By DHinMI
This isn't proof that Newsweek was correct when it claimed that U.S. interrogators desecrated Korans in the American prison at Guantanamo Bay, but it's evidence that supports their claim:
Nearly a dozen detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba told FBI interrogators that guards had mistreated copies of the Koran, including one who said in 2002 that guards "flushed a Koran in the toilet," according to new FBI documents released today.
The summaries of FBI interviews, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of an ongoing lawsuit, also include allegations that the Koran was kicked, thrown to the floor and withheld as punishment and that guards mocked Muslim prisoners during prayers...
Nearly all of the hundreds of pages of documents consist of FBI summaries of detainee interrogations, and therefore do not generally provide corroboration of the allegations. At least two detainees also conceded that they had not personally witnessed mistreatment of the Koran but had heard about incidents from other inmates, the records show.
But the records, many of which were heavily edited by the government, further underscore the widespread nature of allegations related to the Koran and Islam among detainees at Guantanamo. Red Cross investigators in 2002 and 2003 documented what they considered reliable allegations of Koran mistreatment at the facility, and some detainees have made similar allegations through their attorneys...
The new documents include other allegations of questionable treatment at Guantanamo, including two reports of beatings by guards and a report that a female guard told a prisoner she was menstruating and then "wiped blood from her body on his face and head."
The latter incident, which would be considered highly offensive to a Muslim man, is similar to a claim made by Erik Saar, a former Army translator at Guantanamo who has written a book about mistreatment of detainees there. The government has said two female interrogators have been reprimanded, including one for smearing fake menstrual blood on a captive.
When the Newsweek brouhaha broke out I thought it significant that the Bush administration attacked Newsweek over claims of it's sourcing, but not for the actual claims that Korans had been desecrated. This seems to support my suspicion that the administration knew the charges were true, but was trying to deflect attention from what happened at Gitmo on to the veracity of the press.
This latest report also underscores the tremendous job the American Civil Liberties Union has and continues to do in exposing the treatment of prisoners swept up in the "War on Terror." Years ago I let my membership to the ACLU lapse when they advocated against campaign finance reform by asserting that money was essentially the same as political speech. I still disagree with that position, but it's getting harder to be a single-issue dissenter. The ACLU did excellent work opposing the same-sex marriage amendments on the ballot last November, and in many places, such as my home state of Michigan, they've been in the forefront in opposing expansive interpretations of the amendments that would permit the curtailment of domestic partner benefits for public employees or the prevention of civil unions. Combined with their work in exposing the abuses at Gitmo and other problems with the "War on Terror," they deserve immense credit for standing up to the Bush administration and the forces of bigotry and lawlessness.
I think it's time I rejoined the ACLU.
I'm surprised they didn't release this one, which comes not from detainees but rather from a military contractor:
Posted by: praktike | May 25, 2005 at 17:38
see also previous story, same topic from last week.
Posted by: DemFromCT | May 25, 2005 at 18:32
I was never an ACLU member, in part because of their position on campaign finance reform. But I joined when i read that they were aiding the plaintifs in a court case involving prisoners tortured in Guantanamo. (I might be wrong, but I think Rumsfeld is the defendant in one case.) The scary thing is, the ACLU is doing the job that the media should do.
Posted by: KdmFromPhila | May 25, 2005 at 18:44