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Probe reveals Quran abuse
WASHINGTON: US 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
yesterday. The revelation came as thousands staged angry protests across the
Muslim world yesterday.
In another development, a four-star general in charge of the US Southern
Command, which runs the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay rejected yesterday
Amnesty International's description of the facility as a modern-day "gulag"
..
"I think that's a shrill assessment. They probably exaggerated for
emphasis," General Bantz Craddock said of the London-based human rights
group's attack on US policy in Guantanamo, where hundreds of foreign terror
suspects are held without charge.
Earlier, Brig Gen Jay W Hood, who commands the detention centre 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.
The unidentified prisoner, re-interviewed at Guantanamo on May 14, said he
had heard talk of guards mishandling religious articles but did not witness
any such acts, Hood said.
The general said he could not speculate on why the prisoner did not repeat
his earlier statement about a guard flushing a Quran in a toilet. The
statement was contained in an August 1, 2002, FBI summary of an FBI agent's
July 22, 2002, interrogation of the prisoner.
"We have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at
Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Quran down a toilet," Hood said. "We did
identify 13 incidents of alleged mishandling of the Quran by Joint Task
Force personnel. Ten of those were by a guard and three by interrogators."
Of the 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.
In three of the five cases, the mishandling appears to have been deliberate.
In the other two, it apparently was accidental.
Allegations of Quran abuse have stirred worldwide controversy.
After Newsweek magazine reported earlier that US officials had confirmed a
Quran was flushed in a toilet.
Waving copies of the Quran and chanting anti-American slogans, Muslims
across the world took to the streets yesterday to protest at abuse of their
holy book by interrogators at a US prison camp in Cuba.
In Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, outraged
Muslims burned US flags and vowed revenge.
"O America, listen, listen, with my blood I will protect my Quran," shouted
thousands of Lebanese at a Hizbollah rally in Beirut. "America is the enemy
of Muslims."
Similar protests swept the country's Palestinian refugee camps.
The US comments have done little to calm anger among Muslims.
Thousands of Islamic activists protested in Pakistani and Bangladeshi
cities, burning US flags and effigies of President George W Bush.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=113244&Sn=WORL&IssueID=2806
9
Probe reveals Quran abuse
WASHINGTON: US 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
yesterday. The revelation came as thousands staged angry protests across the
Muslim world yesterday.
In another development, a four-star general in charge of the US Southern
Command, which runs the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay rejected yesterday
Amnesty International's description of the facility as a modern-day "gulag"
..
"I think that's a shrill assessment. They probably exaggerated for
emphasis," General Bantz Craddock said of the London-based human rights
group's attack on US policy in Guantanamo, where hundreds of foreign terror
suspects are held without charge.
Earlier, Brig Gen Jay W Hood, who commands the detention centre 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.
The unidentified prisoner, re-interviewed at Guantanamo on May 14, said he
had heard talk of guards mishandling religious articles but did not witness
any such acts, Hood said.
The general said he could not speculate on why the prisoner did not repeat
his earlier statement about a guard flushing a Quran in a toilet. The
statement was contained in an August 1, 2002, FBI summary of an FBI agent's
July 22, 2002, interrogation of the prisoner.
"We have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at
Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Quran down a toilet," Hood said. "We did
identify 13 incidents of alleged mishandling of the Quran by Joint Task
Force personnel. Ten of those were by a guard and three by interrogators."
Of the 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.
In three of the five cases, the mishandling appears to have been deliberate.
In the other two, it apparently was accidental.
Allegations of Quran abuse have stirred worldwide controversy.
After Newsweek magazine reported earlier that US officials had confirmed a
Quran was flushed in a toilet.
Waving copies of the Quran and chanting anti-American slogans, Muslims
across the world took to the streets yesterday to protest at abuse of their
holy book by interrogators at a US prison camp in Cuba.
In Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, outraged
Muslims burned US flags and vowed revenge.
"O America, listen, listen, with my blood I will protect my Quran," shouted
thousands of Lebanese at a Hizbollah rally in Beirut. "America is the enemy
of Muslims."
Similar protests swept the country's Palestinian refugee camps.
The US comments have done little to calm anger among Muslims.
Thousands of Islamic activists protested in Pakistani and Bangladeshi
cities, burning US flags and effigies of President George W Bush.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=113244&Sn=WORL&IssueID=2806
9