Posted on 05/26/2005 2:37:09 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.
The Quran is not a small book. Wuld it even go down a 1.6 gallon/flush American style toilet?
I have an idea. I think we should get a copy of the Koran and flush it down a toilet -- in front of TV cameras. That way Newsweek gets its vindication, and then we can all stop talking about this topic. And if crazed Muslims want to riot, let them riot.
The idea that a book, whether it be the Quran or any other book could be flushed down the toilet is nothing but nonsense
Desigration of the Bible and Jesus birthplace is good according to the leftwing MSM. Flushing the Quran down the toilet, even if it is only a rumor and not true is bad
I don't think Cuba has the same restrictions on their plumbing that the U.S. does... they probably got all our old toilets along with all the old cars.
It was the Cliff's Notes version.
Page one-of-one: "Kill all Infidels".
The End
"Pentagon says detainee retracts Koran allegation"
Whew. Now I know it's not true. Be relieved, people! The rumor is false! We have the word of a Kill-the-Infidels terrorist! /extreme sarcasm
I question the timing of this confession...poor little terrorist baby was probably tortured, those nasty Gitmo guards must have put panties over his head and threatened him with a tampon with tomato ketchup on it, oh the humanity! Don't those beasts understand it's always the women and children and minorities that are the worst affected, (and is the Left becoming a joke almost as big a joke as islam? You bet it is, LOL!)
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