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Media responsible for afghanistan powderkeg

by Garth Pritchard, Canadafreepress.com
Wednesday, May 18, 2005

The fallout from Newsweek Magazine's now repudiated story claiming U.S military personal flushed the Qur'an down toilets is being felt far and wide, and may impact on the safety of Canadian peacekeepers in afghanistan.

Violence and even bloodshed erupted in the Muslim world over the article in the May 9th edition of the magazine. In the body of the text, there is a report that said…"soldiers interrogating suspected terrorists at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were placing copies of the Qur'an on toilets to fluster Muslim prisoners, and had in one case ‘flushed a holy book down the toilet.'"

The repercussions in afghanistan were swift and devastating. Jalalabad was a city in the midst of rebuilding. a few short months ago, a new constitution was introduced, a democratic election was held with very little bloodshed and, in a country where women had not been allowed to vote, 42 percent came out on election day and cast a ballot for the first time. They felt safe. Secure.

But not anymore.

Demonstrations erupted. Bloodshed over a story that Newsweek Magazine now apologizes for. It seems their sources are backing away from their statements and the magazine is apologizing to the families and to the victims--as many as 14 may have died.

The perfectly-coiffed reporters are facing the cameras and asking questions amongst themselves: Was there political pressure brought to bear on Newsweek? asked the BBC anchor. The reporter in Washington goes into a 40-second spiel with no definitive answer.

Well, there is an answer. If any pressure had been brought on Newsweek, there would have been screaming from Newsweek's editorial offices headquartered in New York--"Freedom of the Press! The truth! We got the story straight! Our sources are reliable!"

Where have we heard all this before? Does the name Dan Rather ring a bell?

There is no pressure. This is another sad case of journalism out of control. ‘Experts' who have never been there. Reporters who have no idea what their stories unleash in countries where there are many americans and Canadians trying to keep a lid on a pressure cooker.

I cannot tell you how many times while living in Camp Julien (Kabul) and in Kandahar, afghanistan we read stories about Canadians in afghanistan (us) that were run in our media back home. Stories that bore absolutely no resemblance to the truth as we had lived it. Hundreds of us, trying to figure out where these stories came from and how they originated.

Dozens of times there were stories written by people who were not with us, but who felt comfortable creating a diatribe that described an event that they knew nothing about. One small example:

a light armoured vehicle had turned over and trapped its crew for a short time inside. We arrived in time to interview the soldiers--they were all smiling. One young soldier received a slight cut on his lip. He was hit by an ammunition box as the vehicle turned over. That was the most severe injury. Everybody was just fine. and by the time we got to them, they were hard at work getting their carrier back up on its wheels.

at 2:30 in the morning, officers woke up the young soldiers to get them to phone their parents back in Canada to assure them that they were alright. "Spinal injuries" the story back in Canada said. "Canadians badly hurt" None of it true.

This is just a small incident in the ongoing dishonesty in journalism. Two weeks ago, the CBC ran a series on the boogieman al Qaeda--three one-hour segments produced by BBC. There was great advance publicity.

I watched with great interest--I agreed with most of it.

Of particular interest, however, in the last hour the BBC makes the point that there were no caves in Tora Bora. Finally!! You see, CBC had reported for a long time that there were caves in Tora Bora--site of Osama bin Laden's last stand. The kicker here is that 500 Canadians, along with a U.S. Navy SEaL Team, american Special Forces, and an FBI unit had scoured the area. We--the Canadians--dug up 18 bodies so that DNa could be taken.

We reported that there were no caves. That little tidbit was completely censored by the CBC. The Documentary Unit of the CBC refused to tell the truth to Canadians. The National had already reported many times that the caves were there. Why complicate things with the truth?

Years later, the CBC Documentary Unit buys a three-part series from BBC who get it right. What is missing, of course, is that 500 Canadians from the 3PPCLI Battle Group were the ones who scoured the area--found no caves and said so at the time.

Now, consider the mandate for CBC here. It is to tell Canadian stories. It even makes the point that Canadian stories shall take precedence. Oh?

The media reported that there were 200,000 dead in Kosovo. Canadians were involved in exhuming the mass graves. They were discredited and censored by our national media when they came home with the facts. The facts flew in the face of what our media had been reporting.

Many years later a madman--Slobodan Milosevic--sits in the docket in The Hague, using the international media's discrepancy in numbers as his defense. The RCMP is on record that there are roughly 5,080 bodies in total recorded. The discrepancy in this case is roughly 194,020. and the hate in Serbia and Kosovo continues.

CBC created the great al-Qaida family--the Khadrs. On the national news, they went so far as to insinuate that one of the Khadr family's men may have been involved in the suicide bombing that took the life of a young Canadian and left three injured. The youngest Khadr is now receiving the best care Canada can supply. The truth is that american Special Forces say he is the one that threw the grenade that killed a sergeant and took the eye out of another soldier. Lawsuits are definitely flying over this one.

When journalists write stories without factual information, they put many lives in jeopardy. In the case of Newsweek, 14 are dead in Jalalabad. The clerics are accusing the americans/North americans that the abuse of the Qur'an could lead to a holy war.

all this just when peace was being established across afghanistan. Canadians who have served in Kabul and Kandahar are very proud of what they accomplished helping to rebuild this country. But it cost Canada dearly.

The day after young Jamie Murphy died on the streets of Kabul, Major Vass and Corporal Van Tassel--survivors of the suicide bombing--went back on patrol to take back the streets for the citizens of Kabul.

Thousands of people came out to offer their support: Kabul police officers offered to walk with them. It was made very clear that the people were against the suicide bombing that had taken place the day before.

Dishonest and irresponsible journalism has set afghanistan back severely-- and escalates the dangers that Canadians are facing there. In fact, such practices are making targets out of journalists who actually go to war zones to bear witness to the truth.

Fifty-four of us were killed in war zones last year. Newsweek's irresponsible journalism will make it very difficult to cover afghanistan and the incredible Canadian soldiers who work night and day for peace and democracy there.


Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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