Pentagon Confirms Koran Abuse At Gitmo

Of course, timing is everything. When Newsweek ran the article about the Koran being flushed down the toilet, their source in the Pentagon, didn't object to what was printed BEFORE it was published. Only after, when the story became a PR disaster for the Bush Administration did their source back off the claim. This was two weeks after the intitial article appeared in Newsweek. The White House spin machine then launched into it's familiar "left leaning media" mantra. Helped along by Fox News and talk radio. Newsweek, admitting it's own sloppy journalism forced to back off the story. Right wing bloggers bend over backwards patting themselves on the back, breathlessly asserting, "I told you the media was biased!" And then the Pentagon releases it's report, today. Late after the evening news, on Friday.


America

June 04, 2005

[US admits guard soiled Koran at Guantanamo
By Roland Watson
AN AMERICAN guard at Guantanamo Bay urinated on a copy of the Koran while others kicked, stepped on and soaked copies with water balloons, the Pentagon admitted last night.

A two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of another copy. One interrogator was fined for “a pattern of unacceptable behaviour”, according to a month-long inquiry.

The details will cause further embarrassment for the Pentagon, which has been fighting claims that the Koran was systematically mishandled as a tactic by US interrogators to break detainees.

The findings were deliberately released late into the night in an attempt to minimise the damage. But Pentagon chiefs insisted that despite the problems uncovered, the investigation revealed that the vast majority of personnel respected the Koran.]

So a month later, the Pentagon gives us the truth. But the spin has spun. The illusion of a left leaning media remains. Timing is everything.