Newsweek:We were wrong, no Koran Desacration

[Mr.Vicchio]

Newsweek magazine on Sunday said it erred in a May 9 report that said U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article. "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. Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Koran 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. http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200...an_newsweek_dc

Amazing what happens when a news oragization in it's rugh to break a story. Riots, hate, discontent.. all over a false story, the damage is done.

This sucks.

[rcne]

That little 5 word blip, which was without substance has cost lives. The Islamic media picked up on it to breed outrage and to make terrorism holy.

Now that Newsweek has rescinded the statement and admitted that they don't really have the source do you think the Islamic media will report it? Not a chance.

I had heard that it was a Muslim tearing out pages of the Koran and flushing them to protest something.

How's that for a religious fighter.

[RickSp]

Newsweek's one source, a military officer backed away from his previous statement. (Sounds like someone got to him.)

The riots in Afghanistan are not about a single Newsweek article. They are the cumulative result of widespread prisoner abuse, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gitmo and torture cells in third countries.

This is directly analogous to the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 when the British introduced the Enfield rifle with shells greased in pig fat and/or tallow. (To load the riffle required biting the shell.) The pig fat offended the Islamic troops while the tallow offended the Hindus.

Just like recent events, the Sepoy Rebellion may have been triggered over greased cartridges but was the result of long standing abuses of Indian troops by the British. The same applies today. The Newsweek's article may have been the trigger but the policies that allowed the horrors of AbuGhraib were the cause.

[Libertarian]

They actually backed off of what report the information was in. The source still says that he has seen it somewhere, but doesnt know where exactly. That is what they have retracted on, not the whole story.

[RickSp]

There are numerous reports of US soldiers desacrating the Koran. Newsweek got it right. Their source merely backed-away, probably under pressure.

Ehsannullah, 29, said American soldiers who initially questioned him in Kandahar before shipping him to Guantanamo hit him and taunted him by dumping the Koran in a toilet. "It was a very bad situation for us," said Ehsannullah, who comes from the home region of the Taliban leader, Mohammad Omar. "We cried so much and shouted, 'Please do not do that to the Holy Koran.'"

Returning Afghans Talk of Guantanamo

A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans.

Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantánamo Bay

He said a number of Arab prisoners had still not spoken to their investigators after three years to protest at the desecration of the Koran by guards.

MY HELL IN CAMP X-RAY

The behavior of the guards towards our religious practices as well as the Koran was also, in my view, designed to cause us as much distress as possible. They would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet, and generally disrespect it.

Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay

For the Muslim inmates, however, the most abhorrent and offensive aspect of interrogations was the manner in which their religion was abused and insulted. Tarek describes standard interrogations consisting of ‘swearing at Allah, swearing at the Prophet, and the Qur’an. They used to read the English translation of the Qur’an, with their feet up, mocking, for example saying, ‘There are more questions in it than answers.’ The insults were not restricted to the verbal; Dergoul remembers numerous occasions, both in Kandahar and Guantanamo, where the Qur’an was ‘ripped up, thrown on the floor and thrown into the toilet’.

Surviving the “Prisons of the American Nazis"

Newsweek got it right.

[PatrickHenry]

Well Newsweek apologized for spreading disinformation. More than any mainstream media has done for endlessly promoting a war in Iraq that was based upon a nuclear threat to the US. A complete fabrication.

[ericsp23]

You have to be naive in the extreme to think that this kind of thing doesn't go on after the revelations of Abu Graib.

[tinybear]

No matter whether it was true or false, Newsweek's source was an ass for spilling the beans on this one. What did he hope to achieve except fanning the flames of hatred and loss of more lives?

[RickSp]

Quote by: tinybear No matter whether it was true or false, Newsweek's source was an ass for spilling the beans on this one. What did he hope to achieve except fanning the flames of hatred and loss of more lives?

So you are arguing the government should should lie as a matter of policy?

Of course the secrets always come out anyway. The folks fanning the flames of hatred are not the ones telling the truth but those engaging in the torture and debasement.

[Osborn F Enready]

I commend Newsweek for printing it, and I am dissapointed in the fact that the people who are saying it was BASELESS don't see what is really happening.

The government "ASKED" them to rescind the story, they said NO, but we will apologize since we aren't going to give you all of the personal information of our informants so that you can look into it. As an independent news agency, they are not REQUIRED to provide personal information of informants, ESPECIALLY when the information would mean the end of a long career for a military officer for telling the truth.

I commend all those that tell the truth, good or bad, and hope more people are swept up with this notion of truth at all costs, no matter how much it hurts. That is the only way to ENSURE that the transparency is real, and not just a stage show as our government is providing us with now.

Vic, you are mis-representing the story yourself.

[Dieval]

Quote by: Osborn F Enready I commend Newsweek for printing it.... The government "ASKED" them to rescind the story, they said NO, but we will apologize

Better take back your commendation -

Newsweek Retracts Story on Quran Abuse

[RickSp]

You may notice that they do not say that it didn't happen. They retracted only "its report that a military probe had found evidence of desecration of the Quran."

Their source said that he saw a report from a military probe that found the evidence. Now he claims he can't recall if he saw the report. And no doubt the report about which his memory is suddenly so hazy, has disappeared.

Of course, the actual desecration has been reported in many other sources, just not perchance in this particular probe.

And the first thing the military did when Pat Tillman was killed was cover up and destroy evidence. All seems true to form.

[rcne]

The fact is that 17 people have died as a result of an unfounded story published by liberals to influence public opinion.

The basic policy of the press is more 'make news' rather than 'report news'.

The source thought he read something somewhere??? Reminds me of Dan Blather...Rather

[RickSp]

Quote by: rcne The fact is that 17 people have died as a result of an unfounded story published by liberals to influence public opinion. The basic policy of the press is more 'make news' rather than 'report news'. The source thought he read something somewhere??? Reminds me of Dan Blather...Rather

Do you really believe that there are that many Newsweek readers in Afghanistan?

Many commentators both in print and on the air have commented that this particular news story was merely the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. The abuse of prisoners and the lack of respect for Islam is a deep and wide story in the Middle East and the tossing of Korans in the toilet has been documented by many sources, not just Newsweek.

So sure blame this on the "liberal press" rather than the US policy to abuse and degrade prisoners. How clueless can you get?

[rcne]

Newsweek In Arabic
تصدر عن دار الوطن للصحافة والطباعة والنشر
بالإتفاق مع نيوزويك انترناشيونال رئيس ...

Umm, do you want to retract your statement? Assume the Waddist Clerics can and will twist anything they can to keep from losing power.

The point is their desire to twist the media with an a single unmanned source cost 17 lives and hundreds wounded - for what.

[tinybear]

The truth shall set you free. Or so we have been led to believe. But sometimes the benefit of revealing the truth is so neglgible and the harm that it causes is so great that not revealing it (not revealing it doesn't necessarily mean lying) is a much better option. Do you not agree?

On a lighter note, get a load of these two guys.


Seemingly inconsistent slogans. But not if you think about it a bit more. :)

[Zeebadee]

I think it's extremely unfortunate that neither the U.S. government, nor the media has enough credibility left to convince anyone that the desecration actually happened or not. Both sides have used lies, half-truths, and selective reporting so often that no one can totally believe anything that we're being told these days. Based on what both sides have reported on the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo though, if any of the interrogators happened to think that desecrating the Koran would help get information, there's no doubt in my mind that such actions did actually occur.

What's much worse, IMHO, is that there are citizens of this country that approve of actions such as this and others that violate the morals and fundamental standards that this country was founded upon, then accuse those that oppose them of somehow desiring "the destruction of the US and our way of life."

[tinybear]

I'm not condoning desecration of the Koran, but I can think of acts committed by the other side which is a hell of a lot worse.

Newsweek Urged to Do More to Repair Damage

By TERENCE HUNT
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says Newsweek took a ``good first step'' by retracting its story that U.S. investigators found evidence interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, but it wants the magazine to do more to repair damage caused by the article.

Newsweek on Monday retracted the report in its May 9 issue after officials in the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department criticized its publication and its use of an anonymous source. Protests in Afghanistan, where more than a dozen people died and scores were injured in rioting, and demonstrations elsewhere in the Muslim world were blamed on the article.

``The report had real consequences,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Monday. ``People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged. There are some who are opposed to the United States and what we stand for who have sought to exploit this allegation. It will take work to undo what can be undone.''

McClellan said a retraction was only ``a good first step'' and said Newsweek should try to set the record straight by ``clearly explaining what happened and how they got it wrong, particularly to the Muslim world, and pointing out the policies and practices of our military.''

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...79.htm&sc=1110

[Zeebadee]

Quote by: tinybear I'm not condoning desecration of the Koran, but I can think of acts committed by the other side which is a hell of a lot worse.

Why do you (and others) continue to try to justify what we do by telling us what they do? If we live up to a set of ideals or standards of civilized behavior, then we have to honor those beliefs no matter what the enemy does. When we descend to their level, we are surely no better than they are,

[tinybear]

Hey, I said I do not condone desecration of the Koran, but it beats me why some Americans so outraged by this but stay silent when innocent men and women are beheaded by terrorists.