Posted on 05/16/2005 1:15:52 PM PDT by ambrose
Newsweek backtracks on Koran claims
Roland Watson, Washington
May 17, 2005
THE incendiary account of US interrogators flushing a copy of the Koran down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay may not, after all, be true, the magazine behind the claim has said.
A report in last week's Newsweek sparked riots in Afghanistan that spread across the Muslim world, leading to the deaths of at least 14 people and injuries to more than 120.
But the magazine backtracks in this week's edition. "We regret that we got any part of our story wrong and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the US soldiers caught in its midst," its editor, Mark Whitaker writes.
The article last week said the claims about the Koran, which previously had been aired by other news organisations, would be validated by an inquiry report into the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. It was based on conversations with a senior American official who said he had seen mention of the Koran incident in the report.
However, on checking with the source since publication, Newsweek said the official no longer could be sure that he had remembered correctly.
When told of Newsweek's new stance, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita raged: "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said."
The Pentagon has been under mounting pressure to get to the bottom of the allegations as anti-American riots spread from Gaza to Kabul to Jakarta. The allegations also drew an angry official protest from Saudi Arabia, one of the US's most crucial allies in the Islamic world.
Yesterday alone, officials or Islamic leaders in Bangladesh, Lebanon and Egypt condemned the desecration of the Koran and called for the US to take action.
The episode has threatened to give Washington its biggest headache overseas since the prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib and has provided a target for anti-US sentiments.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forced to declare that mistreatment of the Koran was "abhorrent" to right-thinking Americans.
Despite Newsweek's about-turn, the Pentagon has yet to state officially that no mistreatment of the Koran by interrogators took place at Guantanamo Bay, where the US has held 600 detainees in legal limbo for more than three years. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers said no evidence had yet been found to support the claims.
Such allegations have been raised before Newsweek's report. A lawyer for some Guantanamo inmates has blamed the attempted suicide of 23 of them in August 2003 on a US guard stamping on the Koran.
I love the Internet.
I'm sure the MOOOOSlims treat the Bible with the utmost respect.
How about the Newsweak people responsible for this go to Afghanistan and apologize IN PERSON. Just an idea.
>>US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forced to declare that mistreatment of the Koran was "abhorrent" to right-thinking Americans.<<
Well gee. Apparently Ms. Rice really IS a politician.
I guess I am "left thinking" in her book.
"People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?" - Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita on the unnamed source
I'm puzzled why the big deal and rioting over this particular report; there've been news reports alleging Quran desecration for quite some time - long before the Newsweek debacle.
SW
Muslims kill Muslims at the mere suggestion of an affront to their religion.
All alone, without any American Troops guarding them?
Oh, for God's sake . . . it's a freakin' BOOK.
Get the hell over it.
(And yes, I'd say the same thing were a Bible involved.)
("People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said.")
Actually they are dead because of an extreme and irrational response to an allegation, that even if true, should not provoke this kind of insane reaction.
That said, I say we deport the NEWSWEAK folks involved to Afganisan.
At this moment, John Edwards is on a jet plane headed for Afghanistan........
I don't get all this.... Isn't it illegal to talk to the press about presumeably classified stuff? Why doesn't the FBI try to track this A-hole down and prosecute him for talking at all whether the story is true or not?
I don't recall any other news organisations "airing" this previously, does anyone else?
Anyone who has ever stayed at a motel knows that those Gideon Bibles are "desecrated" all the time. It is a bloody book.
Worshiping an object (a book) like these Muslims do borders on idolatry.
Really...if tossing a Koran into the toilet can get fanatical Muslims to kill other fanatical Muslims then let's have a huge book burning!!
I wonder if this is the same senior American official in the State Dept that smeared Bolton.
I wonder if this is the same senior American official in the State Dept that smeared Bolton.
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