Being Muslim means never saying you're sorry - US apology for non event will be seen as weakness & spark more violence

Pakistani protesters burn a U.S. flag to condemn alleged desecration of Islam's holy book Quran at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during a protest in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, May 15, 2005. (AP Photo/M. Sajjad)

Afghan students destroy an American flag as one shouts 'Death to America' during a protest in Kabul on Thursday May 12, 2005. (AP / David Guttefnelder)

ISLAMABAD –– Pakistan renewed its demand on Monday that the United States conduct a thorough probe and share its findings into reported desecration of the Quran, despite a clarification issued by Newsweek that its story may be wrong.

"We have noted the clarification issued by the Newsweek that the story may be based on certain wrong assumptions," foreign office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told a weekly press briefing.

"Nevertheless we have condemned the reported incident in the strongest possible terms. We have asked a thorough investigation be conducted by the US administration and we would expect the results of the official investigation shared with us."

Newsweek magazine reported last week that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba had defiled copies of the Muslim holy book and stuffed one down a lavatory to rattle Muslim prisoners.

Pakistan was the first country to condemn the reported desecration of the Koran which triggered violence in neighbouring Afghanistan where 14 people died in clashes between protesters and Afghan police.

Pakistani religious parties staged rallies across the country on Friday in which angry Muslims torched the US flag and criticised the policies of US President George W. Bush and his ally, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Newsweek said on Sunday its story might be wrong, explaining that when asked again, the senior US official who had remembered seeing details of the Quran incident in a report could no longer be sure of the event.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Friday said the US administration takes the allegation "very seriously" and reaffirmed that the Defense Department had launched an investigation. Pakistan has sent thousands of troops into its northwestern tribal districts bordering Afghanistan to hunt Al-Qaeda militants who may have sneaked across the frontier after the ousting of the Taliban in late 2001. –– AFP

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Source: Reuters

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16446947.htm

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - The White House said on Monday that a Newsweek report based on an anonymous source had damaged the U.S. image overseas by alleging that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay.

The May 9 report triggered several days of rioting in Afghanistan and other countries in which at least 16 people were killed.

Newsweek's editor, Mark Whitaker, apologized to the victims on Sunday and 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.

"It's puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refused to retract the story," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met and in this instance it was not."

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

McClellan complained that the story was "based on a single anonymous source who could not personally substantiate the allegation that was made."

"The report has had serious consequences," he said. "People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged."

Newsweek 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 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, Newsweek said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1485122,00.html#article_continue

Pentagon attacks Newsweek over Qur'an story

Julia Day and agencies
Monday May 16, 2005

The Pentagon has attacked as "irresponsible" an article in Newsweek magazine alleging that US military interrogators desecrated copies of the Qur'an and accused the magazine of "hiding behind" anonymous sources.

Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, claimed the report, in last week's issue, was "demonstrably false" adding that it had had "significant consequences that reverberated throughout Muslim communities around the world".

"Newsweek hid behind anonymous sources, which by their own admission do not withstand scrutiny.

"Unfortunately, they cannot retract the damage they have done to this nation or those that were viciously attacked by those false allegations."

The magazine has apologised for the story, in which it alleged interrogators at Guantánamo Bay had flushed a copy of the Qur'an down a toilet.

"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," the apology read.

The story sparked protests across the Islamic world. In Afghanistan at least 17 people died and more than 100 were injured in the worst street violence the country has seen since US troops ousted the Taliban in 2001.

The chief spokesman at the Pentagon, Lawrence Di Rita, called the apology "very tepid and qualified," adding: "They owe us all a lot more accountability than they took."

"My reaction and I think our reaction is that Newsweek reported something that was factually inaccurate on several points. It's demonstrably wrong, and Newsweek has acknowledged that. But they have not retracted it, and have tried instead to water it down.

"They printed a story based on an erroneous source or sources that was demonstrably false and that resulted in riots in which people were killed. I don't know how else to parse it."

But in an interview, the Newsweek editor, Mark Whitaker, mounted a robust defence of his staff, insisting the magazine would not make any retraction, that it did nothing "professionally wrong", and that nobody at the title would be disciplined over the report.

Mr Whitaker said the magazine had gone to unusual lengths to ensure the accuracy of the original article, including showing a pre-publication draft to a US official, who chose to neither confirm nor deny the essence of the story.

"We're not retracting anything. We don't know what the ultimate facts are. Everybody did what they were supposed to do. We were dealing with a credible source... we approached officials for comment... we fully disclosed the whole chain of events so the public could reach its own conclusions.

"I don't see what we did professionally wrong in this case."

The source of the story had been reliable in the past, the editor said, and was in a position to know about the report he was describing.

"There are certain sources who will only talk to us on a not-for-attribution basis, particularly when it involves sensitive information, and who would be worried about retribution or other consequences if their identities were known."

On Sunday, President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J Hadley, said on CNN that the administration was looking into the report "vigorously" and that if it proved to be true, disciplinary action would be taken against those responsible.

He also claimed that radical Islamic elements were using the report as an excuse to incite protests against the US government.

The magazine's apology comes as the use of anonymous sources by news organisations around the country is under heightened scrutiny. A series of retractions from papers, inclusing USA Today and the New York Times, has revealed fabrications by individual journalists and editorial shortcomings that failed to pick them up.

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