NEWSWEEK CORRECTS KORAN FLUSHING STORY

Newsweek has acknowledged that it perhaps should not have printed an allegation that a Koran was thrown into a toilet by US personnel at Guantanamo:

Last Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told us that a review of the probe cited in our story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Qur'an desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them "not credible." 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.

A reasonable correction I suppose.

What's most worrying about the unrest is that Muslims are being manipulated by those seeking to make political mileage out of the supposed book flushing:

Yesterday, a council of more than 300 mullahs in the north-eastern province of Badakhshan threatened to declare holy war on America if it failed to hand the interrogators to be punished.

Protests appeared to have been sparked after the former Pakistan cricket star Imran Khan held up a copy of the article at a press conference last week and said: "This is what the US is doing, desecrating the Qur'an."

A little independent thinking would go a long way...

Update: As you'll note from my reaction above, I feel the Newsweek correction is a bit weak. Others are totally unimpressed:

"It's outrageous, I think it's accessory to murder," said Fox News military analyst Col. David Hunt, now retired from the Army.

"This is a lie. This is [a] criminal act as far as I'm concerned. People died," Hunt told Fox interviewer Geraldo Rivera. "A lot worse things should happen to Newsweek than ... making this half-assed apology."

"It's treasonous at worst," Hunt added. "How about not hurting the war? How about causing no harm? I think Newsweek should lose every reader it ever had."

Col. Hunt always calls 'em like he sees 'em.