Newsweek retracts story on Koran under pressure
Let see - they reported falsely, apologized, blamed the military/Pentagon, now retracting that report... Maybe someday they will just admit they made a mistake - they failed - and take their lumps. Notice the olive branch stretch out to the military - I like the fact the Pentagon is not sitting back and taking the allegation lightly instead standing up for themselves and the military.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine on Monday retracted a report that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran after the story triggered protests in Afghanistan that killed 16 people and the White House criticized it.
'Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay,' Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker said in a statement, a day after apologizing for the report.
The retraction came as the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department all heavily criticized the report and said it had damaged the U.S. image abroad. White House spokesman Scott McClellan had said it was 'puzzling' that Newsweek had not retracted the story a day after apologizing for it.
'A retraction is a good first step,' McClellan said after Newsweek issued its statement. 'This allegation was unsubstantiated and it was contrary to everything that we value and all that our military works to uphold. We encourage Newsweek to now work diligently to help undo what damage can be undone.'
Newsweek says erred in Koran desecration report
Would you consider this irresponsible - a lie that resulted in people dieing - can we hope that this will be an eye opener to reporters to use caution in their "gotcha reporting".
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine on Sunday said it erred in a May 9 report that said U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.
'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,' Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.
Democrat to break ranks, unveil retirement bill
This is interesting and refreshing -- agree or don't agree with the plan a democrat is acknowledging we do need a change in Social Security.
WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - A Florida Democratic congressman plans to unveil next week a proposal to bolster Social Security finances, in a break with his party's rejection of a White House push to revamp the retirement system.
The proposal by Florida U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler would raise taxes on those making more than $90,000 a year, with a goal of relieving expected financial strains on Social Security as the baby-boom generation retires, a spokeswoman said. Wexler is to unveil the plan on Monday at a luncheon in his district.
The move amounts to a break with Democratic strategy. The party has remained mostly unified in its refusal to take up U.S. President George W. Bush's offer to negotiate on changes to Social Security. Democrats want Bush to first abandon his drive to establish private retirement accounts within the Social Security program, and the party's leadership has shown no signs of wavering.
BBC NEWS Asia-Pacific N Korea to open talks with SouthWell the game continues! You can see the United States is not the only ones North Korea likes playing it's on again and off again game with. However, I can assure you when the "off again" is given to South Korea, North Korea will again blame the United States.
The North proposed the resumption, it said, 'to put relations between the two Koreas on a normal track'.
Seoul accepted on Saturday, saying it wanted to discuss North Korea's nuclear programme, as well as relations between the two countries.
War in Iraq looks like last stand for al QaedaI have always thought that Iraq was a move, the correct one, to fight terrorist there and not here - out in the open if you were... I know they are not "out in the open" but they are much more visible there then they would be here and this effort of theirs in Iraq has them disorganized and limits their ability to plan another 9/11 -- again good move in my mind and it appears in the mind others smarter then I. I know opponents will never accept this or concede it is accurate but it does not change the validity of the theory.
The war in Iraq is increasingly looking more like a showdown with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda followers than a battle primarily against Saddam Hussein loyalists.
The shift is making the fight a focal point of the U.S. global war against Islamic terrorists and one that might dictate whether the U.S. wins or loses, said a senior official and an outside expert.
'If they fail in Iraq, Osama and his whole crew are finished,' said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, a military author and analyst.
The changing dynamic was highlighted this week when the U.S. military launched a major offensive in western Iraq, primarily against foreign jihadists who crossed the border with Syria to join the al Qaeda network in Iraq led by Abu Musab Zarqawi. In a troubling sign, U.S. officers said Zarqawi's terrorists seemed well-trained and well-equipped.
BBC NEWS Americas US police identify chilli fingerWell this accuser seems to be cooked better then her friend's finger was.
A finger allegedly found in a bowl of chilli at a Wendy's restaurant has been identified, US police have said.
It belonged to a family friend of Anna Ayala, the woman who said she discovered the finger as she ate in a restaurant in San Jose, California.
Police say the finger had been lost in an industrial accident in December.
Ms Ayala, 39, was arrested last month on larceny charges. Her claim cost Wendy's millions of dollars in lost sales.
Mystery solved
Military punishes key Abu Ghraib scandal figureI sure this will not silence those that live to criticize, but this and the General being demoted (
read it here) does show that "high ranking officers" have "dirt on them" and are being disciplined.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The military has reprimanded and fined Army Col. Thomas Pappas, a key figure in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, but will not bring criminal charges against him, a U.S. Army official said on Wednesday.
Pappas, the former top military intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib, became the second senior officer to be disciplined in the scandal over the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at the jail on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Following an administrative disciplinary proceeding in Germany on Monday, Pappas was given a letter of reprimand by Maj. Gen. Bennie Williams and was docked $8,000 for committing dereliction of duty at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and early 2004, said the Army official, who asked not to be named.
U.S. Senate accuses Galloway, Pasqua over Iraq oil
Who would have guess a Frenchman would have benefited? Me, and I will bet there are many more just like this guy.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee said on Thursday that British parliamentarian George Galloway and former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua benefited from the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq.
A report by the non-partisan committee said Galloway had been given 'allocations' for 20 million barrels of oil while Pasqua got 11 million barrels, with the personal approval of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Woman, 70, survives nine-story fallA little good news out of Florida after all the bad news recently -- I don't think I would be in good shape at all, man she must be tough.
A 70-year-old woman survived a nine-story fall from a condominium tower Wednesday when she landed on a canopy, officials said.
Gloria Jummati was cleaning her balcony at Coral Ridge Towers when she fell and landed on a first-floor canopy, according to the Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue.
Jummati was alert and talking when rescuers arrived.
Wanted: Responsible Demagoguery - New York Times
Honesty from the Maureen Dowd's slot - of course, Matt Miller is feeling in for her.
So farsighted Democrats who want to (1) win back power and (2) use that power to fix big problems should quit carping about Bush's evil 'cuts' and punish him instead with what I call Responsible Demagoguery: harsh politics that leaves sound policy intact.
Why do I say this? Start with this poorly understood fact: Under today's system of "wage indexed" benefits, every new cohort of retirees is guaranteed a higher level of real benefits than the previous generation. Workers retiring in 2025, for example, are scheduled to receive payments 20 percent higher in real terms than today's retirees. Today's teenagers are slated to get a 60 percent increase. When Democrats cry about "cuts," they mean trims from these higher levels.
A Democrat might ask: Why would we ever change this way of calculating benefits, other than from some Scroogelike desire to slow the rise in future benefits? Well, we probably wouldn't think about it if we weren't on the cusp of the biggest financial crunch in American history. But we are. And with the baby boomers' retirement looming, Democrats need to think beyond Social Security alone to think intelligently about achieving progressive goals.
Indeed, if you care about social justice and economic growth, the big policy question for the next generation is this: How do we square the needs of seniors with the needs of the rest of America, at levels of taxation that don't strangle the economy?
Appeals Court Tosses Out Suit Against Cheney
Well liberals pretty much have to accept this ruling since they swore by the courts in Florida only a month ago - or will they?
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. appeals court threw out a lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney today and ruled that he was free to meet in secret with energy industry lobbyists while drawing up President Bush's energy policy.
The president and vice president have no duty to tell the public when they seek advice from outsiders, the appeals court said.
"In making decisions on personnel and policy, and in formulating legislative proposals, the president must be free to seek confidential information from many sources, both inside the government and outside," said Judge Ray Randolph in an opinion for the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Therefore, the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch had no legal right to demand to know who met with Cheney's energy policy task force in 2001, the court said.
The ruling all but ends a four-year-old legal battle over Cheney's task force, one that drew in the Supreme Court and Justice Antonin Scalia.
HoustonChronicle.com - Pope calls for media to be responsibleWell it appears everyone one is TRYING to get on the same sheet of music where journalist are concerned... Earlier this week we had the NY Times (
here) saying they were NEEDED to improve their reporting - now a statement from the Pope. Will anything change?
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said today that the media can spread peace but also foment violence, and he called on journalists to exercise responsibility to ensure objective reports that respect human dignity and the common good.
N.Korea blames U.S. for 'fuss' on nuclear testsWhat a shock - it is the United States' fault... Me I will really be shocked when a honest comment comes out of North Korea.
SEOUL (Reuters) - Reports it could soon conduct an underground nuclear weapons test were speculation cooked up by Washington, North Korea said on Tuesday, but the secretive state did not deny outright that one might be planned.
Media reports have said spy satellites show North Korea has apparently stepped up activity in its northeastern region of Kilju. The area has been suspected of being where the North would conduct a test, U.S. and South Korean officials have said.
ThisisLondon
Just a sad story -- I think some of those Londoners worried about US fanatics need to police their own.
An eight-year-old girl was tortured and was about to be killed after being accused of being a witch, the Old Bailey heard today.
The child had been placed in a laundry bag and was about to be thrown into a river to drown when one of her tormentors managed to stop the others, said Patricia May, prosecuting.
Her months of ill-treatment had started when another child told his mother that the girl had been using witchcraft against the family.
Marines mount offensive against Iraq insurgents
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Marines said on Monday they had killed 75 guerrillas in the first 24 hours of an offensive against foreign fighters and insurgents in western Anbar province.
A U.S. military statement said coalition and Marine aircraft were taking part in the offensive.
As discussed in
Creating Hate, we have even more fake hate being created...
Girl Admits She Faked Gay-Bashing IncidentsA 17-year-old top female wrestler at a local high school faked a series of gay-bashing incidents that prompted a police investigation, authorities said.
The rash of gay-bashing incidents at Tamalpais High School, dating to November, was the work of a student who claimed she was the victim of hate crimes, said police Capt. James Wickham.
I would say the popularity of hate or "fake hate" crimes is a rousing success.
Times Panel Proposes Steps to Build Credibility - New York Times
I have said on many occasions that the time of trusting your local paper or a single "news god" to tell you the news is gone... With the internet and the infinite information available the biggest problem is discerning fact from fiction -- the internet has and will change campaigns and news going further. I want hold my breath for any immediate changes at the NY Times though -- this is just damage control, in my opinion.
As examples, the report cited limiting anonymous sources, reducing factual errors and making a clearer distinction between news and opinion. It also said The Times should make the paper's operations and decisions more transparent to readers through methods like making transcripts of interviews available on its Web site.
[...]
The report comes as the public's confidence in the media continues to wane. A recent study from the Pew Research Center found that 45 percent of Americans believe little or nothing of what they read in their daily newspapers...
[...]
One area of particular concern to Mr. Keller at the outset was the relentless public criticism of the paper, amplified by both the left and right on the Internet...
Calling Democrats' Bluff - New York TimesDavid Brooks has a good article on the Democrats hokum -- smoke screen in mirrors to hide their true agenda, simply oppose President Bush on anything and everything.
Over this time, Democrats have been hectoring President Bush in the manner of an overripe Fourth of July orator. The president should be summoning us to make shared sacrifices for the common good. The president should care for the poor, and stop favoring the rich. He should make the hard choices and impose a little fiscal discipline on government.
[...]
Over the past few weeks, the president has called their bluff.
[...]
The Democratic leadership has dropped all that shared sacrifice talk and started making demagogic appeals to people's narrow self-interest. Nancy Pelosi cries out that Bush's progressive indexing idea means "cutting the benefits of middle-class seniors." Representative Sander Levin protests it "would result in the biggest benefit cut in the history of Social Security." [Read more here]
