Jack Cashill explains the sentiments of many, including me:
In March of this year, Dresch had received highly convincing information from imprisoned mobster Gregory Scarpa Jr. that a cache of explosives remained hidden in the old house of his jailmate, Terry Nichols of Oklahoma City notoriety.
For four frustrating weeks, Dresch could not get the FBI or the media interested in the story. Even after the FBI finally heeded Dresch’s warning and extracted the explosives on March 31 – conveniently, hours after the death of Terry Schiavo – Isikoff turned a deaf ear to the story. “Isikov [sic] essentially contended that I had to prove to him that the FBI’s recovery of the cache in Herington, KS, was a result of the Scarpa intelligence,” Dresch wrote to me on April 5.
“To add insult to injury,” Dresch continued, “Isikoff demanded that I identify my intel-org-security colleague and his NSC and DHS conduits. In short, I’ve rarely dealt with such a pompous, ludicrous a–hole (if you will excuse my Mongolian).”
This week, Dresch learned just how flexible Isikoff’s standards were. Isikoff and Newsweek had inflamed the Middle East with a reckless bit of anti-American agitprop that had but one unnamed, uncertain source.
Like many of you commenting yesterday, I have little sympathy for the Muslims slain in their ridiculous riots. I also find it both hypocritical and ludicrous that Muslim moderates find it easier to criticize reports of ripping up a book, however holy, than hundreds of murderous attacks around the world on the part of their co-religionists.
It would be one thing if Isikoff’s “mistake” had taken place in a vaccuum. But it didn’t. We know, from observance and Cashill’s evidence both direct and second-hand, that even copious proof isn’t enough to get Isikoff and Newsweek to cover a story they prefer to see buried. But, on the other hand, mere hearsay from an anonymous source is more than enough for them to run with something that might damage the current administration.
I am no fan of the president and despite its successes, I still believe this continuing ur-war will prove to be a disaster for the American people in the long term. RealID is only one of the many evils that I expected the Bush administration to force upon the citizenry from the time my very first column for WND. Even so, this does not excuse the lowlife Isikoff and his masters at the magazine from having to face the music for their tawdry attack blowing up in their faces.
They’ve been careless and slipped-up enough to hand us a hammer. We’d be remiss if we failed to hit them with it.