WASHINGTON - The White House is holding Newsweek magazine responsible for at least 17 deaths linked to rioting in Afghanistan over a report alleging American desecration of the Koran, even though a high military official has dismissed any such connection.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Voice of America and other news agencies on May 12 that the report - which claimed that interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility holding suspected Islamic terrorists tossed the Muslim holy book into a toilet - had little if anything to do with the protests.
Myers said he spoke with Gen. Carl Eichenberry, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who played down reports that the demonstrations were caused by anger over the alleged Koran incident.
"It is the judgment of our commander in Afghanistan, General Eichenberry, that in fact the violence that we saw in Jalalabad was not necessarily the result of the allegations about disrespect for the Koran, but more tied up in the political process and the reconciliation process that President (Hamid) Karzai and his Cabinet are conducting in Afghanistan," Myers said. "He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine."
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