Home>News Center>World
             
     

    Inquiry finds some Quran 'mishandling'
    (Agencies)
    Updated: 2005-05-27 08:51

    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.

    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 prisoner also stated that he personally had not been mistreated but that he heard fellow inmates talk of being beaten or otherwise mistreated.

    Joint Task Force Guantanamo Commander Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood, and Pentagon Spokesman Lawrence DiRita, right, brief the media, about the inquiry into allegations of possible mishandling of the Quran, Thursday, May 26, 2005 at the Pentagon in Washington. A prisoner at Guantanamo Bay who was reported by the FBI to have claimed in 2002 that a military guard threw a Quran holy book in the toilet has since recanted the story, senior Pentagon officials said Thursday. (AP
    Joint Task Force Guantanamo Commander Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood, and Pentagon Spokesman Lawrence DiRita, right, brief the media, about the inquiry into allegations of possible mishandling of the Quran, Thursday, May 26, 2005 at the Pentagon in Washington.[AP]
    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 Aug. 1, 2002, FBI summary of an FBI agent's July 22, 2002, interrogation of the prisoner. A partly redacted version of the summary was made public this week.

    The prisoner did not specifically recant his earlier allegation, since Hood said the prisoner was not asked in the May 14 interview whether he had made the specific statement in 2002 as reported by the FBI. Instead he was asked more broadly whether he had seen the Quran "defiled, desecrated or mishandled."

    "He allowed as how he hadn't, but he heard that guards at some other point in time had done this," Hood said, adding that this allegation from the 2002 FBI report was the only one Hood found that involved a toilet.

    "I'd like you to know that 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, 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.

    "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. Later, he said there was no written version of a standard operating procedure during the first year prisoners were held at Guantanamo.

    Allegations of Quran abuse have stirred worldwide controversy. After Newsweek magazine reported earlier this month that U.S. officials had confirmed a Quran was flushed in a toilet, deadly demonstrations were held in Afghanistan, although it is not clear what role that story played in sparking the violence. Newsweek later retracted its report.

    Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said at the news conference with Hood that at this point it should be clear that any mishandling of the Quran was largely inadvertent.

    "I think it's safe to say that the policies and procedures down there are extraordinarily careful, and they're — as I said — policies that we've released, and people can judge for themselves. But I think people will see that the atmosphere down there is one of great respect for the practice of faith by detainees," he said.

    In an indication of the Pentagon's eagerness to discredit the allegation, Hood briefed reporters on the interim findings of his investigation even though the Pentagon's standard practice is to withhold comment on the progress of any official investigation until it has been completed. Hood did not say how much longer his inquiry would last. Earlier Thursday, he was Capitol Hill to brief members of Congress on this.

    Eight of the 13 alleged incidents of Quran mishandling that Hood has looked into were not substantiated. Six involved guards who either accidentally touched a Quran or "touched it within the scope of his duties" or did not touch it at all. "We consider each of these incidents resolved," Hood said.

    The other two cases in which the allegation was not substantiated involved interrogators who either touched or "stood over" a Quran during an interrogation, Hood said. In one case not deemed to be mishandling, an interrogator placed two Qurans on a television. In the other case, which Hood did not describe fully, a Quran was not touched and Hood said the interrogator's unspecified "action" was accidental.

    "We've also identified 15 incidents where detainees mishandled or inappropriately treated the Quran, one of which was, of course, the specific example of a detainee who ripped pages out of their own Quran," he said.



     
      Today's Top News     Top World News
     

    Battles won on drugs, but war rages on

     

       
     

    China wants Games torch on Mt.Qomolangma

     

       
     

    Shanghai targeting at property bubbles

     

       
     

    FM: Talks only way to East China Sea row

     

       
     

    Focus on security, airlines instructed

     

       
     

    Nestle baby formula pulled off the shelves

     

       
      40,000 Iraqis to form shield in Baghdad
       
      US democrats force delay of Bolton final vote
       
      U.S. helicopter fired on in Iraq, crashes
       
      Iraqi government says Al-Zarqawi wounded
       
      World must race against time to save Darfur -Annan
       
      US House passes 491-billion defense bill with new money for Iraq war
       
     
      Go to Another Section  
     
     
      Story Tools  
       
      News Talk  
      Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
    Advertisement
             
    亚洲中文字幕无码爆乳av中文| 中文字字幕在线中文无码| 最近中文字幕大全免费版在线 | 伊人久久无码精品中文字幕 | 久久久久亚洲av无码专区导航 | 在线亚洲欧美中文精品| 伊人久久一区二区三区无码| 青青草无码免费一二三区| 超碰97国产欧美中文| 一区二区三区无码高清| 国产亚洲精品a在线无码| 亚洲欧洲精品无码AV| 中文成人久久久久影院免费观看 | 天堂新版8中文在线8| 无码人妻少妇久久中文字幕| 波多野结衣AV无码| 亚洲不卡中文字幕无码| 精品久久久久久无码不卡| 亚洲欧美日韩中文字幕一区二区| 无码人妻少妇久久中文字幕| 国产精品午夜福利在线无码 | 国精品无码A区一区二区| 无码人妻精品一区二区三18禁 | 无码中文av有码中文a| 内射人妻少妇无码一本一道| 最近新中文字幕大全高清| 久久亚洲精精品中文字幕| 国产亚洲中文日本不卡二区| 亚洲AⅤ永久无码精品AA| 少妇无码太爽了不卡视频在线看 | 亚洲av无码国产精品色在线看不卡 | 国产成人亚洲综合无码| 国产精品亚洲αv天堂无码| 97无码免费人妻超级碰碰夜夜| 国产成人A人亚洲精品无码| 国产乱妇无码大片在线观看| 2024最新热播日韩无码| 无码人妻精品一区二区三区99不卡 | 无码人妻精品一区二区三区久久久| 亚洲AV人无码激艳猛片| 日韩AV无码中文无码不卡电影|