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Whitehouse Reacts to Newsweek Koran Blunder

Michelle Malkin covered the admitted mistake by Newsweek which provoked rioting in Afghanistan and led to the deaths of more than a dozen individual. The White House reacted strongly to the story:

WASHINGTON (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.

[snip]

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

Liberal talk radio in the Phoenix area is already in full damage control suggesting that the incident (Koran desecration) did happen because it could have. The host of the AirAmerica program asked, "Based upon what principle can we conclude that the incident did not happen?"

Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker published the following statement:

... Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts. Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we. But 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..

Despite the clear Newsweek statement, anti-American Muslim's reacted with skepticism and rejected the magazine's correction:

"We will not be deceived by this," Islamic cleric Mullah Sadullah Abu Aman told Reuters in the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, referring to the magazine's retraction.

"This is a decision by America to save itself. It comes because of American pressure. Even an ordinary illiterate peasant understands this and won't accept it."

[snip]

"It's not acceptable now that the magazine says it's made a mistake," said Hafizullah Torab, 42, a writer and journalist in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, where the protests began last Tuesday. "No one will accept it."

Updates:

Hyscience responds to the Muslim Clerics who seemingly justify violence and murder on the basis of Newsweeks erroneous report:

... sparked by a single paragraph in Newsweek alleging that US military interrogators had desecrated the Koran, a wave of anti-American demonstrations swept the Islamic world from the Gaza Strip to the Java Sea. In the past week it was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League, and on Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the United States. Think about it, this is from a sub-population of our planet that refers to themselves as peaceful? What does this say about their culture, their thoughtfulness, their mindset, and their suitability to join in the rest of mankind in making our planet a better place to live ? One can only describe the Islamist's and Muslim's reaction as tantrums - child-like fits, mindless violence, and just plain old lack of class and respect for life and other people's property.

And, Newsweek has chosen to blame the Pentagon for its erroneous story:

The item was principally reported by Michael Isikoff, Newsweek's veteran investigative reporter. "Obviously we all feel horrible about what flowed from this, but it's important to remember there was absolutely no lapse in journalistic standards here," he said. "We relied on sources we had every reason to trust and gave the Pentagon ample opportunity to comment. . . . We're going to continue to investigate what remains a very murky situation."

Captain Ed reacts strongly here.

Posted by tim at May 16, 2005 8:48 AM

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