Note this excerpt from an article entitled "Bush vows to punish Haditha crime, Iraqis angry":
President George W. Bush vowed on Wednesday to punish any U.S. Marine guilty of shooting Iraqi civilians at Haditha but Iraqis, including the prime minister, complain that U.S. troops have killed elsewhere with impunity.
"There is a thorough investigation going on. If ... laws were broken there will be punishment," Bush said in Washington.
It was his first public comment on a scandal that some commentators are comparing to the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam that helped turn many Americans against that war.
Wow. "Hints, allegations, and things left unsaid," to use a parlance of times gone by. ;) I guess that we should expect nothing less than complete slant from Al-Reuters, the News Wire/Blog Intimidator Host. Notice those three little dots, though, which I've highlighted for ease of comparison.
Now, compare that quote with this one from UPI, where the quote is left intact (words missing above highlighted):
"I am troubled by the initial news stories," Bush said Wednesday. "I am mindful that there is a thorough investigation going on. If, in fact, the laws were broken, there will be punishment."
Fair enough, though, that one has to tweak quotes to make them fit the headlines. After all, when one frames a President correcting a confirmed war crime to please "Iraqis angry," one can't very well have a president somewhat skeptical that laws were violated.
The author of the Reuters article is the station chief of the Baghdad Bureau, Alastair MacDonald. See some of his other work here and here. The "agitator" label seems too tame.
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