|
Military confirms reports of koran abuse at guantanamo { May 17 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/11665296.htmhttp://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/11665296.htm
Posted on Tue, May. 17, 2005
News magazine apologizes under pressure from White House
BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
New York Daily News
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Newsweek magazine bowed to intense White House pressure Monday and retracted its report that Korans were thrown in toilets at the Guantanamo Bay terror prison.
White House officials have privately demanded heads roll at the newsmagazine, while publicly expressing outrage over what they called an unproven allegation that sparked riots in Afghanistan that left at least 15 people dead.
"It's appalling that this story got out there," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as she flew home from Iraq. "I do think it's done a lot of harm."
Nevertheless, the Pentagon's Southern Command, which includes Guantanamo 's Camp Delta, is now investigating allegations a spokesman called "credible" that dozens of detainees have complained for years about the desecration of Islam's holy book.
U.S. officials said the allegations are well-known.
"We're aware there might have been mishandling of the Koran," a military source told the Daily News.
The source also said early incidents of mishandling Korans were raised by Army Capt. James Yee, the camp's Muslim imam, who persuaded commanders to bar troops from touching Korans. Yee was later accused of spying, was exonerated and is now working on a book.
The alleged desecrations of Korans have sparked uprisings in the prison and even a mass-suicide attempt by 25 men, sources inside and outside the military said.
"I've got 13 (clients) and almost all of them make similar accusations," said Marc Falkoff, a lawyer for a group of Guantanamo terror suspects.
Falkoff's unclassified notes from January interviews with his clients state that some saw Korans tossed in toilets, intentionally dropped on the ground and stomped on.
Southern Command spokesman Raul Duany declined to comment on the allegations, but said of the new probe, "We've always looked into any credible allegations."
After speaking to prisoner Yasin Hasem Muhammed Ismail in January, Falkoff wrote, "In one camp, 25 men tried to hang themselves . . . because a guard threw a Koran on the floor."
Another client, Yasim Qasem Ismail, said a prisoner "tried to kill himself after guards took his Koran and threw it in the toilet."
The military source confirmed a mass-suicide attempt occurred, but didn't know why.
In August, the Center for Constitutional Rights said three Brits released from Gitmo alleged Korans were dunked by guards.
Newsweek erroneously reported that a Southern Command investigation of misconduct at Guantanamo Bay had corroborated reports of flushed Korans. In fact, it didn't launch its investigation until after Afghan riots began last week, sources said.
As Newsweek executives went into crisis mode and readers began canceling subscriptions, magazine officials predicted lead reporter Michael Isikoff may be off the hook.
"This is an editing problem, not a reporting problem," one Newsweek source said. "It's a massive failure of editorial judgment."
Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker told PBS, "Well, certainly I think we feel to the degree that we've gone back and reconstructed our own process that everyone behaved professionally. . . . We didn't simply rush into print."
---
(Thomas M. DeFrank contributed to this report.)
---
© 2005, New York Daily News.
Visit the Daily News online at http://www.nydailynews.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
|
|
