Text 12645, 114 rader
Skriven 2005-05-16 05:05:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Koran
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http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050516/2005-05-
16T002959Z_01_N15405868_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-RELIGION-AFGHAN-NEWSWEEK-DC.html

Newsweek says Koran desecration report is wrong
 
 
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May 15, 8:29 PM (ET)

 
By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a 
May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo 
Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by 
the article.

Editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. 
military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention 
facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.

The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world 
from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to 
Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza. In the past week it was condemned in 
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League.

On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war 
against the United States.

"We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our 
sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in 
its midst," Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear 
on U.S. newsstands on Monday.

The weekly news magazine said in its May 23 edition that the information 
had come from a "knowledgeable government source" who told Newsweek that 
a military report on abuse at Guantanamo Bay said interrogators flushed 
at least one copy of the Koran down a toilet in a bid to make detainees 
talk.

But Newsweek said the source later told the magazine he could not be 
certain he had seen an account of the Koran incident in the military 
report and that it might have been in other investigative documents or 
drafts.

Whitaker told Reuters that Newsweek did not know if the reported toilet 
incident involving the Koran ever occurred. "As to whether anything like 
this happened, we just don't know," he said in an interview. "We're not 
saying it absolutely happened but we can't say that it absolutely didn't 
happen either." 

INCIDENT UNDER INVESTIGATION

The acknowledgment by the magazine came amid heightened scrutiny of the 
U.S. media, which has seen a rash of news organizations fire reporters 
and admit that stories were fabricated or plagiarized.

The Pentagon told the magazine the report was wrong last Friday, saying 
it had investigated earlier allegations of Koran desecration from 
detainees and found them "not credible."

Newsweek reported that Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita reacted 
angrily when the magazine asked about the source's continued assertion 
that he had read about the Koran incident in an investigative report. 
"People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he 
be credible now?" DiRita told Newsweek.

The May 9 report, which appeared as a brief item by Michael Isikoff and 
John Barry in the magazine's "Periscope" section, had a huge 
international impact, sparking the protests from Muslims who consider 
the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep 
reverence.

Desecration of the Koran is punishable by death in Afghanistan and 
Pakistan.

Newsweek, which said opponents of the Afghan government including 
remnants of the Taliban had used its report to fan unrest in the 
country, said it was not contemplating disciplinary action against 
staff.

"This was reported very carefully, with great sensitivity and concern, 
and we'll continue to report on it," said Newsweek Managing Editor Jon 
Meacham. "We have tried to be transparent about exactly what happened, 
and we leave it to the readers to judge us."

U.S. officials opened an investigation but maintained that members of 
the Guantanamo security force were sensitive to the religious beliefs 
and practices of the detainees in U.S. custody.

U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley earlier on Sunday stressed 
the report had not been confirmed. "If it turns out to be true, 
obviously we will take action against those responsible," Hadley said on 
CNN's "Late Edition."

Newsweek's Whitaker said that when the magazine first heard of the Koran 
allegation from its source, staff approached two Defense Department 
officials. One declined to comment, while the other challenged a 
different aspect of the May 9 story but did not dispute the Koran 
charge.

The magazine said other news organizations had already aired charges of 
Koran desecration based "only on the testimony of detainees."

"We believed our story was newsworthy because a U.S. official said 
government investigators turned up this evidence. So we published the 
item," Whitaker said.

"Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of 
the alleged Koran incident in the report we cited," he wrote. 

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