Stop it with the Big Lie already

Here's a bullet item appended to the bottom of a news story:

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was subjected to the CIA's harshest interrogation methods while he was held in secret prisons around the world for more than three years, according to a New Yorker article to be published on the magazine's Web site Sunday. -- washington post

Interesting, and probably important to know. Mind if we ask why -- again -- an item about a Qaida figure who was captured in Pakistan appears at the end of an article about the unrelated war in Iraq?

Seriously. Particularly given that the same edn carries an article about Afghanistan, which is where the people who did 9/11 are in all likelihood hanging out, there's no excuse for this sort of blunder. At best, it suggests a clueless provincial rag that thinks everything beyond the borders of the Great State of Mecklenburg is interchangeable (except football teams, golfers and NASCAR drivers). At worst, it suggests a newspaper that isn't just doing propaganda by accident but is outright volunteering to shill for the administration.

Could we get an explanation, please?