Korangate: Who lied? How many died?

I was going to do my own analysis of 'Korangate,' but stumbled across Joe Gandleman's breakdown which includes a number of links and a pretty balanced view of the issues. Moneyquote:

On the other hand, Newsweek notes in its second report that Al Qaeda operatives are supposed to make allegations that inflame passions: It quoted a U.S. military spokesman, Army Col. Brad Blackner, as saying: "If you read the Al Qaeda training manual, they are trained to make allegations against the infidels.." Did Newsweek's investigative reporters learn in their digging about this Al Qaeda tactic? Why wasn't that noted in the original report? They could have still made the allegation and balanced it with the tidbit that Al Qaeda operatives are supposed to make allegations and perhaps have avoided this.That would have been truly effective CYA. Right now it would seem that the A needs a corporate spanking.

Overall, the issue here isn't just that Newsweek got it wrong. The issue is why Muslims are so prepared to believe such accusations. Let that one percolate for awhile.