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Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

In the public interest … correcting the AFP

Gregory Johnsen

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In today’s Guantanamo files it appears that not only is al-Shihri still suspected of being involved in the September 2008 attack on the US Embassy (hopefully, returning readers know how I feel about the lack of evidence surrounding this charge, as I’m tired of typing it) but also that both al-Shihri and al-Awfi were repatriated to Saudi in July 2007.

They were actually sent back in November 2007. Maybe it was just a typo by the AFP, but really when reporting on a story in which there is already so much guess-work don’t reporters owe their readers the courtesy of being certain of the facts they report as facts? And this one isn’t even that hard to look up – just check the NY Times’ excellent (but not printer friendly) database.

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