The AMCGLTD fish, courtesy of Ellen!
Bush [mis]administration accused of hypocrisy over Newsweek, Koran allegations
Boy, there's a headline I never expected to see.
Critics remind the US administration of how it used imprecise information itself to justify the war in Iraq, and point out what they see as unconvincing inquiries into other alleged misdeeds at Guantanamo and at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, where serious abuses of prisoners occurred last year.
Some have criticized the Bush administration for trying to make political hay with the retraction, and suggest the administration has no good reason to be acting so virtuous.
"The pot is calling the kettle black," said Pete Stark, a Democratic Representative from California.
"The administration is chastising Newsweek magazine for a story containing a fact that turned out to be false. This is the same administration that lied to the Congress, the United Nations and the American people by fabricating reasons to send us to war."
"For the White House and the Pentagon to come down on Newsweek for making a mistake is the height of hypocrisy," wrote Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen.
For its part, New York-based Human Rights Watch warned that the row over the discredited story was serving to overshadow genuine incidents of religious humiliation. {snip}
Use of anonymous sources -- called firmly into question now after the Newsweek article -- is, meanwhile, still a practice broadly used by the Bush administration -- when it plays to the administration's interests.
US officials call media conferences all the time, providing sources -- often high ranking officials -- with the proviso their names are not to be mentioned.
"It is offensive to see the Bush administration use this case for political purposes, and ludicrous for spokesmen for this White House and Defense Department to offer pious declarations about accountability, openness and concern for America's image abroad," the New York Times said in an editorial.
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