Newsweek Wrong In Report That Causes Protests & Deaths

[RedFanAlways1966]

A good reason why we should not believe everything we hear or read. Disgusting. I hope the families of those who died b/c of the protests that these erroroneous reports created can sue Newsweek for a pretty penny. I guess the "Dan Rather rush to judgment thing" did not teach some overzealous news outlets a thing.

Newsweek: Koran desecration report wrong
By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.

Editor Mark Whitaker 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.

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.

"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," Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.

The weekly news magazine 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 Newsweek said 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.

Whitaker told Reuters that Newsweek did not know if the reported toilet incident involving the Koran ever occurred. "As to whether anything like this happened, we just don't know," he said in an interview. "We're not saying it absolutely happened but we can't say that it absolutely didn't happen either."

[RBA]

A good reason why we should not believe everything we hear or read.
Disgusting. I hope the families of those who died b/c of the protests that these erroroneous reports created can sue Newsweek for a pretty penny. I guess the "Dan Rather rush to judgment thing" did not teach some overzealous news outlets a thing.

Right you are. I glad that we agree on things such as this.

Now, what Government officials believed everything they heard or read on erroroneous reports and what deaths did they create? Right you are in condeming Dan Rather for the rush to judgment, but what Government officials have made rushes to judgment?

[GAC]

It's why I don't buy Newsweek.

[Jaycint]

Now, what Government officials believed everything they heard or read on erroroneous reports and what deaths did they create? Right you are in condeming Dan Rather for the rush to judgment, but what Government officials have made rushes to judgment?

Don't you guys ever tire of kicking each other in the political balls?

[RedFanAlways1966]

I am not sure how this became political, but my concern is with media outlets who run with stories that come from only one source and do not verify the validity of these stories (very-very much like the 60 Minutes II false story). This particular one caused protests in the Muslim world and people were killed in these protests. The 60 Minutes II story could have had an effect on our presidential election and brought about the resignation of a well-known news anchor.

Freedom of the press is a great thing. Many in the Arab world can tell us this as they have been denied such rights for many years. But when stories like this (like this = not valid) are put in print, they can have serious ramifications (16 dead). I wonder how many add'l attacks were brought upon our military men & women b/c of this untrue story? I doubt we will ever know.

Sometimes I think in the glee to be "the one" to break some big news, media outlets take a chance that their sources are right. And when they are wrong... there can be consequences. Is taking a chance to break the big one worth the lives of other humans? Lives that may still be here today if not for the invalid story of an outlet that tried to break a big one.

I hope Newsweek also delivers an apology to our entire military and units at Guantanamo Bay for their story that portrayed those soldiers in a falsehood. Although I won't hold my breath as it seems that they are still trying to say that the Koran story may not be true, but it may not be false either. Still trying their best to prove it, I guess. Let's hope they let the families of 16 dead people know the truth whenever they finally figure it out.

[Blimpie]

...Arshad and the provincial police chief said the scholars met in Faizabad, 310 miles northeast of the capital, Kabul, and demanded a "reaction" from U.S. authorities within three days.

But Newsweek apologized in an editor's note for Monday's edition and said they were re-examining the allegations.

"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...

Gotta love the editorial procedures at Newsweek:

1) Print story
2) Fact-check story
3) Hold breath and cross fingers

They should rename Newsweek the Weekly Mullet-Wrapper...

[Unassisted]

I agree that this is bad, actually worse than bad since it resulted in deaths, but I'm going to resist the knee-jerk impulse to tar-and-feather Newsweek and offer something to ponder. Maybe if the government was a bit more forthcoming about interrogation methods at Guantanamo, the media wouldn't have to get its info from shaky, unconfirmable sources?

[Jaycint]

I agree that this is bad, actually worse than bad since it resulted in deaths, but I'm going to resist the knee-jerk impulse to tar-and-feather Newsweek and offer something to ponder. Maybe if the government was a bit more forthcoming about interrogation methods at Guantanamo, the media wouldn't have to get its info from shaky, unconfirmable sources?

I agree but dont you think that even if the government was forthright and layed out all of their interrogation tactics for the press to see that there would still be some who would try and dig further and further to see if they could come up with some "dirt" whether it actually existed or not?

[Blimpie]

I agree that this is bad, actually worse than bad since it resulted in deaths, but I'm going to resist the knee-jerk impulse to tar-and-feather Newsweek and offer something to ponder. Maybe if the government was a bit more forthcoming about interrogation methods at Guantanamo, the media wouldn't have to get its info from shaky, unconfirmable sources?

It is unfortunate, but dealing with "shaky, unconfirmable sources" has always been a part of journalism. However, knowing which sources are the reliable ones--and when to use them--is supposed to be what separates reputable journalists/editors from the other weekly rags that fall under the tabloid umbrella. Newsweek was irresponsible and get no pass from where I stand.

[savafan]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...301417_pf.html

By ROBERT BURNS
The Associated Press
Friday, June 3, 2005; 9:15 PM

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon on Friday released new details about mishandling of the Quran at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, confirming that a soldier deliberately kicked the Muslim holy book and that an interrogator stepped on a Quran and was later fired for "a pattern of unacceptable behavior."

In other confirmed incidents, a guard's urine came through an air vent and splashed on a detainee and his Quran; water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet; and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.

The findings, released after normal business hours Friday evening, are among the results of an investigation last month by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the commander of the detention center in Cuba, that was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report _ later retracted _ that a U.S. soldier had flushed one Guantanamo Bay detainee's Quran down a toilet.

The story stirred worldwide controversy and the Bush administration blamed it for deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan.

Hood said in a written statement released Friday evening, along with the new details, that his investigation "revealed a consistent, documented policy of respectful handling of the Quran dating back almost 2 1/2 years."

A spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Lawrence Di Rita, did not address the confirmed incidents of mishandling the Muslim holy book. Reached while traveling with Rumsfeld in Asia, Di Rita said that U.S. Southern Command policy calls for "serious, respectful and appropriate" handling of the Quran.

"The Hood inquiry would appear to affirm that policy," Di Rita said.

Hood said that of nine mishandling cases that were studied in detail by reviewing thousands of pages of written records, five were confirmed to have happened. He could not determine conclusively whether the four others took place.

In one of those four unconfirmed cases, a detainee in April 2003 complained to FBI and other interrogators that guards "constantly defile the Quran." The detainee alleged that in one instance a female military guard threw a Quran into a bag of wet towels to anger another detainee, and he also alleged that another guard said the Quran belonged in the toilet and that guards were ordered to do these things.

Hood said he found no other record of this detainee mentioning any Quran mishandling. The detainee has since been released.

In the most recent confirmed case, Hood said a detainee complained on March 25, 2005, of urine splashing on him and his Quran. An unidentified guard admitted at the time that "he was at fault," the Hood report said, although it did not say whether the act was deliberate. The guard's supervisor reprimanded him and assigned him to gate guard duty, where he had no contact with detainees for the remainder of his assignment at Guantanamo Bay.

As described in the Hood report, the guard had left his observation post and went outside to urinate. He urinated near an air vent and the wind blew his urine through the vent into the cell block. The incident was not further explained.

In another of the confirmed cases, a contract interrogator stepped on a detainee's Quran in July 2003 and then apologized. "The interrogator was later terminated for a pattern of unacceptable behavior, an inability to follow direct guidance and poor leadership," the Hood report said.

Hood also said his investigation found 15 cases of detainees mishandling their own Qurans. "These included using a Quran as a pillow, ripping pages out of the Quran, attempting to flush a Quran down the toilet and urinating on the Quran," Hood's report said. It offered no possible explanation for those alleged abuses.

In the most recent of those 15 cases, a detainee on Feb. 18, 2005, allegedly ripped up his Quran and handed it to a guard, stating that he had given up on being a Muslim. Several of the guards witnessed this, Hood reported.

Last week, Hood disclosed that he had confirmed five cases of mishandling of the Quran, but he refused to provide details. Allegations of Quran desecration at Guantanamo Bay have led to anti-American passions in many Muslim nations, although Pentagon officials have insisted that the problems were relatively minor and that U.S. commanders have gone to great lengths to enable detainees to practice their religion in captivity.

Hood said last week that he found no credible evidence that a Quran was ever flushed down a toilet. He said a prisoner who was reported to have complained to an FBI agent in 2002 that a military guard threw a Quran in the toilet has since told Hood's investigators that he never witnessed any form of Quran desecration.

Other prisoners who were returned to their home countries after serving time at Guantanamo Bay as terror suspects have alleged Quran desecration by U.S. guards, and some have said a Quran was placed in a toilet.

There are about 540 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with a crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Both President Bush and Rumsfeld have denounced an Amnesty International report that called the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our time."

The president told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that the report by the human-rights group was "absurd."

On Wednesday, Rumsfeld called the characterization "reprehensible" and said the U.S. military had taken care to ensure that detainees were free to practice their religion. However, he also acknowledged that some detainees had been mistreated, even "grievously" at times.

[Dom Heffner]

RFA, you always tell us to watch out for biased sources and then you only post the mistakes that go against the Bush administration. It's your type of bias that is just as dangerous.

If Bush gave a hoot about anyone dying, we'd never be over in Iraq in the first place.

We are witnessing quite possibly the worst presidency in the history of this country.

Absolutely shameful.

I love the "I'm not sure how this turned political" statement. If you really want an answer, I'll take a stab. Maybe because a right-wing poster shows his face only to criticize easy targets like Newsweek and Dan Rather on post after post after post and then fails to say anything about the prison abuses going on and all the other Bush administration mishaps.

Where are your Jeff Gannon posts, buddy?

Haven't seen those around. Gee, could it be that you're biased?

[GAC]

RFA, you always tell us to watch out for biased sources and then you only post the mistakes that go against the Bush administration. It's your type of bias that is just as dangerous.

And liberals on here never start a thread with that same intent do they Dom? Naw! They never express their biases.

So what you're saying is that people shouldn't be outraged, or show concern, when a news organization (whether it's Dan Rather or Newsweek) runs a story without verification of the facts, and that upon further investigation, it shows their motivation was more about biases then the truth.

It was simply another example of shoddy, and very unprofessional, journalism.

[Redsfaithful]

The findings, released after normal business hours Friday evening

Heh.

GAC, we've had this conversation many times. Read the thread:

The Pentagon on Friday released new details about mishandling of the Quran at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, confirming that a soldier deliberately kicked the Muslim holy book and that an interrogator stepped on a Quran and was later fired for "a pattern of unacceptable behavior."

In other confirmed incidents, a guard's urine came through an air vent and splashed on a detainee and his Quran; water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet; and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.

Newsweek was right.

[kbrake]

You guys are making it sound like Newsweek is responisble for Muslims being angry with us. And like someone already said if Bush or his supporters were so worried about people dying we would not be in Iraq to begin with.

[GAC]

Heh.

GAC, we've had this conversation many times. Read the thread:



Newsweek was right.

Uh - I read those reports/articles long before they were posted on here. I already know what they have claimed, along with the Pentagon report.

What was it the Newsweek article claimed again? Oh yeah - that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet. That military interrogators flushed at least one copy of the Koran down a toilet in a bid to make detainees talk.

Wrong! So Newsweek was not right. If they had been, then why are they still backing off of this story and apologizing RF?

But the Pentagon report found out that there were some minor incidents where our soldiers even apologized, while some were disciplined. But nothing like Newsweek was trying to report.

Found this interesting in that Pentagon report. Did you happen to read over this?

Hood also said his investigation found 15 cases of detainees mishandling their own Qurans. "These included using a Quran as a pillow, ripping pages out of the Quran, attempting to flush a Quran down the toilet and urinating on the Quran," Hood's report said. It offered no possible explanation for those alleged abuses.

In the most recent of those 15 cases, a detainee on Feb. 18, 2005, allegedly ripped up his Quran and handed it to a guard, stating that he had given up on being a Muslim. Several of the guards witnessed this, Hood reported.

So they now got it right, wrong, right. Journalism at it's excellence.

You're right RF. We have had this conversation before. You're the one who started a similar thread about a year ago by posting an article by the always reliable and objective, and never biased (sarcasm), New Tork Times (who is about as anti-military as any journalistic establishment can get) accusing our military of torturing those detainees at Gitmo.

Then I posted pictures giving examples of how these detainees are being "tortured". Check them out again.

http://www.redszone.com/forums/showt...Guantanamo+Bay

They are getting better treatment, and in better living circumstances, then they had while in Afghanistan. As the one base commander stated - these detainees are sleeping on the same type of beds our men are using over in Afghanistan.

Here's a good article on what a day's activities are like for one of these detainee's....

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0314/p01s04-usmi.html

They are treated far better then how our enemies treat their prisoners (if they are even allowed to live).