Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

There's a riot going on at the edifice of untruth

Newsweek retracts its allegations of US military disrespect for the Koran, leaving many Muslims and others very sceptical. Either way it's negative for the publication, assuming:

• Newsweek's fact checking and editorial standards are terrible (which is very doubtful) OR
  
• the retraction is not credible as the timing suggests US and/or Afghan pressure to do so

The other viable option is that the information was deliberately fed to Newsweek, anticipating the reaction likely to the news, as part of pyschological operations: (Provoke, Identify and Neutralise opposition - it's textbook stuff these days).

Released detainees and their lawyers have charged over the past year that there had been a Koran in the toilet. The US spokesperson "indicated that they were viewed as not credible, referring to them as 'substandard' sources".

So, potentially innocent people, victims of torture, released from Gitmo are "substandard sources" it seems. Perhaps as they were in some cases tortured to "standards", effectively makes them too damaged to believe now? Only those accused of abuse, like US soldiers at Abu Grahib, are "standard", it would seem.

The retraction itself is based on their "source" stating the allegation may not have been in a particular report, but "it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts." This is then underlined (heavily) by the statement that a military spokesman said "the Newsweek acknowledgment that the story might not be true had no bearing on the US position."

Its that tantalising "lack of bearing" that perhaps characterizes a pyschological gambit. And the Newsweek retraction is not an outright denial, more a shift of focus from substance to sources.

And if the "retraction" is taken to its logical conclusion, then practically any "fact" printed by Newsweek (and potentially any journal that relies on US Military information) is surely just as likely to rely on "substandard sources". Either that, or it must admit to plainly acting as a conduit for US military propaganda.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 9:13 am ::