Posted on 06/03/2005 4:38:21 PM PDT by Kokojmudd
By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon on Friday confirmed for the first time that a U.S. soldier deliberately kicked a Guantanamo Bay prisoner's Muslim holy book in violation of the military's rules for handling the Quran.
In other confirmed incidents, prison guards threw water balloons in a cell block, causing an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet; a guard's urine splashed on a detainee and his Quran; an interrogator stepped on a Quran during an interrogation; and a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.
The findings are among the results of an investigation last month by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the commander of the detention center in Cuba, that was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report - later retracted - that a U.S. soldier had flushed one Guantanamo Bay detainee's Quran down a toilet.
The story stirred worldwide controversy and the Bush administration blamed it for deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan.
Last week, Hood disclosed that he had confirmed five cases of mishandling of the Quran, but he refused to provide details. Allegations of Quran desecration at Guantanamo Bay have led to anti-American passions in many Muslim nations, although Pentagon officials have insisted that the problems were relatively minor and that U.S. commanders have gone to great lengths to enable detainees to practice their religion in captivity.
Hood said last week that he found no credible evidence that a Quran was ever flushed down a toilet. He said 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 since told Hood's investigators that he never witnessed any form of Quran desecration.
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Screw the koran ... we need to quit kissing these muslims asses
WHO gives a DAMN what ANYBODY did with or to the Quran?
The solution is to REMOVE IT FROM THE EQUATION!!!
There is NO RIGHT to it!
This is an over reaching comprimise to pretend we're not at war with Islam, "just the terrorists".
It's buy us nothing but trouble.
I'm tired of "newscasters" pretending this is "NEWS", as though we should all understand "the outrage".
Ban the book and prevent further bogus "issues".
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