Did Newsweek Get It Wrong?

Posted on May 16, 2005

So after igniting riots in the Muslim world with its story about how U.S. interrogators at Guant�namo Bay tore up copies of the Koran and flushed them down the toilet to upset detainees, it appears that the Newsweek story that started it all may not have been true.

By the end of the week, the rioting had spread from Afghanistan throughout much of the Muslim world, from Gaza to Indonesia. Mobs shouting "Protect our Holy Book!" burned down government buildings and ransacked the offices of relief organizations in several Afghan provinces. The violence cost at least 15 lives, injured scores of people and sent a shudder through Washington, where officials worried about the stability of moderate regimes in the region.
The spark was apparently lit at a press conference held on Friday, May 6, by Imran Khan, a Pakistani cricket legend and strident critic of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Brandishing a copy of that week's Newsweek (dated May 9), Khan read a report that U.S. interrogators at Guant�namo prison had placed the Qur'an on toilet seats and even flushed one. "This is what the U.S. is doing," exclaimed Khan, "desecrating the Qur'an." His remarks, as well as the outraged comments of Muslim clerics and Pakistani government officials, were picked up on local radio and played throughout neighboring Afghanistan. Radical Islamic foes of the U.S.-friendly regime of Hamid Karzai quickly exploited local discontent with a poor economy and the continued presence of U.S. forces, and riots began breaking out last week.

The Pentagon refuted the story and, after the story's main source appears to be recanting his allegation, Newsweek has had to issue a formal apology. "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 in a note to readers.

All parties are continuing to investigate the allegations. All we know for sure is that this is the kind of inflammatory information that should be thoroughly verified before it's reported. The consequences of not verifying such a story are just too dire.