Prisoner Recants Quran-Desecration Claims

[Newsjock]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/26/national/w120248D64.DTL

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A prisoner at Guantanamo Bay who complained that a military guard threw a Quran holy book in the toilet has since recanted the story, senior Pentagon officials said Thursday.

The prisoner, who made his complaint in an FBI interrogation in July 2002, is one of several quoted in newly released documents as saying that U.S. military personnel desecrated the Qurans of Muslim detainees at the prison.

... Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, told reporters that U.S. investigators had re-interviewed the unidentified prisoner on May 14.

... Another spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said the detainee "indicated, when asked about the desecration, that he was not knowledgeable of anything."

more

[IndianaGreen]

1. Under torture a prisoner will recant, or admit, anything he is asked

Our Pentagon is as reliable as Josef Goebbel's Ministry of Propaganda.

[Enraged_Ape]

2. Pile enough feces on someone and they'll say anything

And this is supposed to convince me of what?

[Kurovski]

3. This is kinda creepy:

"Rumsfeld, told reporters that U.S. investigators had re-interviewed the unidentified prisoner on May 14.

"He has said it didn't happen," Di Rita said..."

Hmm, re-interviewed, eh? Maybe they should tie down a date to "re-interview" the other complainants?

You know, it may be that these prisoners lied, but it's pretty damn funky when you can't trust one frickin' thing your own government tells you.

[blm]

12. And that the WH claimed there WAS NO INVESTIGATION AT ALL of the matter

at the Pentagon because it was never credible. Well, if the WH was so sure it never happened then why did they "re-interview" the detainee?

And why are the early reports to the Red Cross and the FBI stating that SEVERAL detainees complained about the desecration?

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. So some unknown prisioner

has the authorities show up again, to ask him if his story was true and the guy claims he doesn't know what they are talking about. Why am I not surprised?

[Up2Late]

5. Yeah, Right. I bet they tortured that out of him

Why do they still think we will believe anything they say?

Lawrence Di Rita, I dub thee a LIER!

[Kagemusha]

6. Do they have any idea how that sounds?...

I'm not going to even bother talking about the substance of it...

Do these incompetents have the slightest comprehension how this sounds...?

I guess they're just myopic from staring at the fishbowl glass.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. They just run it by B*.

They figure that if he believes it, anyone will believe it.

It's just sick!

[Goldmund]

7. LOL

Silly shit.

[not systems]

8. Room 101

...

They speak about the nature of reality. O'Brien holds up four fingers and asks Winston how many fingers he is holding up. Winston answers four. O'Brien asks what were to happen if the Party said five. Winston replies that he would still be holding four. O'Brien turns up the dial on the pain machine until Winston can no longer even see the fingers.

...

To further prove the point, O'Brien has the man in the white coat give Winston shock therapy, a few seconds after which, Winston will believe anything O'Brien tells him, even that he is holding up five fingers when there are only four. After Winston recovers from the effects of shock therapy, O'Brien allows Winston to ask a few questions.

...

[rocktivity]

9. The "re-interview" was May 14? Which May 14?

If it was the most recent one, and the prisoner has been at Gitmo since July 2002, I can certainly understand why he "was not knowledgeable of anything." And I'm sure it's just a coincidence that this story surfaces within 24 hours of Gitmo being called a modern day gulag that puts the U.S. at the top of the world's human rights violators.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Avalux]

10. And why are we supposed to believe the Pentagon?

Please. :rofl:

[rodeodance]

11. especially when they are ones doing the interview.

... Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, told reporters that U.S. investigators had re-interviewed the unidentified prisoner on May 14.

[rodeodance]

13. if this happened on the 14tth-why are we only hearing about it now?

Rumsfeld, told reporters that U.S. investigators had re-interviewed the unidentified prisoner on May 14.

"He has said it didn't happen," Di Rita said..."

[Cocoa]

15. that prisoner also admits he was wrong about Allah

he was "re-interviewed," and accepted Jesus instead.

[WeRQ4U]

16. Most likely because they threated Koran-desicration

Tell them it never happened, or it will happen again.

[0rganism]

17. Why not ask some of the former "detainees"?

There have been some that were released since 2002, IIRC. Let's see what they have to say about that and other matters of human rights abuses. Why not give out their names while we're at it, since everyone is suddenly so skeptical of "unnamed sources" in journalism?

[rocktivity]

18. What we need here is a timeline

Solider re-interview -- no later than May 14, 2005
Breaking of Newsweek Story
Source changes mind
Scottie complains
Newsweek apologizes
Scottie complains some more
Newsweek retracts
UN calls U.S top human rights abusers because of Gitmo and Abu Grahib
Scottie calls U.S. leader of the way in human rights
Story of solider "re-interview" breaks -- May 26

Excuse me while I try to fill in the blanks.

:shrug:
rocknation

[Karenina]

25. This is simply another

uniquely Amurikkan *FUCK YOU! The rotw know ALL ABOUT your perverted dentist and how he been held accountable and all... :evilgrin:

[daleo]

19. This is incredible.

An unnamed political prisoner, who has not been formally charged with anything, has recanted claims of mistreatment, according to his jailers and alleged torturers. It seems incredible that this is the U.S. we are talking about - it sounds like the Soviet Union of the 1950's.

[JuniorPlankton]

20. You are right

It sounds like the SU of 1937!

[Voltaire99]

34. Yes. We seem more and more like the Soviets.

You nailed it, Daleo. And there are other parallels: the humbling of the news media into a reverential vouchsafe for official heroism, the cultivation of a snitch culture, the Five Year Plan desperation of Social Security "reform," the transformation of entertainment into martial spectacles, and the vow to spread our "superior" system throughout the globe.

Ironically, the Cold War's end sees us energetically aping our former enemies in style and substance. Excuse me while I go have a glass of Victory Gin.

[burrowowl]

35. Does anyone know of or remember

Hoover, McCarthy, the KKK, the Civil Rights movement ...
Granted we may not have killed as many as Stalin in our Nation but U$ Corporatism/Fascism has killed millions all over the world.
Recently, 200,000 Guatemalean Indians killed through the auspices of Raygun.
I'm tired of: this isn't the US I knew. No, the mask is finally being ripped off. Read Howard Zinn's: A people's History of the United States.
I am part Mexican so have been of aware of the 'other face' of the U$.

[daleo]

44. You make a lot of excellent points.

The U.S. and the west in general has done plenty of harm in the past, and has a sordid history of slavery and colonialism. It seems now that there isn't even much attempt to cover it up, though. The ruling class also seems much less willing to compromise internally or externally, even to the limited extent it did in the post-war period. I suppose you might say, "they don't even bother being hypocrites anymore".

I agree that Zinn, Chomsky, Linda McQuaig, James Laxer, Naomi Klein, Galbraith and others are necessary correctives to the conventional version of the past and present we are given.

[Roland99]

21. "re-interviewed"??? WTF? I call BULLSHIT!

More like re-interrogated and re-threatened and re-abused!

[Julius Civitatus]

22. This is very creepy

and worrisome.

[shadowknows69]

28. so, it's still newsweeks fault

no big suprise. IMPEACH ALL THE MURDERING BASTARDS NOW

[MasonJar]

23. Sure, I really believe this unidentified prisoner...excuse me, I

mean enemy combatant.

[maddezmom]

24. Pentagon News Conference on CNN Now....4;25 CT

[Rose Siding]

26. Have each of the "several quoted" seen the light?

Or is this the *most* credible anonymous, indefinitely detained, unrepresented, prisoner...credible NOW, that is, that he's changed his story at least once?

:sarcasm:

[DulceDecorum]

27. Reminds me of something Bartcop once said.

As long as you think black is white and up is down,
as long as you think our soldiers enjoy the cold-blooded murder of innocents,
there is no explanation that would satisfy your shaky-hold-on-reality thinking.

And fuck you on that "be a man," horseshit.

You're a dove who can't process information accurately in your anti-American brain.
If you have clear and convincing evidence of our boys committing cold-blooded murders
of innocent people, why don't you publish it or shut the hell up?
http://www.bartcop.com/bahat.htm

... but then again, he was talking about Somalia.

[benburch]

30. Except that people ARE publishing the evidence.

And some people will deny the truth to their dying days.

I knew an old German Nazi who did.

[Gen.GeorgeWashington]

29. policy

This is obviously a strict policy of abuse towards all "enemy's" of the united states. I mean they did it in Iraq, and why not here? Or, does any one else find it funny that this GitMo is in Cuba!?!

[Rex]

31. Must have shoved a broomstick up his ass.

I wonder how many lights he saw (4 or 5)?

[Gman]

32. The key phrase is

"senior Pentagon officials said..."

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

33. I wonder how much that cost us?

[thecai]

36. Was He Threatened or Coerced?

Or did they "strike a deal" with him?

[The_Casual_Observer]

37. Yep, they get all kinds of great intelligence at that thar gitmo, yep!

What an utter waste that place is.

[rayofreason]

38. Virtual Koran Desecration

I found a site that has the Koran on-line. I downloaded some text, then (gasp) put it into the recycle bin! I wonder if someone will want to chop my head off?

People who consider a text to be the unalterable and pure word of God, and will kill anyone who disagrees or does anything they consider insulting to that belief are the enemies of the liberal mind. For all the faults of the Christian Right, I don't remember hearing about deadly riots, or sermons calling for crusades and suicide bomb attacks on museums that displayed "Christ Pissed". Serrano's famous work may have been in bad taste, but no one got killed over it, and no one should have. Can you imagine the reaction if Serrano were to "balance" his work with "Koran Pissed"? There would be fatwas galore and Theo van Gogh's fate would await Serrano around every corner. These Islamofacists need to be opposed at every turn. Instead we see Oriana Fallaci under legal attack for "defaming Islam."

You tell me where the theocratic threat lies.

[thebigidea]

40. why are you pushing the Koran-story-caused-riots nonsense?

even the Pentagon and Karzai stopped peddling it.

Serrano's work is apparently so famous, you can't remember the title correctly.

You might want to research who coined and uses the word "Islamofascist" before enthusiastically joining the party, too.

Hint: not liberals.

[rayofreason]

41. Correction

Yes, I made an error in the name of Serrano's piece - not an uncommon thing to do late at night.

My point stands - If writing a "blasphemous" book earns Salman Rushdie threat of death where the killer earns a free pass to heaven (how long has it been?), if a filmaker can be nearly decapitated on the streets Amsterdam for causing "offense", if muslims who reject Islam can be and should be killed for their apostasy (see a current example if you read French) - what would happen if an artist produced a "Piss Koran"?

Regarding "Islamofascist" - if the shoe fits...

BTW, Liberals didn't invent the word "Fascist" either. Fascists did.

[daleo]

45. It wasn't Christ Pissed, it was Piss Christ

Which is actually a beautiful photo, in my opinion, and really makes you think about the relationship of the material and spiritual realms.

The difference here is that the Koran was desecrated as a form of political repression by the United States government rather than a sincere artistic inquiry (as The Satanic Verses was, for example).

[Miss Chybil]

39. Oh, please. nt

[pinkpops]

42. Throughout the middle east, people are saying, "OK, never mind"

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

43. Wonders what a guy will do when you hold a cattle prod to his nuts

[Protagoras]

46. Thumbscrews will get you to recant the craziest things

:crazy: