Newsweek Urged To Go On Arab TV

W. House Calls On Editors To Mend Damage From Discredited Story

(CBS/AP)  Klaidman disputed the notion that the retraction was issued under pressure from the White House and said there was confusion over an article written on Sunday because it did not use the word "retraction."

"We tried from the beginning to be as transparent as we could," Klaidman said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing at the State Department with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, told reporters that the Newsweek story was bound to be volatile.

"The United States is a country that believes deeply in religious freedom and the equality of all to practice religion as they see it," Rice said, "and we would certainly never condone anything that would be a desecration of the holy book of one of the world's great religions."

Rice said detainees at Guantanamo were given prayer mats and directed toward Mecca so that they could pray appropriately. The Quran has been handled "very, very carefully," she said.

"I just hope that through steady discussion now with the Muslim community — and our people in the field are trying to do it — they understand the real story of how the United States has tried to deal with this question of religious practice at Guantanamo," she said.

A two-page cable sent to all U.S. diplomatic posts instructed the ambassadors to tell host governments and local media that Newsweek had retracted its report that investigators found evidence that interrogators desecrated the Quran.

The Pentagon has found nothing to substantiate allegations of Quran desecration, the cable said, adding, "The U.S. government will continue to investigate all credible allegations of misconduct and will take action against those responsible if the allegations are substantiated."