So what? It is not against the law. Yet.
Bruce Reports show FBI knew of Koran desecration By Jim Mannion May 26, 2005 From: Agence France-Presse DETAINEES interviewed by FBI agents at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba complained repeatedly that military guards and interrogators mistreated the Koran, with one alleging that the Muslim holy book had been flushed in a toilet, documents made public show. The documents - FBI summaries of interviews with detainees at the military-run prison in 2002 and 2003 - show that the treatment of the Koran was a key point of contention between detainees and their guards, one that prompted hunger strikes and threats of mass suicide. Most complaints dealt with the handling of the Koran by guards or its being taken away from detainees as a form of punishment. In some cases, the detainees admitted to not having witnessed the alleged mistreatment themselves. But detainees also alleged that the Koran had been thrown or kicked by guards, and one said it had been flushed in a toilet, according to the documents. In a summary dated August 1, 2002, a detainee told his FBI interviewer that he personally had nothing against the United States but that the guards at the detention facility "do not treat him well. "Their behaviour is bad. About five months ago, the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Koran in the toilet. The guards dance around when the detainees are trying to pray. The guards still do these things," the summary said. In an FBI interview on March 6, 2004, a detainee charged that military police "have been mistreating the detainees by pushing them around and throwing their waste bucket to them in the cell, sometimes with waste still in the bucket, and kicking the Koran." The detainee noted that, "in the Muslim culture, people do not get dressed, shower or use the bathroom in front of others; however, they are being forced to do so," according to the summary. A summary dated March 11, 2004 said that "some unknown detainees are not talking in retaliation to an incident where a guard kicked the Koran." Another on July 30, 2002 said an uprising at the prison earlier that month started when a detainee claimed a guard had dropped a Koran. "In actuality, the detainee dropped the Koran and then blamed the guard. Many other detainees reacted to this claim, and this initiated the uprising," the summary said. Names and other details were blacked out in the documents, which were released in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU posted the documents on its website. The interview summaries contain a litany of other allegations by detainees - that they were beaten by guards, sexually molested by female interrogators, shown pornographic images or had their heads and beards shaved as punishment. The theme that the detainees' religion or culture was under assault by guards runs through many of the summaries. A report in Newsweek saying investigators found that interrogators at Guantanamo had flushed a Koran in a toilet to rattle Muslim prisoners set off four days of riots in Afghanistan earlier this month which claimed the lives of at least 14 people. Pentagon officials angrily denounced the Newsweek report as "demonstrably false" and said it had found no evidence to support the allegation that a Koran had been flushed in the toilet. Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday an inquiry into the allegation by Brigadier General Jay Hood, the US commander at Guantanamo, is near conclusion. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that it heard multiple allegations of mistreatment of the Koran during visits with detainees between 2002 and mid-2003 but that the Pentagon appeared to have taken corrective action because they stopped after that. FBI agents also heard repeated complaints in their interviews with detainees. One detainee "stated he had heard a detainee had been severely beaten by a guard and had died. (The detainee said) he heard the altercation between the detainee and the guards began when the guards disrespected the Koran," according to a summary dated January 21, 2003. In a February 4, 2003 summary, another detainee was reported to have commented that younger guards were a source of the problem. "They often disgrace the Koran by throwing it on the cell floor and frequently use profanity which many of the detainees find extremely offensive," it said. By March, the complaints had shifted to the withholding of the Koran as punishment or searches of the book by guards. Detainees raising the complaints at that time acknowledged that they had not personally witnessed any incident in which the Koran was mishandled or mistreated. But one noted that the detainees were upset over what they perceived as "the use of the Koran as a weapon." As late as July 27, 2003, detainees were threatening to go on a hunger strike to protest the alleged "humiliation" of a Koran by an interrogator. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/FHLuJD/_WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
