Wow.

My BULLSHIT Detector just went thru the roof.

Novak/Plame?
Gannon?
Fox News?

What a feast you would provide progressives…

5/6/05 (Friday) – Pakistani opposition politician, Imran Khan’s press conference in Pakistan. [My comment: He was a well-chosen front man for this op – the country's ex-cricket star.]

5/6/05 “…in mass protests called by the Islamist parties, Pakistanis took to the streets holding aloft “death to America” banners…’

“For the next several days, the report dominated the front pages of English and Urdu-language newspapers in Pakistan and became the center of debate in the Pakistan Parliament.”

5/7/05 (Saturday) – Musharraf’s govt tries to do damage control with their own statement condemning the reported desecration and calling for an inquiry.

5/9/05 (Monday) – Official date of Newsweek edition containing the desecration allegations. But Imran Khan already had either a paper copy or a fax from his handlers which he used at his press conference 3 days earlier.

5/11/05 (Wednesday) etc. – Afghanistan: “On Wednesday, stone throwers were out on the streets. Along with local government offices, the Pakistani consulate was attacked apparently as a symbol of Pakistani aid for United States intervention in Afghanistan. By Friday, the protests had spread to several other towns in Afghanistan, and by nightfall, 17 people were dead and more than 100 wounded.”

5/13/05 (Friday) – “…a coalition of Islamist parties seized on the Newsweek report to accuse General Musharraf’s government of colluding with the West against Islam. But the criticism was not limited to the religious right. Legislators from across the political spectrum denounced the reported desecration, and by Friday, May 13, Parliament had passed a unanimous resolution condemning it.”

5/14/05 (Saturday) Pentagon spokesman DiRita noted:
“The nature of where these things occurred, how quickly they occurred, the nature of individuals who were involved in it, suggest that they may be organized events that are using this alleged allegation as a pretext for activity that was already planned.”

_____________________

Yes, organized events, and part of that organization was a hidden source using Newsweek in the same way OBL’s minions use Al Jazeera to trigger events. The bait to the Islamic masses was in paragraph 1, but the code words signaling the green light for the worldwide operation to begin were in paragraph 2.

The consequences of Newsweek’s and its source’s irresponsibility in propagating this inflammatory lie are much more than what has been focused on re Afghanistan.

In Pakistan, where Imran Khan’s May 6th press conference hinged on Newsweek’s lie and gave the green light to the subsequent demonstrations worldwide, there are far worse consequences developing – to India and to the West. The inherent threat in a toppling of Pres. Musharraf is that he would be replaced by an extremist Islamic regime who can use and share Pakistan’s nuclear capacity.

Where I don’t agree with her is on her defense of the Newsweek people. They are not mere messengers: they are citizens like the rest of us, and they should no more be let off the hook because they are journalists than the military people should be exempt from scrutiny because they’re doing important work in a war. (I don’t mean that the govt should punish Newsweek, BTW.) We are all in this together. Newsweek should have known better than to rush to distribute a story that was guaranteed to be inflammatory in the Muslim world.

It’s certainly not plausible that thousands of Afghans or Pakistanis went charging into the streets shortly after their issue of Newsweek arrived.

Moreover, if the administration’s concern was over loss of life in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the last thing they should have done was trumpeted the story and insisted on a retraction. Extremists in Afghanistan are not going to regard a government retraction of a news story as anything other than a coverup, which adds lying about the desecration to the mix.

This is about domestic power politics, not loss of life in Afghanistan, as far as the administration is concerned.

NYTimes yesterday, among others:

But only a few days earlier, in a briefing on Thursday, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said that the senior commander in Afghanistan believed the protests had stemmed from that country’s reconciliation process. “He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine,” General Myers said.

You and I disagree about what would come to light, but we are both guessing. –Lex

I agree that I share with you a desire to know the truth, and frankly, I’d be happier if I were wrong.

But the evidence is pretty deep at this point, and the only response from the people defending the Pentagon is to blame the “bad apples” and impugn those offering evidence.

Annie Appelbaum does a good job of summarizing that evidence. It’s not incontrovertible, but, as Bogie said in “The Maltese Falcon,” look at the number of them. So, yes, I do hope that a thorough investigation takes place. We could start with a release of the Southern Command report.

In fairness, would you agree that the Pentagon or the republicans resisting such an investigation would, at least, weaken the view that the use of desecration and religious humiliation didn’t take place? For me, the stifling of the post-Taguba investigation was evidence enough.

[see below]
The secret Downing Street memo

SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL – UK EYES ONLY

DAVID MANNING
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02

cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell

IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER’S MEETING, 23 JULY

Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.

This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.

etc……..

Ever read the U.K. Telegraph? This bonzer headline says it all: Agent Behind Fake Uranium Documents Worked for France

In his article the Telegraph’s Bruce Johnston writes that we and the Brits were set up. Liz at the Blonde Sense Blog cuts straight to the grist of the Telegraph piece:

“Italian diplomats have claimed that, by disseminating bogus documents stating that Iraq was trying to buy low-grade “yellowcake” uranium from Niger, France was trying to “set up” Britain and America in the hope that when the mistake was revealed it would undermine the case for war, which it wanted to prevent.”

It looks like the anti-war crowd in the U.N., America and beyond took the bait – hook, line and sinker.
-Steve

If the Plame “outing” is “still unsolved” how do you know who did it? And what, other than a boost to her husband’s book-writing career, was the consequence? I don’t remember hearing about anyone getting hurt, so pardon my skepticism about any supposed parallels between that case and the current one.

BTW, I think that Robert Novak should have been forced to reveal who his source was.

Hector,

So are you saying that the most important thing here is that somebody, in your view, was hypocritical? Or are you saying that the consequences of Newsweek’s recklessness are unimportant?

You mean like Iraqi WMDs? Oh sorry, that WAS a complete lie. Mmmm Nigerian Yellow Cake.

The “Newsweek Riots” have resulted in 20 lives lost and most likely had little to nothing to do with the newsweek article. How many soldiers have died in Iraq? How many civilians?

I agree about wrongful death suits, actually. Not possible. What a sick suggestion. So, see we sickos can agree on some things. How sick is that? What a sick world.

5/16/05 Quote Of The Day – We Didn’t Start The Fire Edition.
5/16/05 Defending Newsweek.
5/16/05 Newsweek’s Hail Mary?
5/16/05 The Hunt For Osama bin Laden Heats Up.
5/17/05 Newsweek’s Fungible Editorial Standards.
5/17/05 Koran-In-The-Crapper Scorecard – Drudge Edition.

I would lean more towards an FBI or Homeland Security investigation (or CTU, if we could recruit “Jack” Kiefer Sutherland :) …he’d do what’s necessary and get it done in 24 Hours!)

Not an investigation of Newsweek as part of the free press, but of the source(s) and their possible prior connection and collaboration with hostiles such as the Pakistani opposition politician, Imran Khan, whose 6 May press conference used the 9 May edition of Newsweek to give the green light for the demonstrations to start in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the rest of the Moslem world. If the seemingly well-coordinated and advance-organized demonstrations’ ringleaders were waiting for the Newsweek edition to hit the streets, that would indicate prior knowledge of its content and forthcoming release. That’s what interests me. (If Isikoff et al were knowingly involved, then that will be discovered too.) But it’s the hidden snake in the grass further on the source chain that should be of interest from a national security viewpoint.