Posted on 05/25/2005 1:38:29 PM PDT by Sterm26
WASHINGTON - 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.
In its annual report, Amnesty accused the United States of failing to live up to its responsibility to set the standard for human rights protections. Rather, the group said the United States has been the biggest disappointment "after evidence came to light that the U.S. administration had sanctioned interrogation techniques that violated the U.N. Convention against Torture."
Some 540 men are being held at Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban government or the al-Qaida terror network. Some have been jailed for more than three years without charge. The Defense Department argues that the detention prevents these enemy combatants from fighting against the United States.
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."
Someone beat me to it, mod please delete.
Sorry about that Chief. ;-) lol
"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.
No prob, gotta be quick sometimes!!
Ok.
I'm moving my post to the other thread!
:0)
I don't see anything wrong with the actions that are alleged.
Actually, what it tells us is that the exclusive source of the charge is the enemy.
Just in case anyone was wondering which side the MSM was on.
Photographic evidence points to moslem abuse of airliners, buildings and innocent people.
It's so hard to believe that they're completely taking the word of the detainees, who have every reason to lie. Also, they've found terrorist handbooks telling detainees to claim abuse. Wonder how happy the Washington Post will be when more deaths result from their "news".
BTW, the DUmmies are pissing themselves with joy that this "latest evidence of abuse" has been uncovered. They love it when people die so they can further their agenda.
Don't post pictures like that!!! You might remind people of why we're fighting!!! /sarcasm off
I would like for the FBI to explain their actions.
Call me back when they complain of having their heads chopped off.
Forgive me, but I don't understand why the Koran is being given such status. If recent stories are the measure, it seems that somewhere along the blurred line, the Koran has been named (by whom, I don't know) the one book, the one and only book, ever written on planet Earth, that can never be criticized or, at worst, 'dissed!' As Seinfeld might ask, 'what is up with that?'
Sometimes it seems a great masny people have forgotten, at least they act like it.
Maybe they think it was a just a movie ...
I absolutely agree. 1 more reason to despise the MSM.
This is ridiculous. It is sad some people forget 9/11. They went from being called terrorists to just being called detainees. And now they are quoting these scum terrorists. And we are supposed to believe them? These sub humans are trained liars.
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