Progressive Nation

May 22nd, 2005

Not Newsweek’s Fault

Two weeks ago in the Periscope section of Newsweek, there was a story regarding the mistreatment of Qur’ans at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, ultimately dismissed the claim. He also blamed Newsweek for anti-American protests in the Middle East he said were sparked by the Newsweek story.

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan was quoted in a New York Times article as saying that the protests in his country killing 17 “was directed at the peace process that we have of inviting back the thousands of the Taliban to come back to their country. It was actually against the elections in Afghanistan. So we know what was going on there.”

Assuming that the Newsweek story is false (Newsweek retracted it this week), it is still shocking how little protest occurs both overseas and domestically regarding the treatment of “detainees.” The 600 plus prisoners have no legal representation and are being held indefinitely. Both an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) report and a Department of Defense investigation have found signs of psychological abuse.

In addition, the ICRC has found instances of Qur’an abuse.

This raises the question: how many other things can the Bush administration pin on somebody else?

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 22nd, 2005 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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