Flushing the Koran

A Google search reveals 6,310 hits for the search "guantanamo newsweek koran," with many of the hits from media outlets that have picked up the story alleging US interrogators flushed a Koran down the toilet.

The story has resulted in at least eight deaths in Afghanistan riots.

Is Newsweek responsible for the deaths because it reported the story? Dennis Prager thinks so, particularly if the story proves to be unfounded or false. I think the story had little to do with the riots, which appear to be orchestrated by radicals who were looking for a cause to demonstrate over. But Newsweek provided the cause, and the reporters and editors who worked on the story will have to ask themselves if this was a news item that was improtant enough to spill blood over.

Obviously, their intent was to discredit the US, not to cause people to die, or for that matter, to provide the world with news it really needed to have. So in my book, they're guilty of manslaughter for politics, a mighty heinous crime.

Meanwhile, Karazai told reporters, "It is not the anti-American sentiment, it is a protest over news of the desecration of the holy Quran."

Where where were the rioters when the Taliban destroyed the irreplaceable Buddhist statues at the cliffs of Bamiyan? Isn't desecration desecration?