Newsweek Guilty Of Murder

Newsweek has admitted that its story about US interrogators flushing a Koran down the toilet was based on bad information, was not properly verified and was just plain wrong:

Last Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told us [Newsweek] that a review of the probe cited in our story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Qur'an desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them "not credible." Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts. Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we. But we regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst.

(h/t Captains Quarters)

Their apology is not enough, not by a long shot. There should be congressional hearings immediatately on this matter, with everyone at Newsweek and all their sources forced to answer congressional subpoenas and testify under oath.

Also, a grand jury should be convened so the possibility of bringing manslaugher charges against the reporters and editors at Newsweek and their sources can be evaluated.

With freedom comes responsibility, and that goes for freedom of the press, too.

Update: Bebeaux at Double Toothpicks has posted an Al Qaeda training manual's list of missions, including this one:

5. Spreading rumors and writing statements that instigate people against the enemy.

"Newsweek," Bebeaux says, "apparently has volunteered to help Al-Qaeda with number 5 on that list. People are dead and American troops are in heightened danger because of anti-American reporting that the magazine can not support."

See also:
Flushing the Koran