Note: In the blogosphere, you have to be clear about everything. This post is not a rant against the FBI. I don’t believe the agent was biased or sought to aid and comfort the enemy with the report. I’m merely pointing out that he recorded a detainee’s Koran flushing claim; the agent himself wasn’t a witness.
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Those liberal bloggers. They want a scandal, too, and they want it now! So they’ve pounced on the story about a 2002 FBI report that repeats the same Koran-flushing story as Newsweek.
Yesterday afternoon I saw the first story, and last night I saw two others. I thought an FBI agent actually witnessed the flushing. Contrary to what you may read on liberal blogs today (the buzz will be significant), the FBI agent did not. It was a disgruntled detainee who told the agent it happened. Michelle Malkin also noticed that important piece of information. Her post includes a copy of the FBI report. She writes:
It should be obvious to anyone who so much as glances at the documents being cited that the FBI was reporting the statements of detainees rather than endorsing or validating those allegations. Immediately before describing the Koran-in-the-toilet allegation, the FBI notes the detainee’s statement that “God tells Muslims to do a jihad against non-Muslims.” Does Kos expect us to believe the FBI is endorsing that statement too?Many detainees have made allegations of serious physical abuse as well as mistreatment of the Koran. Notwithstanding the MSM’s “flood the zone” coverage, that’s neither unexpected nor particularly newsworthy.
Are the detainees’ complaints valid? Maybe some are. But the FBI documents heralded by Kos and others as evidence of abuse actually show that a significant number of detainees’ complaints were either exaggerated or completely fabricated.
It’s common knowledge around here that conservative political bloggers are the ones who’ve gained prominence in the blogosphere covering media scandals. I attribute that to the left’s domination of media, which we conservatives have had to deal with for years. Study after study shows that mainstream media are teeming with leftists. Our charges of bias are simply more credible than liberal bloggers’. I also think that because conservatives dominate the top spots in the Ecosystem, we tend to have more influence in covering and exposing bias, and as reporters seek out bloggers to quote, they tend to select higher-ranking ones.
All that is a theory I haven’t tested or fleshed out, but since it’s now in a published blog entry, I’m certain irate liberal bloggers will take it and run with it. I expect to see excerpts of this entry all over the place, just like parts of my Newsweek post.
Besides leading the way on Rathergate, Easongate, and Newsweek, conservatives track media bias every day. Whole blogs are dedicated to nothing else. Except for the so-called Gannongate scandal, liberal political bloggers are usually relegated to defending rags that slander the military. As a matter of fact, rags defend rags. Check out this Washington Post story about the FBI report. Also read their media critic’s column (relevant part is closer toward the end).
Watch and listen today as the libs try to turn this FBI report, which merely repeats Newsweek‘s claim, into a “See, it’s true!” moment. Americans may or may not have flushed a Koran, but I’m certainly not taking a detainee’s word for it, especially one who also said this:
“God tells Muslims to do a jihad against non-Muslims.”
I also predict that liberal bloggers will dissect and obfuscate the meaning of “jihad” so as to render it harmless. They want a scandal, too, and they’re willing to suppress common sense to get it.
Update: Here’s a glimpse of what’s to come. More coverage at Memeorandum.
Update II: The Smoking Gun has posted a non-PDF copy of the Al Qaeda training manual. Read “Lesson Eighteen” on prisons and detention centers. The Department of Justice has the training manual in PDF on its web site.
Update III: Guantanamo Bay detainee retracts Koran-flushing accusation. Do you think this will deter liberal bloggers from their determination to invent a scandal? I wouldn’t hold your breath. (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin)
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Stinky Journalism: “The unsworn duty of a journalist is to ‘seek truth and report it.’ Journalists are equally obligated to ‘expose unethical practices of [fellow] journalists in the news media.’”
INDC Journal: These are people picked up as enemy combatants in a war on terror, probably most of them radical Islamists. And the trumpeting of these claims by the MSM – with the implication that the news of suspected terrorists in prison making allegations is shocking, revelatory or necessarily true – well, that comes awful close to serving as a bullhorn for propaganda designed to inflame the divide between the West and Islam.”
The Hedgehog Report: “There is zero evidence presented in this article that it even took place, but because some detainee who, let’s face it, would have an axe to grind against the United States says so, that is enough for The Washington Post to plaster an above-the-fold headline on the front page.”
Andi’s World, JustOneMinute, Power Line, Wizbang, The Moderate Voice, BuzzMachine, Indepundit, RedState…
