16 People Dead Because Of irresponsible Journalism.

'Newsweek' Apologizes for Errors in Koran Desecration Story that Led to Deadly Anti-American Protests

Newsweek magazine is apologizing for errors in a story that charged interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Koran, the Muslim holy book. The story led to angry, violent protests across the Muslim world, beginning in Afghanistan, where 16 people were killed. On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the U.S. Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in a note to readers, 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." He said the magazine would re-examine the accusations.
In the May 9th issue, Newsweek reported in a brief item that military investigators had found evidence that interrogators placed copies of the Koran in bathrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Whitaker said the information came from, quote, "a knowledgeable U.S. government source." However, a Pentagon spokesman told the magazine Friday that a review of that investigation found, quote, "it was never meant to look into charges of Koran desecration." The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them, quote, 'not credible.'" Still, the military is investigating the new charges to see if they are true or not.

Whitaker also said the magazine's original source later said he couldn't be sure he read about the alleged Koran incident in the report they cited, and that it might have been in another document.

The author of the story and the editor should be fired for gross incompetence. How stupid are the people that rioted? Try flushing a book down the toilet, it doesn't work. Ignorance of western plumbing is responsible for the death of 16 people.