What do people think about this? I think it’s highly irresponsible for Newsweek to have published something like this if it didn’t have hard evidentiary proof.
http://www.strategypage.com//fyeo/qndguide/default.asp?target=afghan.htm
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Get a Boost from American Media
May 10, 2005: Anti-American rioting broke out in Jalalabad, when local Islamic radicals became aware of a story in an American newsmagazine, accusing U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay prison, of flushing pages of the Koran down a toilet as a way to intimidate Afghan prisoners, and get them to reveal information about Taliban or al Qaeda operations. Jalalabad is a pro-Taliban town, and many locals are still upset that the Taliban is no longer running the country.
May 11, 2005: American and Afghan troops put down the rioting in Jalalabad (east of Kabul, near the Pakistani border), killing four protestors and wounding sixty others. Hundreds of protestors tried to attack American and Afghan troops, and did destroy some government, UN and NGO buildings. There were smaller demonstrations in other towns, as the pro-Taliban Afghans now have a cause to rally around. American officials say they are investigating the accusations about desecrating the Koran. American interrogators are not supposed to do this sort of thing, and the American reporters who came up with the story don’t have much in the way of evidence.
May 12, 2005: Anti-American protests have spread to the capital, sparked by an unsubstantiated accusations by a U.S. newsmagazine. Newsweek magazine published a hearsay item about American interrogators at Guantanamo desecrating the Koran to intimidate suspected terrorists. The Taliban has been trying to spread similar stories, but have no credibility. American media has more clout, even if the story in question is basically a rumor. The pro-Taliban groups will push this story as much as they can, but the Taliban support is basically restricted to some Pushtun tribes in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
May 13, 2005: The anti-American protests continue, as the United States announced it would investigate the allegations. From the beginning, however, it has been American policy to respect religious beliefs among captured Islamic terrorists. The prisoners have been supplied with religious materials, including copies of the Koran, allowed to pray and provided with Islamic clerics (usually military chaplains). Thus it is highly unlikely that abuse of the Koran, or religion in general, would occur during the interrogations. Any such incidents would have made the soldiers involved liable for punishment.