cause and effect?

Part of the reason for the outrage at Newsweek by the RighteousSphere is that they claim Newsweek's report "triggerred" the violent rioting in Afghanistan that led to 15 deaths. I've already addressed how earlier reports of Qur'an desecration led to no such rioting. Now comes this piece of evidence, from a briefing transcript at the Department of Defense by Rumsfeld and General Myers:

Q: Do either one of you have anything about the demonstrations in Afghanistan, which were apparently sparked by reports that there was a lack of respect by some interrogators at Guantanamo for the Koran. Do either one of you have anything to say about that?

GEN. MYERS: It's the -- it's a judgment of our commander in Afghanistan, General Eikenberry, that in fact the violence that we saw in Jalalabad was not necessarily the result of the allegations about disrespect for the Koran -- and I'll get to that in just a minute -- but more tied up in the political process and the reconciliation process that President Karzai and his Cabinet is conducting in Afghanistan. So that's -- that was his judgment today in an after- action of that violence. He didn't -- he thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine.

General Myers goes on to express his opinion that no incident of Qur'an disrespect ever happenned at Gitmo, but no one asked a follow-up question about the reported previous eyewitness incidents, which are numerous and were reported widely.