US goes on PR offensive over retracted Koran abuse story

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States has pressed a public-relations offensive to counter damage in the Muslim world from a discredited news report that US troops had desecrated the Koran, officials here said.

They said a cable had been sent out Monday to US embassies, giving them the text of the retraction by Newsweek of its story alleging desecration of the Koran by guards at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Cuba.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the cable also reiterated that inquiries had turned up no evidence of such abuses and restated US policy of showing respect for inmates' religions.

Boucher said the embassies were told to spread the word. "We recognize there's a need to inform people, inform people what the facts are, inform people...