Newsweek didn't create White House image

[liberal N proud]

Tuesday, May 24, 2005
By HELEN THOMAS
HEARST NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- It was an act of desperation when the White House tried to blame Newsweek magazine for the United States' low esteem around the world, particularly in the Middle East.

The Bush administration could look in the mirror and see that the real cause for rampant anti-Americanism is the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
<snip>

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was appalled that the story about the Quran got out.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- of all people -- said: "People need to be very careful about what they say just as they need to be careful about what they do."

This is the same Rumsfeld who ignored for months the first of the devastating reports about abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

You don't have to draw a diagram for the Arab world to know what country invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003 -- against the wishes of every nation in the region -- and tried to justify the attack with a rationale that shifted each time the previous version was shown to be false.

There's a sense of hypocrisy that pervades the huffing and puffing by Bush administration officials as they rush to criticize Newsweek. Where was their outrage when they saw the photographs of the shameful mistreatment of the prisoners of war at the Abu Ghraib facility, with forced nudity, humiliation, sexual harassment, brutal interrogation, dogs?
<snip>
My suggestion is to allow reporters to go to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib as well as the U.S. prisons in Afghanistan and let them question prisoners about their treatment. Then we may get a truly impartial picture of the situation.

But don't hold your breath on that happening.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/225471_thomas24.html

[ET Awful]

1. Go HELEN!!!!

:)

Still feisty after all these years :)