Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote: “In May [9] 2005, Newsweek magazine wrote that U.S. guards at Gitmo [Guantanamo] had flushed a Koran down a toilet ‘in an attempt to rattle suspects’ for interrogation purposes. Unnamed sources, Newsweek said, had verified the allegation. The story set off a firestorm of protest in a number of Muslim cities. Commentators denounced troops serving at Gitmo. Demonstrations and riots erupted around the world. In Afghanistan, seventeen people died in the rioting. After a thorough examination by the Defense Department, the individual believed to have made the original allegation recanted. We then asked Newsweek to withdraw its story, but its editor would only express ‘regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and [we] extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst.’ ”
– Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 570