Posted on 05/15/2005 11:56:50 AM PDT by smag999
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine on Sunday said it may have erred in a May 9 report that said U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to victims of deadly violence sparked by the article.
The weekly news magazine said in its May 23 edition that the original source of the allegation was not sure where he saw the assertion that at least one copy of the Koran was flushed down a toilet in an attempt to get detainees to talk.
"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," Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.
The report has 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.
On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it handed over the interrogators in question.
The May 9 report quoted unnamed sources as saying that military investigators probing abuse at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, found that interrogators had placed copies of the Koran on toilets and "in at least one case, flushed a holy book down the toilet."
Newsweek said a Pentagon spokesman told the magazine late last week that the story was wrong and that the military has found no credible evidence to support separate allegations of Koran desecration made by released detainees.
The U.S. military opened an investigation into the charges while top U.S. officials urged Muslims to resist calls for violence, stating disrespect for the holy book would not be tolerated.
Translation: We regret that the story isn't true, but we published it anyway, just in case.
Isn't this a "fire in a theater" event pretty much outside the 1st amendment protections. Newsweek deserves what it's gonna get!
This would be a "me first" deal---the Muslims could have them if they could beat me to them.
Comparing these 2 might be stretching it a bit. I'm not aware of any innocents that died because of CBS's stupidity.
This story has made me angry than anything else media-related so far. I hope someone at Newsweek is held responsible for the consequences of their story.
I have no problem with the media reporting inflammatory information as long as it is checked and true.
Whenever I see Isikoff on TV he comes across as an arrogant, smartest-guy-in-the room type. I hope he's toast.
For you Monty Python fans:
"I'm very, very sorry and I won't do it again."
I wonder, has anyone seen the DUmmies respond to this?
Newsweek just wanted to tar and feather the Bush Administration and sell more magazines. They could care less about these people dying over there. It's great PR for them and writing an apology just keeps them in the headlines. The epitome of MSM when you print rumors from unnamed sources (if he had any) when you have troops at war.
Isn't it Treason to divulge military tactics during a time of War. Reporter or no, you tell the enemy what we're doing and it's Treason. Short drop and a quick stop!!!
While I feel it is wrong for Newsweek to have erred as it did, it does show the strong intolerance that the Islam religion has. Can you imagine the rage of these fanatics if a group of people were televised throwing hundreds of copies of the Koran into a huge bonfire, or into a huge open sewer?
Sent SecState an email on this stating that if Newsweek lied they should be required to give a public on air live feed apology to the Pakistan people in Pres Musharif's presence. We'll see if anything comes of it. No response but it's the weekend. State works as hard on weekends now as it did in the fall of 1941.
Yeah, don't you love it?
"Ooops, we jump the gun, people die, and all we have to say for ourselves is that we MAY have erred." -Newsweak
In other words, the way the world is, we HAVE to be PC to keep from losing lives!
And the dems have congresscritters that get up on the House floor everyday and the senate for that matter, that are furious that Bush won't just bring all the troops home and try to "communicate" with these animals!!!
Lying ratmedia skunks. These dirty bas^&%ds have caused people to die. And the mutts in the ratmedia want us to respect them as honest reporters of fact.
I would love to see huge lawsuits wipe them off the face of the map.
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