Posted on 05/26/2005 2:31:01 PM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Guantanamo detainee who told an FBI agent in 2002 that U.S. personnel there had flushed a Koran in a toilet retracted his allegation when questioned this month by military investigators, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
"We've gone back to the detainee who allegedly made the allegation and he has said it didn't happen. So the underlying allegation, the detainee himself, within the last two weeks, said that didn't happen," chief Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told a briefing.
An FBI document, dated Aug. 1, 2002, contained a summary of statements made by the detainee in two interviews with an FBI special agent at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The names of the detainee and the agent were redacted.
"The guards in the detention facility do not treat him well. Their behavior is bad. About five months ago, the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Koran in the toilet," the FBI agent wrote.
Di Rita told reporters on Wednesday the U.S. military, as part of an inquiry into Koran treatment at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, interviewed the same detainee on May 14, and that the man did not corroborate the earlier allegation. But Di Rita at the time said he did not know whether the man actually had recanted his earlier statement.
During his news conference on Thursday, Di Rita said he changed his account of what the detainee had said after getting more information from the commander of the Guantanamo prison, Brig. Gen. Jay Hood.
NOT KNOWLEDGEABLE
Di Rita did not identify the detainee or release his exact words.
Another senior Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said the detainee "indicated, when asked about the desecration, that he was not knowledgeable of anything."
The American Civil Liberties Union released the FBI document and a series of others it obtained from the government through the Freedom of Information Act. In other documents, FBI agents stated that Guantanamo detainees also accused U.S. personnel of kicking the Koran and throwing it to the floor, and described beatings by guards.
The Bush administration has denounced as wrong a May 9 Newsweek article that stated U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo had flushed a Koran down a toilet to try to make detainees talk. The magazine retracted the article.
The ACLU on Thursday released another FBI document that stated that Defense Department personnel at Guantanamo impersonated State Department and FBI officials during prisoner interrogations at the jail. Most of the document is redacted.
Asked whether Defense Department personnel did this, Di Rita said, "I don't know the answer," but that the matter was part of an ongoing military investigation
Good. Unfortunately, this won't make the Arab press.
This is LIVE on FoxNews right now.
Thats great, now tell those dead Afgans it is okay.
What you talking about? Forget the Arab news it won't even scratch the headlines here in our own country....I LOATHE THE MEDIA PRESSTITUTES! I really hope this is the final nail to the OMwhores coffin!!
And if the Defense Department thinks this will put the story to rest, they're mistaken. If they say the Koran-flushing story is wrong, the MSM will just try harder and write more stories about this topic.
BG Jay Hood gave an excellent, no nonsense briefing to Pentagon reporters. He was in charge of an exhaustive investigation into the charges that Gitmo guards and interrogators mishandled the Koran.
I can't want to see if the MSM pays any attention at all to this important briefing, which made mincemeat of any Newsweek allegation that a Koran was flushed down a toilet. It's funny isn't it....Newsweek has already admitted they got it wrong, but the rest of the media, as late as today, was still trying to protect Newsweek.
After listening to this- I wonder if it is the Koran or Kryptonite ?
Apparently accidentally touching it and standing by it-are considered " mishandling."
There were about 10 incidents where US soldiers breathed in the vicinity of a Koran or looked directly at the Koran.
Three incidents were accidentally committed by US interrogators.
None were done intentionally.
Detainees claim that soldiers threw the Koran in their slop buckets-apparently no flush toilets in Gitmo.
15 incidents where the Koran was desecrated- by Al Queda terrorists.
30k docs were examined- no evidence to support the allegations that US personnel intentionally " touched inappropriately " the Koran.
US media not buying the story from General Hood- they prefer the version from Al Queda.
"Admit you lied, or we'll flush this Koran down the crapper!!"
Who made the mistake of giving the Koran to detainees. Were we stupid enough to think that the detainees would be grateful!
First rule, don't give them anything that can be turned against you.
It would be difficulty to be accused of flushing a Koran if there were none to flush!
The US Military should not listen to the sensitivity police in their midst and simply do what is practical in detaining idiotic Islamic terrorist.
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