Newsweek Claim

Michael Isikoff in an article published by Newsweek caused riots in Arab streets, the death of at least sixteen people and the injury of countless others -- so far. His words will inspire current terrorists and the enlistment of unnumbered others. We can only hope that his article does not cause us to lose the war on terror.

Arab peoples, as a whole, take their religion very seriously. They could conclude that they don't want "freedom" if it allows desecration of their religious books and symbols. Our hopes for democracy could go down the tubes with unsupported articles such as this.

Mr. Isikoff wrote, based on an unnamed source for whom he originally alleged the highest credibility, that a copy of the Koran was flushed down the toilet to unnerve prisoners in Guantanamo. After the ensuing predictable effects of yelling “fire,” Isikoff and Newsweek, at this writing, are backpedaling with double-talk (“we can’t verify” but like the infamous CBS story on George W. Bush, the implication is that it’s still true) including saying that others in the media reported the same thing they did. It turns out these others were not members of the American media, but included instead Al Jazeera and newspapers in countries with leaders involved in the oil-for-food scandals. This is understandable; these are among those that opposed the war in Iraq, and share Newsweek’s anti-Bush, even anti-American, stance. There is no credible source backing the Newsweek story.

On the contrary, U.S. government sources say that the U.S. furnishes copies of the Koran for Guantanamo. And they say they require men of the cloth to use plastic gloves when handling them.

Opinion: I don’t know about others, but I have not been so outraged by an action of an American since I learned that Jane Fonda, in addition to other actions aiding and abetting the enemy in Viet Nam, gave notes, secretly passed to her by American prisoners of war, unread, to their captors. I wouldn’t attend a movie or anything benefiting her as I would think twice before paying for a copy of Newsweek.

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