Posted on 05/25/2005 1:36:36 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) - Terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison told U.S. interrogators as early as April 2002, just four months after the first detainees arrived, that military guards abused them and desecrated the Quran, declassified FBI records say.
"Their behavior is bad," one detainee is quoted as saying of his guards during an interrogation by an FBI special agent in July 2002. "About five months ago the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Quran in the toilet." The statements about guards disrespecting the Quran echo public allegations made many months later by some detainees and their lawyers after prisoners' release from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The once-secret FBI documents show a consistency to the allegations and are the first indication that Justice and Defense department officials were aware in early 2002 that detainees were accusing their guards of mistreating the holy book.
Separately on Wednesday, Amnesty International urged the United States to shut down the prison, calling it "the gulag of our time." White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the human rights group's complaints were "unsupported by the facts" and that allegations of mistreatment were being investigated.
Pentagon officials have said recently that the public claims by released detainees were not credible and that the terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay had been trained to make such false claims.
Indeed, the FBI records cite at least one instance in which a detainee is said to have falsely claimed that a guard had dropped a Quran. "In actuality the detainee dropped the Quran and then blamed the guard. Many other detainees reacted to this claim," the FBI document said, and that sparked an uprising "on or about 19-20 July 2002."
In an April 6, 2002, FBI interrogation, one of the detainees said guards had been "pushing them around and throwing their waste bucket at them in the cell, sometimes with waste still in the bucket, and kicking the Quran."
Another detainee stated that he had been beaten unconscious at Guantanamo Bay in the spring of 2002, a period in which U.S. interrogators were pressing hard for intelligence information they believed some of the detainees held on the planning, structure and tactics of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.
The newly released FBI records do not indicate whether the allegations were investigated or substantiated.
In response to a recent Newsweek story, later retracted, that U.S. officials had confirmed allegations of Quran desecration at Guantanamo Bay, Pentagon officials have said repeatedly that they have turned up no credible, substantiated claims that U.S. military guards had deliberately treated the Muslim holy book with disrespect.
Pentagon officials had no immediate comment on the new FBI documents, which were made public Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU said it received them in response to a federal court order that directed the FBI and other agencies to comply with the organization's request under the Freedom of Information Act.
In many of the interrogations described in the FBI documents, military officers were present. Some were with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations; others were Navy and Army investigations personnel.
Large portions of the interrogation summaries were blacked out by FBI censors before being released to the ACLU.
U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for the Guantanamo Bay detention center, responded to the Newsweek story by beginning a review of written logs searching for corroborated incidents of Quran mishandling. As of Wednesday, officials had not reported finding any.
In January 2003, the military issued a three-page written guideline for handling a detainee's Quran, including a stipulation that it should be handled "as if it were a fragile piece of delicate art," and that it not be placed in "offensive areas such as the floor, near the toilet or sink, near the feet or dirty/wet areas."
ACLU officials said the newly declassified documents provide new evidence that U.S. authorities at Guantanamo Bay were mistreating symbols of the detainees' religious beliefs as a tactic to force them to talk.
"The United States government continues to turn a blind eye to mounting evidence of widespread abuse of detainees held in its custody," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "If we are to truly repair America's standing in the world, the Bush administration must hold accountable high-ranking officials who allow the continuing abuse and torture of detainees."
Umm hmmmm.. sure ,, umm hmmm
Well, it's not the nature of the evidence, it's the seriousness of the charge, right?
I believe his psudonym is I. M. Becellé
I posted this at the same time you did....what steams me about this "story" is AP's transparent attempt to "prove" Newsweek's story, and give the idiot terrorists and their cluess defenders more ammo to bash us with.
It sure makes ya wonder about some in the media and the 'human rights' movements and whose side they are really on, eh?
"The story itself tells us NOTHING new, and gives more voice to the idiot terrorists and their clueless Amenesty defenders."
Just 'par for the course' for the MSM.
I find it hard to believe that most people in the US haven't figured out yet who's side the MSM is on.
If this article doesn't make it more obvious, then NOTHING will convince them short of Treason.
And that might not do it either.
How many people will die because of this AP story?
We the people have many enemies and they operate in the open for they fear no persecution much less prosecution as a result of peddling their 'truths'.
There need to be prosecutions at the highest levels of the openly biased and conniving media orgs for their openly displayed agendas and lockstep march with the left and the America is evil crowd.
O.k., would these "human rights" activists start bitching about the abuse of the Bible in Saudi? Oh, forgive me, of course not......
Jeff
How many will die from this one?
The Over/Under is 12
The MSM will always believe the "oppressed prisoners".
So. What's the number that lived on a diet of bread made from sawdust and have died through forced labor?
Gulag. Hyperbole isn't helping your case, Amnesty.
I see the 'Al Qaeda Training Manual' has been put to good use.
Or is that the Koran?
Either one probably works for these poor prisoners.
We need to stop this abuse. No Korans or toilets for prisoners. Now scum, got any more complaints?
Why should I or anyone believe a blatatly dishonest bunch like AI founded by a socialist and good buddies with Soros?
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