Helen Thomas: Newsweek didn't create White House image

[paineinthearse]

http://www.occupationwatch.org/analysis/archives/2005/05/newsweek_didnt.html

May 25, 2005
Newsweek didn't create White House image
By Helen Thomas
HEARST NEWSPAPERS
May 24, 2005

It was an act of desperation when the White House tried to blame Newsweek magazine for the United States' low esteem around the world, particularly in the Middle East. The Bush administration could look in the mirror and see that the real cause for rampant anti-Americanism is the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Newsweek has apologized for its report that a copy of the Quran was flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding about 500 prisoners, though released prisoners have in recent months told interviewers that they had witnessed similar acts of desecration. The Newsweek report is being blamed for inciting riots in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the l7 deaths that ensued.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan -- who has fobbed off questions about mistreatment of U.S.-held prisoners in the past -- told reporters that the Newsweek report "caused serious damage to the United States abroad." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was appalled that the story about the Quran got out. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- of all people -- said: "People need to be very careful about what they say just as they need to be careful about what they do." This is the same Rumsfeld who ignored for months the first of the devastating reports about abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

You don't have to draw a diagram for the Arab world to know what country invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003 -- against the wishes of every nation in the region -- and tried to justify the attack with a rationale that shifted each time the previous version was shown to be false. There's a sense of hypocrisy that pervades the huffing and puffing by Bush administration officials as they rush to criticize Newsweek. Where was their outrage when they saw the photographs of the shameful mistreatment of the prisoners of war at the Abu Ghraib facility, with forced nudity, humiliation, sexual harassment, brutal interrogation, dogs? After those shocking photos were published around the world, Rumsfeld banned cameras from military prisons.

Daoud Kuttab, a news media critic and professor in Bethlehem, referring to claims by former prisoners of Quran desecration, told The New York Times: "Newsweek can recant as long as they want, but as long as people are coming out of prison and telling the same story, it will not matter." The Pentagon is still investigating the charges contained in the Newsweek account. Former broadcaster Marvin Kalb, now at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said, "This is hardly the first time the administration has sought to portray the American media as inadequately patriotic."

more........

[bpilgrim]

1. "Newsweek can recant as long as they want..."

http://images.globalfreepress.com

peace

[JohnyCanuck]

2. Sure it's all Newsweeks's fault. You better believe it.

Beating the crap out of innocent Muslim taxi drivers and torturing them to death has absolutely nothing to do with it. Rummy says,"They might hate us for our freedoms, but they'll love us for our strict discipline."



Cartoon from Seattle PI.

[paineinthearse]

3. Great cartoon

Horsey is one of the best.