It doesn’t fit with the cherished fascist myth of the ‘liberal’ media so it’s being ignored in favor of Newsweek bashing, but documents the ACLU obtained show that the FBI knew about « desecrations of the Koran at Guantanamo Gulag as early as 2002 »:

‘New documents released by the FBI include previously undisclosed interviews in which prisoners at Guantánamo complain that guards have mistreated the Koran, the American Civil Liberties Union said today. In one 2002 summary, an FBI interrogator notes a prisoner’s allegation that guards flushed a Koran down the toilet. The disclosure comes on the heels of controversy over a Newswee_k report saying that government investigators had corroborated an almost identical incident. _Newsweek ultimately retracted its story because a confidential government source could not be confirmed. … According to the FBI documents, a detainee interviewed in August 2002 said that guards had flushed the Koran in the toilet. Others reported the Koran being kicked, withheld as punishment, and thrown on the floor, and said they were mocked during prayers.

‘The release of the FBI interviews follows the disclosure last week of Defense Department documents regarding other cases in which military personnel mistreated the Koran and used a religious symbol to taunt detainees. In the documents released today, one detainee informs his FBI interviewers that using the Koran “as a reprisal or as an incentive for cooperation has failed,” and that the only result would be “the damage caused to the reputation of the United States once what had occurred was released to the world.” While another detainee acknowledged that there might be “a legitimate need to search the book for hidden items,” he objected to the abusive manner in which the searches were conducted.’

So, just like with the Swifties and the CBS Guard memos, we have, probably, a story that is essentially true, but the reporting of which is discredited on what could be termed a technicality. Follow up reports that the story is essentially true can be ignored, especially since the organization doing the reporting is one of the most hated of institutions by the Fascist right.

I’m sensing a pattern here.