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Saturday, May 29, 2004

Second Google test of the claim by DOUGLAS JEHL and ANDREA ELLIOTT
on the New York Times web page that "To date, there have been no accusations of serious prisoner abuse in connection with interrogations at Guantánamo. Most of the criticisms have generally focused on the lack of legal rights and due process and the indefinite nature of the detentions."

After the first proof that this claim is false from the first hit of my first google search for "release guantanamo british" (see below)other hits were so and so demands release of British prisoners in Guantanamo. This time I googled "released guantanamo british " and got google results which clearly proves DOUGLAS JEHL and ANDREA ELLIOTT's simple assertion of facct false one two three
four five six seven eight
nine ten
times.

I admit that I am lazy. The only reason it took me 45 minutes to prove 11 times that a claim in the New York Times is definitely false is that I took a long coffee break and type slowly.

update: On the other hand DOUGLAS JEHL, ANDREA ELLIOTT , Eric Schmitt and Leslie Wayne clealry did a lot of work on the article and managed to get a quote from "one member of the 377th [Military Police] Company" who had been ordered not to talk to reporters while 6 followed the order and refused to talk. Since you can't get phone numbers for memberrs for members of the famous 377th Military Police Company they are clearly more hard working than I am (that is saying very little make it much much much more hard working). I guess the false claim was a slip. I will update the NY Times page to see if it is corrected.

update: 18:19 Rome time the New York Times still claims "To date, there have been no accusations of serious prisoner abuse in connection with interrogations at Guantánamo."

update: 19:19 Rome time the New York Times still claims "To date, there have been no accusations of serious prisoner abuse in connection with interrogations at Guantánamo." and Douglas Jehl haw written another article, this time with Kate Zernike. The econd article is really important. I like your stuff Mr Jehl but, you know, don't let quantity of sentences come at the cost of quality control. It would be a shame if all the excellent work were undermined by one silly sentence, not that there is much chance of that given how few people read this blog.

Update: 0:22 AM Sunday May 30th Rome time. Still no change the article still reports "To date, there have been no accusations of serious prisoner abuse in connection with interrogations at Guantánamo. " I guess by now it is a matter of permanent record in our Newspaper of record. Sigh

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