Archivado en: medios | escrito por goleech | 05/17/2005 | 20:57

Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantánamo Bay.

Escuetamente, Newsweek se retractó de la "historia original" en un comunicado luego de disculparse en la semana. En la edición del 9 de mayo la revista dio a conocer que en Guantánamo autoridades estadounidenses arrojaron el Corán por el retrete para obtener información de los detenidos. Se dice que la noticia provocó la muerte de 17 personas que se manifestaron en Afghanistán en contra las medidas irrespetuosas en contra del Islam.

La Casa Blanca, a través del vocero Scott McCellan, pide aún más.

"There is lasting damage to our image because of this report," the chief White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said at a news briefing. "And we would encourage Newsweek to do all that they can to help repair the damage that has been done, particularly in the region."

The New York Times, 17 de mayo de 2005

Pero todavía se duda de las repercusiones fatales del artículo publicado por Newsweek:

There have been conflicting opinions as to whether the Newsweek report was a direct cause of the deadly rioting.

For example, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, testified on Capitol Hill last week that the senior American military commander in Afghanistan had said that he thought the unrest there was spawned more by the country's reconciliation process since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 than by the Newsweek report.

The New York Times, 17 de mayo de 2005

La Casa Blanca pide "reparar el daño" causado por el artículo. ¿De qué manera se puede "reparar el daño"? Según McCellan:

"There is a need to inform people, inform people what the facts are, inform people what our policy is," the State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said today. "Yesterday, we sent out another cable to our embassies giving the text of the Newsweek retraction, explaining further that our inquiries had shown nothing like this, and reiterating once more that there are policies in place, detailed policies in place, among the military for the guards in terms of the handling of the Koran, in terms of showing respect for the religious rights and practices of the detainees."

Pero también es necesario dar a conocer los abusos en Guantánamo, como lo diera a conocer un reporte de la Cruz Roja en noviembre de 2004. Al parecer el maltrato al Corán no es cosa nueva en la Bahía:

In fact, complaints from released inmates that the Koran had been thrown into a toilet go back at least two years.

Among the more detailed accounts of United States soldiers mishandling copies of the Koran were depositions from three Britons who were released from Guantánamo in the summer of 2004. Asif Iqbal, one of the men, who were from Tipton, England, and had been captured in Afghanistan, said that guards "would kick the Koran, throw it in the toilet and generally disrespect it."

The New York Times, 17 de mayo de 2005

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