisoners of war. What prisoners are they then?

 

[Jamison]

You think that the News week story is an isolated incident? , no chance. That is just the tip of the iceberg with regards to what is going on in Abuh Ghraid prison, Guantanamo bay and Bagram airbase. One US army commander is quoted as saying that the geneva convention does not apply in this case because they are not considered prisoners of war. What prisoners are they then?

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The US attorney general Alberto Gonzales has also said similiar things. Being quoted as saying that the Geneva Convention is "quaint" and "optional" in cases such as this.

It's disgusting. And reports of this have been going on for ages...it wasn't just Newsweek.

 

[noggi16]

You think that the News week story is an isolated incident? , no chance. That is just the tip of the iceberg with regards to what is going on in Abuh Ghraid prison, Guantanamo bay and Bagram airbase. One US army commander is quoted as saying that the geneva convention does not apply in this case because they are not considered prisoners of war. What prisoners are they then?

Well they are considered illegal combatantd and this idea does have legal basis. So while prisoners of war are giving certain treatments, illegal combatents have a very murky legal status.

While this may not be any excuse, do you think American soldiers in Iraq captured by insurgents would be awarded prisoner of war status and their rights under the Genva convention, which was written at a different time and you can argue it is outdated.

 

[Jamison]

While this may not be any excuse, do you think American soldiers in Iraq captured by insurgents would be awarded prisoner of war status and their rights under the Genva convention, which was written at a different time and you can argue it is outdated.

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That certainly isn't an excuse. Even if Iraqi insugents don't treat American soliders correctly, that is not a reason for us to do the same thing. I'm sorry, but there is absolutely no excuse for what some of our men and women have done to these people. Most of this torture that went on wasn't to get information out of these people, it was for their own amusement...as can be seen by the pictures.

 

[noggi16]

That may or may not be true. It is possible this was part of systematic abuse authorised by people higher up. The fact it goes on around the world in Bagram, and Cuba could suggest this is a definate culture in the American military,

 

[Jamison]

That may or may not be true. It is possible this was part of systematic abuse authorised by people higher up. The fact it goes on around the world in Bagram, and Cuba could suggest this is a definate culture in the American military,

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Even if it was authorized by higher up (which trust me, I completely agree to be true) doesn't mean it's right (and doesn't mean that the people doing the abuse had to take pictures smiling while they dragged inmates around on leashes).

This is not something that should go on...period.