Newsweek Urged To Go On Arab TV

The White House on Wednesday suggested one way for Newsweek magazine to repair any damage from a story that outraged the Muslim world and triggered deadly anti-American protests in Afghanistan.

Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan urged the magazine's editors to take their case straight to the Muslim community, by appearing on Arab television. He made the comment after noting that Newsweek editors have been already been appearing on U.S. television outlets to talk about the incident

Newsweek has retracted the story, which alleged that U.S. interrogators defiled the Quran, Islam's holy book. The White House quickly called on the magazine's editors to find a way to set the record straight.

The White House said the image of the United States suffered irreparable damage from the Newsweek article. The administration also used the Newsweek incident to criticize other, unnamed news organizations.

"One of the concerns is that some media organizations have used anonymous sources that are hiding behind that anonymity in order to generate negative attacks," McClellan said Tuesday.

But he said the administration's own use of anonymous sources was not a major problem.

The administration frequently conducts news briefings and insists that its briefers be identified only as administration officials rather than by name. McClellan said the administration was trying to move away from such briefings, but he rejected suggestions that they contribute to credibility problems.

Newsweek at first apologized for its story and then retracted it. The White House blamed the magazine's account for triggering deadly anti-American protests in Afghanistan last week in which police fired on demonstrators and killed about 15 people.

The administration called on Newsweek to explain how it got the story wrong and to report on U.S. military practices intended to ensure the Quran is handled with respect. The State Department told its embassies to spread the word abroad that America respects all religious faiths.

Newsweek's Washington bureau chief Daniel Klaidman told CBS News' The Early Show on Tuesday that the magazine will continue to look at how it put the story together and learn from its mistakes.

"We will, of course, go back and look at our procedures. We felt whatever mistakes we made were made in good faith," he told Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler.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."