Posted on 06/28/2005 9:46:22 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
MOSCOW (AP) - A Muslim cleric formerly held at Guantanamo Bay prison said Tuesday that U.S. guards there regularly desecrated the Quran by putting it into a toilet, although he added he never witnessed it himself.
Airat Vakhitov, who described himself as a former imam of a mosque in Tatarstan, a majority Muslim republic in southern Russia, is one of seven men released from Guantanamo in 2004 and returned to Russia. He and the six others were held in Russia for three months, then released a year ago.
Vakhitov said at a news conference organized by the state RIA-Novosti news agency that guards in Cuba threw the Quran in the toilet. However, he later told The Associated Press he did not witness the actions.
"A Palestinian named Mahir, who was in a neighboring cell, had seen it and told me about that," Vakhitov told the AP. "Many other people in Guantanamo also told me about that."
A spokesman at U.S. Southern Command in Miami, which oversees the prison, declined to comment on Vakhitov's specific allegations. But an investigation released last month showed "no Qurans are flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo," said Lt. Col. Jim Marshall.
The investigation, however, disclosed five instances in which U.S. guards mishandled the Quran.
Vakhitov said he was held both by forces from Russia and its breakaway region of Chechnya on suspicion of spying. He said he later moved to Tajikistan, where he claimed to have been kidnapped by members of the radical Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, affiliated with al-Qaida, and then taken to Afghanistan, where he was held by the Taliban and then sold to U.S. forces.
Vakhitov said that when he was held by U.S. forces at Kandahar, Afghanistan, he personally saw Qurans desecrated there.
"In Kandahar, they tore up copies of the Quran and even put it in a bucket of feces," he said.
In May, Newsweek magazine published - and later retracted - a story that claimed interrogators at Guantanamo flushed the Muslim holy book down a toilet.
The Bush administration blamed the report for deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan and protests throughout the Middle East.
A statement from Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Flex Plexico also did not address Vakhitov's specific allegations but said "it is important to note that al-Qaida training manuals emphasize the tactic of making false abuse allegations."
I have my doubts about these guys ever being in gitmo. Russia has absolutely no problem with executing terrorists.
Let's send them to Russia.
Muslims defiled our country killing 3000.
How this garbage gets past the editor is something Congress should look into. This lying Muslim Cleric should have been ignored, he witnessed nothing and he should have been ignored. What do these people want, more of our people killed like NEWSWEAK did
"....although he added he never witnessed it himself"
Well...Poopy on them!
I thought that idol worship was against Islamic law.
That's abusing the bucket of feces.
It's gonna be like all the fake "Homeless 'Nam Vets". In a few years, guys standing by the interstate with signs "Homeless Gitmo Prisoner... Will Jihad for Falafel... Allah Bless."
Puking!
The press would love to see what I've been doing to korans lately....
CAIR is giving them out for free..."please don't squeeze the Charmin!"
I guess we have very different values from these folks. I'm a lot more concerned about the young Pakistani woman ordered to be gang-raped by the village mullahs because her 12-year old brother allegedly had an affair with a woman in the village. Frankly, any book that condones that kind of garbage deserves no respect at all.
I'll show you some defilement.
I'm offended every day by the silence of the so called peaceful followers of islam , where is there outrage or do they approve of the terrorist suicide murders every day .
Has anyone (hello, media!?) noticed that none of these guys making these allegations have ever personally witnessed it?
All of them say "no, I didn't see it. But I heard someone say it". It's obviously just troublemakers in the prison spreading propaganda to rile up the other prisoners.
Who cares what happens to the book, and why do they care?
If somebody thinks its a problem, get rid of the book.
This focus is ridiculous!!
You know what .. I DON'T CARE!
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