Newsweek backs down

Newsweek is backpedaling on its short blurb in last week's edition about the desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo. The revelation sparked angry protests throughout the Muslim world, some of which turned violent, killing more than a dozen and injuring over 100.

The magazine's mea culpa in this week's edition explains that their main source for the allegation is not as confident as he was prior to its publication. Still, other sources in the piece written by Evan Thomas indicate that disrespect of the Koran was a quite common occurence at the Cuban detention center. Moreover, such an allegation is entirely consistent with past reports that religious offences towards Muslim men were used to break them down. Noted techniques include using scantily clad female interrogators and, my favorite, having these same women smear fake menstrual blood on their charges.

Anyone who takes the denials from Rumsfeld's henchmen seriously is a fool. From Abu Ghraib to the ACLU's constant arm-twisting, it's clear that the Pentagon cannot be trusted to divulge disparaging information or investigate itself.

Already, the usual suspects are spinning this into another instance where the press is exhibiting its bias against Bush and his "war on terror," recalling the Rathergate memo experience. They have a point. The same thing is poised to happen here: news that rings true getting lost in a haze of partisan bickering that is meant more to distract from the fundamental issues at hand than resolve them.