Stories of Korans tossed into Gitmo toilets as early as **March 2003**

[VOX]

The scapegoating of Newsweek by BushCo and its mouthpieces stikes me as far too strained and contrived. So much so that I did a Lexis-Nexis search for similar stories, and came up with hits dating from today back to March 2003. So why the meltdown now, and the damning of Newsweek for printing a story that been traveling through the press for more than two years? :shrug:

There also are multiple stories of other Koran-related indignities at Gitmo, such as stomping on the book, handling it inappropriately,and even sitting on it.

These stories hail from sources as diverse (and reliable) as the The Denver Post, the Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia), the Financial Times (London, England), The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post, among others.

Since these snips are from a Lexis-Nexis search, I can't link to the stories.

Mods, sorry for the long post, but I'm banking on importance. Thanks.
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Copyright 2005 The Denver Post
All Rights Reserved
The Denver Post
January 9, 2005 Sunday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. F-11
LENGTH: 1088 words
HEADLINE: Nightmare of Guantanamo.... U.S. prison camp in Cuba has become legal black hole, reporter says
BYLINE: John Freeman Special to The Denver Post
<snip>
They were punched, slapped, denied sleep, had seen other prisoners sexually humiliated, hooded and forced to watch copies of the Koran being flushed down toilets. Eventually the pressure proved too much - they gave false confessions that the British intelligence service, MI5, later showed to be untrue. Upon their return to the United Kingdom they were released without being charged.
<snip>
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Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)
January 3, 2005 Monday
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 27
LENGTH: 177 words
HEADLINE: Koran prayer torture claim
SOURCE: AFP
BODY:
LONDON -- A British detainee claims he was tortured at Guantanamo Bay for reciting the Koran when talking was banned.

Moazzam Begg told lawyers he was tortured using the strappado, in which a prisoner is suspended from a bar with handcuffs, Britain's Observer newspaper said.

Mr Begg alleged he had been shaven several times against his will and a guard had said on one such occasion: "This is the part that really gets to you Muslims isn't it?"
<snip>
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Financial Times (London, England)
October 28, 2004 Thursday
London Edition 2
SECTION: THE AMERICAS; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 310 words
HEADLINE: Four Britons held at Guantanamo sue US government
BYLINE: By JIMMY BURNS
DATELINE: LONDON
BODY:
Four British subjects detained without trial for nearly three years in the US military base of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are suing the US government.
In the first legal action of its kind, the former detainees, who were released in March, are alleging torture and other human rights violations.
<snip>
In August Mr Ahmed, Mr Rasul and Mr Iqbal issued a 115-page dossier accusing the US of abuse, including allegations that they were beaten and had their Korans thrown into toilets.
<snip>
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USA TODAY
October 18, 2004, Monday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 2A
LENGTH: 820 words
HEADLINE: Spy case was a 'life-altering experience' for airman
BYLINE: Laura Parker
DATELINE: FAIRFIELD, Calif.
BODY:
FAIRFIELD, Calif. ---- The day Ahmad Al Halabi, an Air Force translator at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was arrested, he was more puzzled than alarmed.
<snip>
Al Halabi says he did not witness any treatment of prisoners that has now been called into question as abusive. But he says he saw things at Guantanamo that disturbed him. He says guards would purposely mishandle the Koran "just to see the detainees' reaction."

"All I wanted was for them to treat those prisoners like human beings," Al Halabi says.
<snip>
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Daily News (New York)
August 5, 2004 Thursday
SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 34
LENGTH: 320 words
HEADLINE: ABUSED AT GITMO, FREED BRITS CHARGE
BYLINE: BY JAMES GORDON MEEK and DEREK ROSE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
BODY:
THREE BRITONS freed from the terror prison in Guantanamo Bay say they were stripped naked and faced other abuses that mirrored what happened to inmates in Iraq.
<snip>
They say that rats and scorpions had free run of their sweltering cages, loud rock music was used to drown out the sound of prayers, and sleep deprivation was common.

"They would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet and generally disrespect it," Asif Iqbal wrote.
<snip>
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The Independent (London)
August 5, 2004, Thursday
SECTION: First Edition; NEWS; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 729 words
HEADLINE: FATHER CALLS FOR SON'S RELEASE AFTER CAMP DELTA TORTURE CLAIMS BEGG DEMANDS SON'S RELEASE AFTER TORTURE CLAIMS AT CAMP DELTA TORTURE
BYLINE: JONATHAN BROWN Azmat Begg said his son's health was deteriorating Matthew Fearn/PA; Moazzam Begg: Held at Guantanamo for two years
BODY:
THE FATHER of a British man being held in Guantanamo Bay called on the Government yesterday to immediately bring home the detainees following new claims of sexual, physical and psychological torture. Moazzam Begg, who is still in solitary confinement at the United States' military facility in Cuba after two and a half years, was described in a report published yesterday as being "in a very bad way".
<snip>
In the report, released in New York, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul - the so-called Tipton Three - said one inmate was threatened after being shown a video in which hooded inmates were forced to sodomise each other. Guards allegedly threw prisoners' Korans into toilets, while others were injected with drugs, it was claimed.
<snip>
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The San Francisco Chronicle
JUNE 20, 2004, SUNDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A17
LENGTH: 3005 words
HEADLINE: THE FILE: PRISON ABUSE;
Since reports first surfaced of abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, other accounts of ill treatment have surfaced in Iraq and at U.S. detention facilities in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay.
BODY:
ABUSE
Prisoners have been forced to strip naked -- nudity is a violation of Muslim principles; forced to commit actual or simulated sex acts; prevented from sleeping; threatened with dogs; hooded; given electric shocks; beaten with fists, chains, boots and other objects; forced to maintain painful positions for hours; kept in frigid isolation rooms; subjected to loud music, strobe lights and diets of bread and water; urinated on and prevented from praying or reading the Koran.
<snip>
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The Observer
May 16, 2004
SECTION: Observer News Pages, Pg. 8
LENGTH: 2441 words
HEADLINE: Inside Guantanamo Bay: I was in extreme pain and so weak that I could barely stand. It was freezing cold and I was shaking like a washing machine. They questioned me at gunpoint and told me that if I confessed I could go home: As America struggles to come to terms with military abuse in Iraq, similar stories are emerging from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Tarek Dergoul, a Briton released from the camp in March, talks here for the first time about his two-year ordeal. By David Rose
BYLINE: David Rose
BODY:
'THEY HAD already searched me and my cell twice that day, gone through my stuff, touched my Koran, felt my body around my private parts. And now they wanted to do it again, just to provoke me, but I said no, because if you submit to everything you turn into a zombie.
<snip>
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The Guardian (London) - Final Edition
May 14, 2004
SECTION: Guardian Home Pages, Pg. 1
LENGTH: 564 words
HEADLINE: Guantanamo abuse same as Abu Ghraib, say Britons
BYLINE: Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington, Tania Branigan and Vikram Dodd
BODY:
Two British men who were held at Guantanamo Bay claimed that their US guards subjected them to abuse similar to that perpetrated at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
<snip>
According to a source, who has interviewed them in secret since their release, they were initially too ashamed to talk about it, and are only now starting to give details. The source said: "They are embarrassed about talking about it because they feel humiliated. We have had an account that their religion was used against them, that a copy of the Koran was brought in front of them and pages torn out."
<snip>
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The Observer
March 14, 2004
SECTION: Observer News Pages, Pg. 5
LENGTH: 5420 words
HEADLINE: World Exclusive: Inside Guantanamo: How we survived jail hell: For two years the Tipton Three have been silent prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Now, in this remarkable interview with David Rose, they describe for the first time the extraordinary story of their journey from the West Midlands to Camp Delta
BYLINE: David Rose
<snip>
As Muslims, they were shocked when in repeated 'shakedown' searches of the sleeping tents, copies of the Koran would be trampled on by soldiers and, on one occasion, thrown into a toilet bucket. Throughout their stay at Kandahar the guards carried out head-counts every hour at night to keep the prisoners awake.
<snip>
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The Washington Post
March 26, 2003 Wednesday
Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A12
LENGTH: 888 words
HEADLINE: Returning Afghans Talk of Guantanamo;
Out of Legal Limbo, Some Tell of Mistreatment
BYLINE: Marc Kaufman and April Witt, Washington Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: KABUL, Afghanistan March 25
BODY:
Afghan men freed today after spending months in legal limbo as U.S. prisoners in the war on terrorism said they were generally well-fed and given medical care, but housed in cramped cells and sometimes shackled, hit and humiliated.
<snip>
The men, the largest single group of Afghans to be released after months of detainment at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gave varying accounts of how American forces treated them during interrogation and detainment. Some displayed medical records showing extensive care by American military doctors, while others complained that American soldiers insulted Islam by sitting on the Koran or dumping their sacred text into a toilet to taunt them.
<snip>