Openness

Newsweek is under intense criticism for a report it has now retracted about the American prison in Guantánamo Bay. We can only say the best approach is transparency as News-week fixes whatever is broken, if anything. There is already a debate about journalistic practices and these things are worth discussing - especially at a time of war. But it is offensive to see the administration use this case for political purposes.

It took Newsweek about two weeks to retract its report. It has been a year since abuse of mainly Muslim pri-soners came to light thr-ough the Abu Ghraib disaster. And the administration has not come close to either openness or accountability.

The White House and the Pentagon have refused to begin any serious examination of the policymaking that led to the abuse, humiliation, torture and even killing of prisoners taken during antiterrorist operations and the invasion of Iraq. Meanwhile, the administration has stone-walled outside efforts to accomplish that task.

If the Pentagon is as enthusiastic about accountability in its own house as its spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, is when it comes to Newsweek, then it should release the report on

Guantánamo Bay, on which the magazine report was based. The administration should also release all the other reports on prisoner abuse. — The New York Times