The Newsweek “retraction” of the Koran-in-the-toilet story and its “apology” once again demonstrate that when faced with pressure—in this instance, from the White House and Condi Rice—the spineless corporate media will back down every time. “Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Qur’an abuse at Guantanamo Bay,” editor-wimp Mark Whitaker said in a statement. Based on what they know? Or based on threats from the White House and the Strausscons? Since Dan Rather went down in flames for the Bush National Guard story, the corporate media may as well fact check their stories with Karl Rove.

In fact, this story has made the rounds since January, if not before. Variations appeared in the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Hartford Courant, BBC Monitoring International Reports, the Daily Mail (London), the Detroit Free Press, and the Observer. Excerpts were posted on the TalkLeft site yesterday. Instead of good old fashion investigative journalism, Newsweek has deferred to the Pentagon, per usual.

It is impossible to ignore the truth—Camp Gitmo, built on a chunk of land stolen from the people of Cuba, is nothing short of the “super-max” of Bush’s worldwide prison and torture gulag. If you doubt Gitmo is a torture center—a place where flushing the Koran down the toilet may be considered a minor infraction—check out the stories of Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal (both released) and others. More