Story that sparked riots questioned
Allegation an Islamic holy book was flushed down a toilet by a U.S. soldier can't be proved, Newsweek editor says
BY INDRANI SEN
STAFF WRITER. This story was supplemented with wire service reports.
May 16, 2005
Newsweek has partially backed off its report that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, a story that sparked furious riots last week that killed at least 15 people in Afghanistan.
The May 9 Newsweek item reported that a pending U.S. military investigation had found evidence that interrogators placed Qurans in washrooms to unsettle suspects and in one case "flushed a holy book down the toilet."
While stopping short of retracting the entire story, the magazine apologized and said it would re-examine the accusations after a Pentagon spokesman questioned the reported source of the charges and called similar allegations by detainees "not credible."
Newsweek's error was in asserting that the claim of desecration came in the pending military investigation into FBI e-mail messages describing prisoner abuse at Guantanamo, and in suggesting there was evidence supporting the claim.
"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," Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker wrote in the magazine's May 23 edition, out today.
The story that sparked the furor was a short item in Newsweek's Periscope section.
Reaction in Afghanistan was strong, likely compounded by angry denunciations by foes of the U.S.-friendly regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and by public discontent in general.
A story on the report, also in today's Newsweek, says the magazine's original information came from a senior U.S. government official who was a "longtime reliable source" and was familiar with the abuse investigation by the military's Southern Command, which runs the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Before publishing the item, reporters Michael Isikoff and John Barry sought comment from senior defense officials, Newsweek said. One declined to respond, and the other challenged another part of the story, but did not dispute the Quran charge, Whitaker said.
But on Friday, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita told Newsweek that it was wrong and that the Pentagon had found no credible evidence to support the allegations of Quran desecration.
Whitaker said the magazine's original source later said he could not be sure he read about the alleged Quran incident in the upcoming Southern Command report Newsweek cited. "Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we," Whitaker wrote.
Journalism experts expressed concern about the incident.
"It's disturbing," said Bill Kovach, chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. "Obviously, the reaction to the report tells you just how damaging and dangerous careless reporting can be. ... You can't know what the impact of anything you report is going to be, and for that reason it seems to me that the verification process has to be as stringent for a one-paragraph story as for a thousand-paragraph story."
Paul Levinson, chairman of the department of communications and media studies at Fordham University, agreed.
"I think, given the incendiary nature of our world, the height of the tensions that are running through the Islamic world against Americans, that our journalists have to be extra careful in publishing stories that inflame those tensions," he said. "I think Newsweek did some damage in publishing the story initially, and I also commend them for stepping up now and admitting their mistake."
This story was supplemented with wire service reports.
How the magazine story broke
May 2: Newsweek reports that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that American guards in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had committed infractions in trying to get terror suspects to talk, including in one case flushing a Quran down a toilet. The story is in the May 9 issue, on newsstands May 2.
May 10: Afghans protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
May 11: Protests turn violent in Jalalabad, with mobs stoning U.S. troops and smashing foreign consulates and other government and aid offices. At least four are killed.
May 12: More are killed as protests spread. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls any act disrespectful of the Quran "abhorrent" and promises to punish any offenders.
May 13: A top Pentagon spokesman tells Newsweek its story was wrong and that a review of the probe cited in its story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Quran desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them "not credible."
May 16: Newsweek apologizes, saying the source for its original story is no longer certain where he read the allegation of the Quran's desecration.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc. |