Tuesday, July 06, 2004

House of Bush, House of Saud: How Many Mistakes Can Newsweek's Michael Isikoff Make?

House of Bush, House of Saud: "How many mistakes can Michael Isikoff make? In his zealous campaign to discredit Fahrenheit 9/11, Newsweek's star investigative reporter has already made at least seven errors, distortions and selective omissions of crucial information.
Let's take them one by one.
1) In his first Newsweek piece attacking the movie, 'Under the Hot Lights,' which appeared in the June 28 issue of the magazine, Isikoff asserts that I claim 'that bin Laden family members were never interviewed by the FBI.' Isikoff proceeds to attack me for that claim. Unfortunately for him, I never made it. Isikoff's assertion is a complete fabrication.
2) The same article also erroneously reports that the Saudi evacuation 'flights didn't begin until Sept. 14 - after airspace reopened.' As House of Bush, House of Saud notes, however, the first flight actually took place a day earlier, on September 13, when restrictions on private planes were still in place. Isikoff knew this. I even gave him the names of two men who were on that flight-- Dan Grossi and Manuel Perez-- and told him how to get in touch with them. Earlier, Jean Heller, a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, took the time to follow up on my reporting(see article below). She called Grossi, and in her subsequent article wrote, 'Grossi did say that Unger's account of his participation in the flight is accurate.'
Rather than try to refute or corroborate my reporting, however, Isikoff omitted it entirely. The facts interfered with his argument. "

by Craig Unger
House of Bush, House of Saud

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