Newsweek retracts Koran story
Newsweek magazine, under fire for a publishing story that led to deadly protests in Afghanistan, said tonight it was retracting its report that a military probe had found evidence of desecration of the Koran by US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.
Earlier today, US presidential spokesman Scott McClellan criticised Newsweek’s initial response to the incident, saying it was “puzzling”.
Newsweek had reported in its issue dated May 9 that US military investigators had found evidence that interrogators placed copies of Islam’s holy book in bathrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk.
Newsweek acknowledged problems with the story and its editor, Mark Whitaker, apologised in an editor’s note in this week’s edition. The accusations spawned protests in Afghanistan that left 15 dead and scores injured.
Whitaker wrote in an editor’s note: “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.”
But after the White House criticised Newsweek’s response to the story, Whitaker released a statement tonight through a spokesman saying the magazine was retracting the story.
“Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay,” Whitaker said.
