Yahoo News Lies about Koran Mishandling

From Yahoo, Jailers splashed Koran with urine – Pentagon.

You gotta love the pyramid style of news article writing. A quick summary at the top can easily bury any clarifications within the middle of the article. Case in point:

The first paragraph: “American jailers at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects splashed a Koran with urine, kicked and stepped on the Islamic holy book and soaked it with water…” [emphasis mine]

The third paragraph: “In the incident involving urine, which took place this past March, Southern Command said a guard left his post and urinated near an air vent and ‘the wind blew his urine through the vent’ and into a cell block.” [emphasis mine]

Wait a second, why did I go so far as to say Yahoo is lying, if I merely mention misdirection in the beginning of my entry. Well, if you’ve the attention span to get this far, fear not, you will be rewarded.

Luckily, my attention-grabbing title, unlike Yahoo’s, is not a lie. Did you catch where I added emphasis in quoting the third paragraph? It says, “a guard.” Yahoo’s headline says, “Jailers.” Hmm… I would forgive this slight transgression if it didn’t seem indicative of greater MSM and leftist unjustified hullabaloo.

I found this gem from the blogosphere, commenting on the Koran mishandling: From the “Friday Night Newshole” Files. She’s one to talk about a “burying job,” when her ellipsis so conveniently cuts out: “The statement said the detainee was given a new prison uniform and Koran, and that the guard was reprimanded and given duty in which he had no contact with prisoners.” No, the Bush administration does not need to “issu[e] an apology to Newsweek for accusing them of erroneous reporting”.

At least the BBC doesn’t outright lie, like Yahoo, but it’s still misleading. After its less inflamatory “US Guantanamo guard kicked Koran” headline, the bold first paragraph reads: “The US has given details of how guards mishandled copies of the Koran at its Guantanamo Bay prison, including a case of one copy being deliberately kicked.”

However, by the time we get to the fourth paragraph, we find out: “The report said most of the cases were accidental or unintentional.” Yeah, that’s the line that should’ve been in bold.

Despite this, Reuters decides to play the quotes game: “White House blames ‘few’ jailers in Koran uproar.”

Oh no, it gets better, read on: “The White House sought on Saturday to minimize damage from new revelations about U.S. personnel mishandling the Koran at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison, accusing a few people of violating policy and the media of blowing ‘isolated incidents’ out of proportion.”

Or maybe, just maybe, Mr. MSM, you can consider that maybe just once, the Bush administration is right? The media is blowing isolated incidents out of proportion! Just look at those misleading headlines! It’s not damage control; it’s trying to show the truth. No wonder people are so disillusioned by the media.

And, before you read anything else about “Quranic abuse,” please read this excellent article by Christopher Hitchens: Stop the Masochistic Insanity.

UPDATE: Goodness, it gets even better! Turns out the BBC article does get some facts wrong!

Read: “It was part of an inquiry sparked by a magazine report, later retracted, that a Koran was flushed down a toilet.”

Wait a second… the Newsweek article was about “a forthcoming report by the U.S. Southern Command in Miami was ‘expected’ to contain the finding that Guantanamo interrogators had flushed a Quran down a toilet to break detainees.” (Quote from Down the Toilet at Newsweek via Slate.)

Wow, so we’re set up with the impression that this report came out as a response to the Newsweek article. It’s almost like they want us to believe the administration is making things up as part of a cover up. Unfortunately, this report was already in the works.

Despite what the MSM wants us to believe, the US is not that stupid. There is no systematic Koran mishandling going on. Quite the contrary, in fact, “A January 2003 Pentagon memo for ‘handling and inspecting of detainee Korans’ said U.S. personnel must ‘ensure that the Koran is not placed in offensive areas such as the floor, near the toilet or sink, near the feet, or dirty/wet areas.'” (Again from Slate, Quranic Etiquette.) Even if the urination incident was intentional, it doesn’t indicate systematic abuse. It’s no Abu Ghraib.