Freedom of Slander

Now that the political damage has been done, and at least 15 people have died, Newsweek is retracting their "story" about desecration of the Qur'an by some of the interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.  I believe in freedom of the press, but I also have a healthy respect for the truth, and do not believe that the first amendment provides a license to commit slander.  But hey, if it sells magazines, who cares? - right?  The Washington Bureau Chief issued the weakest excuse for an apology that I have seen in some time.  It is another round of "It's not my fault.  Don't blame me:

Newsweek's Washington bureau chief, Dan Klaidman, said the apparent error was "terribly unfortunate," and he offered the magazine's sympathies to the victims. 

But he said "different forces" were at work that helped spark the riots.

"It's clear that people seized on the Newsweek report to advance their own agendas, and that that was part of it," he said.

"But I also think that there's an enormous amount of pent-up and not-so-pent-up anti-American rage and sentiment in that region."

"There are a lot of people who think that our war on terror and our war in Iraq is a much wider war against Islam," he said.

What is "terribly unfortunate" (nice spin) is that this garbage is actually actually considered journalism.  I doubt Mr. Klaidman's sympathies mean anything to the families of the 15-16 people killed in the rioting in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  As for his comments on the "lot of people who think that our war on terror and our war in Iraq is a much wider war against Islam," I wonder if it has dawned on him that this sort of widespread slander in the major media contributes to that false perception.  What would be nice is if these bums actually checked their facts and did some semblance of due diligence before publishing this garbage.

This sort of yellow journalism infuriates me to no end.  Luckily, we have not seen any fallout from this "story" here in Baghdad, but I would not be surprised to see arhabi propaganda spinning this soon.  What I do know is that we take great pains to ensure that we show respect for the Iraqi people and culture and reverence for the Islamic faith.  The 3 P's are always in effect and reitierated before every mission briefing.  In fact, I would say that we often take these steps at increased risk to our own safety.  Not one Soldier from this unit has yet entered a Mosque for any reason.  This is the case even though that there are numerous documented cases of mosques being used by the arhabi for planning, logistics, and even firing on US Troops. 

All of this being said, it is no small wonder that a gulf has opened between journalists and the general public.  I think even most John Q. Six-Packs know when they are being fed a line of @!$%!  It seems now that more and more journalists are counting on bloggers to do their job for them:

Blogs showed their growing influence among those polled as 83% of journalists reporting the use of blogs, with four out of 10 saying they use them at least once a week. Among those who use them, 55% said they do so to support their news gathering work. And even though 85% believe bloggers should enjoy First Amendment protections, 75% say bloggers are not real journalists because they don't adhere to "commonly held ethical standards."

My brother called me a journalist once during a coversation about this blog.  I was offended...

Comments

[paully]

...hey, i said you were a "good" journalist for all the reasons stated in your post.

[Lou]

The Newsweek story has had me fighting mad all week. Even it the story were true, I could not understand why any American would report something that would cause such Anti-American sentiment, hate, and death. Now, the story is reported to be false. What should happen to such irresponsible reporters? There are laws against slander and treason.

[Chevy Rose]

I agree with Lou, there are laws against slander and treason. Newsweek should be required to pay the families of those killed in the riots they caused. How is their actions any different then me shouting "Fire" in a movie theater?

[Dave]

Well said as usual, Major. On the bright side, I have several pairs of handcuffs on their way to me, soon to be on their way to you. Should make some fine bracelets for your less cooperative interviewees :) Take care.

[Matthew Krappman]

Very nice piece, Greg. Succinct. Pointy.

We love you and miss you.

Matty and Sarah

[Jason Turner]

I just wanted to see if you knew about the Army's Strategic Studies Institute. They have a lot of interesting studies with range of broad view points. They also offer research provided by the up and coming Colonels of the military. I've been posting this link in military blogs as part of an awareness campaign for this invaluable research.

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi

[MAinMUC]

I've been more wound up about this than I've been about anything in a while. Saw that punk Klaidman's lame performance on CNNi yesterday, and the man truly has no shame.

However, equally sickening was the now all-too familiar outpouring of hatred and violence throughout the Islamic world disguised as a "reaction" to the Newsweek report.

We all appreciate your efforts to be PC with these people, but I personally would not mind if certain elements of the population were a little more wary of us.

[membrain]

You hit on the head when you called it what it is: Yellow Journalism. What Newsweek printed is seditious, bordering on treason. His apology is lame and it is clear that in his mind the deaths of the 16 people directly linked to the article are perfectly at ease in his Liberal mind. Pathetic.

[Theresa]

The msm once again shows its ass. No wonder we, the unwashed masses, no longer have faith in anything coming from it. The killing of those people is tragic, but honestly, the story certainly didn't warrant that kind of response. If non-Muslims reacted that severely every time Muslims violated something we hold sacred, we'd be rioting all the damn time. They need to come out of the dark ages and stop using their damn religion as an excuse to kill.

[Papa Ray]

Unfortunatly, true or not, retracted and denied, makes not a whit to some Islamic groups and individuals.

Read on.

http://clarityandresolve.com/archives/2005/05/belated_islamic.php

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

[Dan]

Well said.

Thank you.

---Dan

[FVK]

Rock on, Major! "It's not my fault -- The Devil made me do it!"

[Paul5388]

MAJ,

Maybe you need to change your background color again. With the mention of "yellow journalism" we certainly wouldn't want you to be accused of practicing the same! I would think a nice earth tone, like Iraq sand, would be fitting.

Keep up the good work, I enjoy your comments and first hand reports!

Stay safe, you have to watch what's in front of you, but some will try to stab you from behind. Newsweek "friendly" fire might be an example.

[Some Soldier's Mom]

there should be penalties for such irresponsible reporting... Newsweek and other news outlets have forgotten that the right to freedom of speech also carries responsibilities... if we can punish people for yelling "FIRE" in a crowded theatre, what should the punishment here be?

On the other side of that coin, I do not believe the families of the victims should be compensated as some are calling for unless it can be proven that they were not in any way participating in the lawlessness that accompanied the "demonstrations". While I fully support the right to PEACEFULLY demonstrate, disorder and criminal behavior should not be rewarded.

[THIRDWAVEDAVE]

I ran across your site from Howdy and Hurl. Great stuff here. You guys are doing a great job and we're very proud of all of you. Stay safe!

[JNALLY]

Like the new look of the blog. By the way, Tinker says you should start writing a book...you know...with ALL that spare time you've got.

[Bob Sprowl]

Newsweak press credentials should be permanently revoked. Their reporters and other staff members should not be allowed to attend any press conference or any other event sponsored by a Federal agency.

Any reporter from another organization sharing information with Newsweak should also have their credentials revoked.

Any Federal employee at any level that provides information on any topic to a Newsweak reporter shall be suspended without pay for a three days, for the first offense, nine days for the second offense and fired for the third offense.

Newsweak should be held responsible for the deaths of those people and subpoenas issued seizing all files and computers at the corporate offices, reporter's homes and the homes of the corporate officers. (Let's see them get the next issue out without any computers.)

[Huntress]

Sadly, Newsweek is part of a liberal elite media that insists on slanting everything they chose to report on, so that it reflects their pathetic left wing agenda.

They like Dan Rather couldnt care less about reliable sources, and doing due diligence, the story fits their bogus preconceived idea of the War on Terror and what American soldiers under the direction of Pres Bush.

They didnt check the veracity of the story because they WANTED TO BELIEVE it was true.

I recently walked my friends dog, and used my copy of Newsweek to pick up the dogs***. It seemed appropriate!

And this crap about "anti american sentiments" have been brewing in Afghanistan, so THATS really what triggered the riots! Man this guy is so freaking clueless, its incredible that he earns a huge salary for being THAT stupid.

[Soldier's Dad]

I'm still trying to find the difference between a KGB agent using an anonymous source inside the Pentagon to find information damaging to US national security and a News reporter doing exactly the same thing.

News reporters claim that they no longer owe allegiance to the US, their allegiance is to something greater called "The Truth"(profits,notoriety,the cause).

As it is clear they have renounced their allegience to the US, they are nothing more than foreign spys, and should be treated accodingly.

[jordan]

Soldier's Dad,

Great minds must think alike:

I hate newspapermen.
They come into camp and pick up camp rumors,
and print them as fact.

I regard them as spies, which in truth, they are.

If I killed them all, there would be news from hell before breakfast.

-General William Tecumseh Sherman

[Copper]

As usual, Major K, you are a flaming right-wing ass. Guess what? The bigger pictuire here is that we seem to be in the habit of torturing pow's. To save my blood pressure, herewith a blog post I didn't write but wish I did:
You hear it all the time - "Even if you don't support the war, you must support the troops." Taking it further, it is often thought impossible for you to show support for our fighting men and women without backing every word and deed of the Bush administration. With troops in the field, it is suggested, criticism or dissent erodes morale and leaves our forces vulnerable to attack. "Let's present a unified front," they say, as if marching in lock-step is the best possible course to ensure survival of the American Way. Well I'm here to express dissent, and not in any predictable fashion. It's too easy to blast our foreign policy while getting teary-eyed at the thought of our armed forces facing the wrath of the evildoers. That's the chickenshit way to debate the Bush crowd and all those who think he walks with Jesus. I'm here to shout from the rooftops that I not only oppose our profit-driven assault on a sovereign nation, but also those who carry out that misguided policy. In other words, fuck the troops. I shed no tears, wave no flags, and remain Buster Keaton-like upon hearing casualty reports or flashes of another tragedy. I oppose them as a good contrarian would, but I also object to who they are as individuals. These are not the best we have to offer, although they may indeed be the most typical. I am speaking of the distinct, undeniably creeping stench of trash - po' white trash above all, but all those who, under the guise of sacrifice and duty, sign away their lives because not even the local community college will accept someone so deficient in the intellectual arts. I simply refuse to salute anyone who has chosen a career path out of sheer desperation and the self-serving drive to fund that which is impossible to achieve by merit or scholarship. It isn't Uncle Sam and the ghosts of our war dead that push our Jethros, our Jim Bobs, and our Crystals onto distant shores, it is the acquisition of job skills and a piece of parchment that will allow them to leave the double-wide behind forevermore.

Because America relies on an all-volunteer army, it must accept literally anyone who has the drive to come into a local recruiting office. And who could resist those "Army of One" commercials, where hillbillies and rural slobs are sold on the idea that even in a regimented, soul-stripping hellhole, one can assert one's identity. It's not true of course, but given the increasingly conservative nature of our white trash, it is not enough to sacrifice life and limb for an abstraction, especially when that abstraction is seen as evil incarnate for taking away grandpappy's hog farm. Do we really believe that only the poor and the directionless possess a patriotic love of country? If the enlisted element of the military were a true cross-section of America rather than what's left over after scraping the trash bin, then my opposition would cease and I would begin to embrace the idea that we were being protected by a living, breathing force of arms rather than the mechanized, technological giant we have become. Other, more talented folks with degrees, ambitions, and functioning brains designed each and every tool used by today's army, and they are the true heroes in all this, if we need to select of a group of people for sanctification. To use such tools, which amounts to nothing more than exploiting the labor of another, is to merely follow orders and learn rudimentary tasks rather than exhibiting gallantry. Or better yet, thank the taxpayers who year after year watch their dollars sail into the bottomless pit of the Pentagon, which in turn grease the wheels of military contractors, the true masters of us all.

J-Lynch Brings Out The Best In Our Youth
An American Hero:
Jessica from what I hear you are really cool, I also hear you want to be a teacher at an Elementary school.
You left your country to fight in danger, you were trying to free people who were filled with anger.
You are now all over TV you have become an American hero, when I compare you to any superhero in the world you win 10 to 0.

Words of Inspiration from Another Pre-Pubescent Bush Supporter and stolen from http://www.jessica-lynch.com/

For all the talk of bravery and fearlessness, I can present an equal amount of selfishness and blatant stupidity. How many stories have I heard regarding a feathered-hair princess in Mom Jeans and her five children waiting with bated breath for daddy to come home from combat? Or what about the tale of the military couple who had to contend with possible court-martial because the mother insisted that no one would be home to take care of their seven brats? Does Lee Greenwood really drip from your lips when you hear that faux hero Jessica Lynch met her beau at Taco Bell and is planning to have a wedding similar to the bimbo from Reno 911? If these military wives aren't perpetually pregnant (and we pay for that, dear readers), then they are parading around the base with their buzzed-cut brood and faded NFL jerseys. With such mediocrities as our last line of defense, it should come as no surprise that we get bogged down whenever the enemy sees fit to put up a fight. It isn't possible nuclear annihilation that keeps us from invading North Korea, it is the prospect of facing a crack unit of over a million men who are likely to leave tens of thousands of Americans bleeding to death in the snow.

So while you attend your parades and place hand over heart, I will be immersed in my shame. Tho' the uniforms be crisp and the boots be shiny, the skin beneath them houses the opportunist, the breeder, or the dropout. And if all you have to say to me is that I speak out of ignorance or the arrogance of a man too afraid to fight, I say that is no argument indeed. Of course I do not wish to be shot, and yes, I would be pissing my pants on the flight over, but I am honest enough to admit that I have no desire to defend the interests of those who do not represent the principles I hold dear. And neither do they, the soldiers, only they cannot speak openly about their naked self-interest. They cling to love of country, but it is nothing of the sort. The only alternative to selfish goals is a genuine ignorance; a willingness to accept the party line from the top brass. If that is the case, my point regarding their simple natures is proven. For no one with even a shred of decency or intellectual honesty would believe that our current engagements are in defense of liberty and justice for all. If it turns into Red Dawn, I'll polish my rifle and meet you at the front. But until then, I won't die for the soccer mom and her perceived right to drive a Hummer.

[Maybe Its True]

Oh Major Douchebag---I offer the following from Harper's Magazine. Oops. Maybe it did happen, hm?

Posted on Wednesday, May 18, 2005. From an interview with a twenty-one-year-old Afghan man whose name is withheld for his protection, conducted last summer in Gardez by Daniel Rothenberg, an American human-rights researcher. The interviewee, who was upset when his interrogators placed a copy of the Koran into a latrine, showed a Department of Defense discharge letter stating that he was detained from December 2002 through May 2004. Originally from Harper's Magazine, March 2005.
\
SourcesThere were eight of us, and they took us all to Gardez. When we were taken to jail, we were masked, with some type of bag put over our heads. Our hands were tied. They poured cold water over us and then started beating us with their fists and with sticks. Sometimes they picked us up on their shoulders and then threw us down. They were all American soldiers wearing uniforms. They untied dogs and they frightened us with them. The dogs bit us and scratched us with their teeth and nails. They didn’t give us anything to eat or drink. We were held there for seven or eight nights, and each night we were tortured.

Then they took us to Bagram. When we got to Bagram, we were held in a wooden cell. We spent eight days in the small cell, and we were not allowed to talk or to sleep. There were bags on our heads, and our hands were tied. Whenever we sat down they yelled at us to stand up. They would come over and yell and then cut off our beards and our mustaches and even our eyebrows. Some people fell to the ground. When we were unable to stand, they tied our hands to an iron rod on the top of the cell. This kept us from standing normally, and we were forced to stand on our toes.

We were interrogated four times during the first eight days. The interrogations were run by Americans with Afghan translators. They asked us:

“Who is your commander?”

“What do you know about the Taliban?”

“What do you know about Al Qaeda?”

“Who are you fighting for?”

Then we were put into a cell made of chain-link fencing. There was only one person in each cell, and we were able to sit. Sometimes they would order us to get on our knees and hold our arms up, and then they would ask us all sorts of questions, some that were so strange you would not have imagined them, even in dreams:

“Have you ever seen cats having sex?”

“Have you ever seen donkeys having sex?”

We were really surprised by these questions.

People were tortured in Bagram. I saw many old people who couldn’t walk fast, and the Americans pushed and pulled them. They broke prisoners’ arms. I saw three dead bodies. One guy came from Khost. He was in a cell next to ours, and he couldn’t stand. His legs couldn’t move. They beat him so much. Then they took him to a room on the second floor. The next morning I saw them take his body down the stairs on a stretcher. The second man was from Tora Bora, and I don’t know where the third man was from, maybe from Kandahar.

We were not so sad when we were tortured. But when they insulted Islam it was really very difficult. They would come into the cell and search our belongings. They would pick up the Holy Koran and go through it page by page like they were looking for something. We didn’t understand what they were saying while they did this. Then they would throw the Holy Koran on the ground or drop it in the latrine. This made us very upset. They searched our cells every day, sometimes many times a day.

The last time I was interrogated in Bagram they told me, “Tell the truth. If you do not tell the truth we will take you to Guantánamo.”

I said, “Even if you took me far up into the sky, I couldn’t tell you any more. I told you the truth the first time. I have nothing more to say.” They sent me to Guantánamo the same way I was sent to Bagram, with a bag over my head and my hands shackled.

[Dave]

"The bigger pictuire here is that we seem to be in the habit of torturing pow's."

Copper, in case you missed the whole thing, the story in question was not only questioned, but RETRACTED. If you want to believe every rumor that's started, then Hillary Clinton has a girlfriend and Saddam really did have WMDs. Your logic (or lack of?) isn't so fun when it's turned back on you is it?

[Chevy Rose]

Major, just to let you know I just printed out "copper"'s comment......my parrot's cage needed a new liner.
Press on.

[Neil Reinhardt]

5-19-05

HELP!

THIS COMMENT DOES NOT EVEN BELONG HERE ONLY I CAN NOT POST IT under any of the last posts.

As only 1/3 of the place to make comments is there.

AND NOW, I can only read the RIGHT 1/3 of the page until I get below all the things in the left hand column.

PLEASE GO BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS a FEW days ago!

Thank you

Neil

(An 70 year old vet)