WASHINGTON,
May 27, 2005 (IslamONline.net & News Agencies) – The Pentagon
admitted on Thursday, May 26, at least five cases of Qur'an abuse by
guards and interrogators at Guantanamo, including two cases where
abusers were disciplined.
Brigadier
General Jay Hood, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, told
reporters that reviewing interrogation logs and other documents,
investigators found 13 incidents of alleged abuse of the Muslims' holy
book - ten by a guard and three by interrogators, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"We
found that in only five of those 13 incidents, four by guards and one
by an interrogator, there was what could be broadly defined as
mishandling of a Koran," he said.
The
American commander recognized that in three of those cases the Muslims'
holy book was "very likely" deliberately abused.
Hood
said that two prison personnel have been disciplined so far, one
recently and the other at some time in the past.
He
admitted that charges of Qur'an abuse had not been fully investigated
before in part because they were regarded as not credible.
The
comments marked the first time the Pentagon has confirmed mistreatment
of the Muslims' holy book at Guantanamo Bay.
Hood
opened an inquiry following angry and violent protests across the
Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100
injured, to Gaza.
In
its May 9 edition, the Newsweek quoted “a knowledgeable US
government source” as saying that investigators probing abuses at
Guantanamo found that US interrogators “had placed Korans on
toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the
toilet.”
After
protests from the Pentagon, the weekly cast some doubts on the story
in its May 23 edition, saying the source “couldn't be certain about
reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and
said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts”.
Accidental
Hood
said in two cases involving interrogators, investigators found that a
copy of the Qur'an either was touched or stood over during an
interrogation, the American commander said.
Investigators,
however, concluded that the holy book was not mishandled in the
first incident, and that the interrogator's action in the second was
"accidental".
The
US official said that in six other incidents, investigators concluded
that guards either accidentally touched a copy of the Qur'an, touched
the holy book in the scope of their duties, or had not touched it at
all.
All
those cases were closed, he said, adding that most of the incidents
occurred before rules on handling the Muslims' holy book were spelled
out in writing in mid January 2003.
Flushing
Incident
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Bangladeshi Muslims chant anti-US slogans during march protesting desecration of Qur'an. (Reuters)
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Hood
said they "have found no credible evidence that a member of the
Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Koran down a
toilet".
He
admitted, however, that the charge was not investigated at the time
even though it was noted in an FBI summary of two earlier
interrogations of the detainee.
The
official added that investigators, who re-interviewed the detainee on
May 14, did not directly ask him about the charge he made during an
interrogation in 2002.
On
Wednesday, May 25, the American Civil Liberties Union made public an FBI
summary of an interview in August 2002 with a detainee
at Guantanamo who said the guards "flushed a Qur'an in the
toilet".
When
asked why they had not asked the detainee about his specific charge,
Hood said they did not want to disclose to him that it was in an
official report.
"We
weren't going to try and go back and ask him, 'Here, look at this
Federal Bureau of Investigation report or summary of their
interview.'"
