Inquiry finds 5 cases of Quran 'mishandling' at Guantanamo

[Newsjock]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5425731.html

Robert Burns, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials have substantiated five cases in which military guards or interrogators mishandled the Quran of Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay but found "no credible evidence'' to confirm a prisoner's report that a holy book was flushed in a toilet, the prison's commander said Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood, who commands the detention center in Cuba, told a Pentagon news conference that a prisoner who was reported to have complained to an FBI agent in 2002 that a military guard threw a Quran in the toilet has told Hood's investigators that he never witnessed any form of Quran desecration.

... Of 13 alleged incidents, five were substantiated, he said. Four were by guards and one was by an interrogator. Hood said the five cases "could be broadly defined as mishandling'' of the holy book, but he refused to discuss details.

In three of the five cases, the mishandling appears to have been deliberate. In the other two, it apparently was accidental.

more

[TexasLawyer]

1. But Newsweek already said this never happened!

Also, Condi says we love the Muslims and respect the holy Koran!

Stop confusing us! :sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Some evil librul apparently has tried to slur our fine rep. at Guantanamo.

"None of these five incidents was a result of a failure to follow standard operating procedures in place at the time the incident occurred,'' Hood said.

Hood's the big fella on the left.

[daleo]

3. So, they didn't flush it down a toilet

They probably just threw it in a latrine bucket, as that is what the prisoners were given for the purpose as far as I recall. The implication of the statement "could be broadly defined as mishandling", is that it was some minor technical mistake. However, throwing the book into a latrine bucket could also "be broadly defined as mishandling". There is verbal misdirection going on, as usual.

Newsweek's story was true.

[rodeodance]

4. Pentagon Substantiates Cases of Koran Mistreatment

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/26/AR2005052601220.html

Pentagon Substantiates Cases of Koran Mistreatment

By Lexie Verdon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 26, 2005; 6:53 PM


Investigators have found no evidence that any guards or interrogators at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ever flushed a Koran down a toilet, although officials have substantiated five cases in which the Muslim holy book was mishandled, the general in charge of the facility said today.

Brig. Gen. Jay Hood declined to provide details about these five cases, saying only that the incidents "could be broadly defined as mishandling."

.........He refused to give specifics about the five substantiated incidents, except to say that three appeared to be deliberate mishandlings of the Koran, while the other two appeared to be to be accidental.

All occurred before rules had been established for the handling of the Koran at Guantanamo, he said............

[Up2Late]

5. Pentagon admits five acts of 'mishandling' the Koran (The Independent)

(The Independent is a U.K. News Paper and when they say "last night", that still means Today here. This Crap is getting deep!)

Pentagon admits five acts of 'mishandling' the Koran
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

27 May 2005

The Pentagon admitted last night it had substantiated five occasions when US military personnel at Guantanamo Bay prison "mishandled" the Koran of Muslim detainees. But it said it found no credible evidence to confirm a complaint that the Islamic holy book had been flushed down a toilet.

Jay W Hood, the one-star general who commands the detention centre for suspected terrorists on Cuba, refused to give details of the cases of mishandling, saying the incidents, which occurred early in the camp's existence, were still under investigation. That they could be "broadly defined" as mishandling was as far as he would go.

But he told a press conference that a prisoner who reportedly complained to an FBI agent that a military guard had thrown a Koran into a toilet told Brig-Gen Hood's team that he had only been told of the incident, and had never witnessed any form of desecration at first hand.

The admission by the military is the latest twist in an affair which began with a claim in the 9 May issue of Newsweek magazine that a Pentagon internal report had concluded that a Koran had been flushed in a toilet, as alleged by several detainees after their release from Guantanamo Bay.

(more at link above)

[neuvocat]

6. But...but...Newsweek is responsible for the loss of life.

[Solly Mack]

7. I won't be holding my breath on that WH apology

but I do wonder if Newsweek will retract their retraction.

[ohtransplant]

19. But Scotty's gonna want to set the record staight.......right?

:sarcasm:

[Igel]

20. But what they said was unsubstantiated, and so it should have been

retracted. Nobody's substantiated that a copy of any book required to be treated by the US military and the US government as the word of God, and better in many cases than the believers themselves, was flushed.

In some cases, the "mishandling" was having the Qur'an be touched by someone that the Muslim involved believed wasn't allowed to touch it. So I conclude that "mishandling" has a very, very broad definition. Using that definition I'd probably be "mishandling" some Bible in my apartment right now, either because of where it's been sitting for who knows how many months, or because it's dusty or adjacent to some unapproved book.

[BattyDem]

8. Will Newsweek retract their retraction now?

:eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Of course not

This article says it wasn't flushed. That proves Newsweek was lying.

[tuvor]

10. Maybe a silly question. Correct me if I'm wrong, but...

Hasn't it always been spelled "Koran" by the western press?

Why "Quran" and why now? Is the latter less "holy-sounding" to western ears?

Just a thought.

[FourStarDemocrat]

15. Quran has been also used for many years..it's arabic translation spelling

I don't think the choice of spelling has anything to do with sounding less holy to western ears or not.

[bloom]

11. I was listening to these (Pentagon) guys on the Cspan rerun

and they were SO careful to not accept "blame" or "responsibility" - it was all "inadvertent".

What a load of crap.

And esp. on the heels of how they (at least the "White House") wanted Newsweek to accept the blame and make amends, etc.

They are unreal.

[JohnyCanuck]

12. Just like they inadvertantly kneed that taxi driver

in the thigh over a 100 times while he was chained from the ceiling so that by the time he died his leg appeared as if it had been run over by a bus.

[Voltaire99]

13. And thusly does runaway militarism endanger us all

Now as ever, we see where a martial culture leads: straight into the sewer of ritualized torture, abuse, and endless war. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are its natural waste byproducts.

It's the antithesis of "defense." In a world with 1.3 billion Muslims, we simply cannot allow our military to put us at risk of retribution in this way.

It's time for Democrats to take a strong stance against militarization. Every time a Hillary, John or Joe trots out in front of cameras thinking to improve their standing by way of "supporting our troops" or quacking away about the need for a "stronger America," they perpetuate the problem.

We need to curb, not celebrate militarism.

[Dawgs]

14. None of this matters...

The real issue is that the Koran and Newsweek had nothing to do with the Afghan violence. Bush supporters can now say, 'see, they never flushed the Koran...". I think this is another story to distract us from what we need to be focusing on.

[FourStarDemocrat]

16. I made sure a freeper I know who was deriding Newsweek saw this article..

And now, surprise surprise..he has nothing to say.

[Disturbed]

17. Newsweek did screw up.

Reporting that a book was flushed down a toilet was not believable right away. If they had reported that the book was placed in a toilet or bucket that was for waste, that would have been credible. I wonder if these people took the time to think about reality and logic?

Seems to me that Newsweek was set up by whoever fed them that story in order to discredit them and they went along just as the Dan Rather folk did. Both set ups in my view.

Retractions are usually ignored and the damage cannot be changed.

Seems to me that Muslims already knew that they were under attack by the Bush Regime and these stories only added to their ire, the last staw, so to speak.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cliss]

21. I understand your point of view.....to some extent.

However, we have to look at the underlying forces at work here, not necessarily the Koran.

I've read plenty of threads about this incident, and it's clear to me this was the US interrogators' way of pushing the detainees to the breaking point. They were obviously trying to extract information out of the detainees. They are most definitely aware of the significance of the Koran in the muslim culture.

What they were trying to do is what's wrong. The action was less deplorable, than the plan for doing it.

If the detainees had a special love for teddy bears, you can be assured that the interrogators would stomp on a few every day, just to piss off the muslims there.

And, lastly, the US picked a particular hot potato: assaulting the Koran. The muslim world is feeling antagonised, and this was probably seen as the straw that broke the camel's back.

After all, there are 4 muslims to every 1 American, so maybe Washington should be a little more careful?

[Raja Mupuppi]

23. Somehow i feel i dont fit in.

I would think the straw that broke the camels back was actually two airplanes breaking two tall buildings. I believe we were antagonized by Saddam acting as though he had WMDs. Christians read the bible, if a bible were destroyed how would a christian act.Christianity is a religion that speaks of peace and emphasis not on worldly things. A bible, as we, will someday return to dust.Muslims need to understand this war is not against Islam but against those who persecute a persons peaceful way of life as these detainees were in the midst of doing.Are you a Muslim?Can you identify with this form of torture?I am not, and I cannot.Therefore I can only believe this is a deceptive Muslim device, to tell us the horrors of lap-dancing interrogators while they are quite fine with killing our soldiers, innocent men women and children and severring a head or two all the while.

[cliss]

24. Raja, welcome to the DU.

:smoke:

The best suggestion I can give you is to keep reading the articles here at the DU; keep posting.

The government has done an amazing job of twisting the facts to fit their needs. It took me a long time to finally realize that they were lying to me.

It was a terrible moment: I'm an immigrant from Sweden, and I always faithfully believed that what my government told me was true....it was a horrible realization when I discovered they had not.

Thanks for sharing.

[gort]

22. The sad thing is that you are not the only one who doesn't care.

That's why thousands of people have died. Bush knows he can rely on the millions of us who don't care or respect other peoples beliefs.
Bush and his buddies are making billions off of intolerance and ignorance.

I understand your aggravation, but to a Muslim, the Koran is the direct word of god. I am an atheist, but I have enough sense to know that you don't burn or flush a book that a true believer holds as holy. There are over a billion Muslims, why piss them all off?