Latest!! NEWSWEEK Magazine Admits ERROR in Reporting on Desecration of the Holy KORAN
He also said those holding the Australian contractor have extended their deadline for Australian troops to pull out of Iraq indefinitely. Speaking to the ABC in Baghdad, the Australian cleric said he hoped today would bring a final answer from Douglas Wood's kidnappers.
Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali says he has information Mr Wood's kidnappers have extended their deadline indefinitely.
Sheikh Hilali also said that Mr Wood was betrayed by the interpreter who was with Douglas Wood. The interpreter delivered him, another engineer and a bodyguard to the kidnappers, the sheikh says.
The cleric says the fact the Australian contractor had worked with American company Bechtel in Iraq has also complicated his release.
by
Dino Hazell (AP News wire)
15 May 2005
Read here full article in ABC News
Newsweek Magazine has apologized for errors in a story alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran.
The accusations sparked outrage and deadly protests in Afghanistan.
Fifteen people died and scores were injured in violence between protesters and security forces, prompting U.S. promises to investigate the allegations.
In Afghanistan, Muslim leaders gave Washington three days to offer a response to the story.
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.
In an issue dated May 9, the magazine reported that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that interrogators placed copies of Islam's holy book in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk.
Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we."
Whitaker wrote that the magazine's information came from "a knowledgeable U.S. government source," and before it published the item, writers Michael Isikoff and John Barry sought comment from two Defense Department officials.
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, a top Pentagon spokesman told the magazine that a review of the military's investigation concluded "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.'"
Whitaker added that the magazine's original source later said he could not be sure he read about the alleged Quran incident in the report Newsweek cited, and that it might have been in another document.
Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman said the magazine believes it erred in reporting the allegation that a prison guard tried to flush the Koran down a toilet and that military investigators had confirmed the accusation
YOUR VIEWS ?
Send This Post to a Friend ->
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Go to Latest Posting