Contrary to White House assertions, the allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo published by Newsweek May 6 are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States, RAW STORY has learned.
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Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram airbase prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Quran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it.

Where the Newsweek report likely erred was in saying that the U.S. was slated to acknowledge desecrating the Quran in internal investigations, and in relying on a single anonymous source to make grave allegations. But reports of desecration are manifold.



http://rawstory.com/exclusives/newsweek_koran_report_516.htm

Newspuke magazine has retracted the story Mr Rocket scientist!
Time to cash in those coupons you've been saving for a new brain.

Yes! I wonder who made them do that?

There are many reports of this kind of abuse from more than one source, I suggest you follow up and become informed instead of retreating to you bankrupt almost criminal right wing agenda!

Newsweek Got Gitmo Right
by Calgacus*
Contrary to White House spin, the allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo published by Newsweek on May 9, 2005, are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it. Prior to the Newsweek article, the New York Times reported a Guantanamo insider asserting that the commander of the facility was compelled by prisoner protests to address the problem and issue an apology.




http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=5959

Britons formerly held in US camps allege they saw guards desecrate Koran

LONDON (AFP) - Several Britons who had been held at US military prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba alleged that they had seen their US guards desecrate the Koran.

Former prisoners Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi and Jamal al-Harith alleged on the Islamic human rights website Cageprisoners.com that the Muslim holy book had been profaned.

Their statements appeared after clashes erupted in Muslim countries over a Newsweek magazine report that US interrogators at Guantanamo had defiled copies of the Koran by leaving them in toilet cubicles and flushing one down a toilet.

Newsweek, while acknowledging parts of its May 2 article could be wrong, has not issued a retraction. (This they have now done).

On the website, Begg said "I saw incidents that provoked fury, including the placing of Qurans (Korans) in an area used as a latrine" during his detention in Bagram, Afghanistan in 2002.

"As cells were entered and searched I witnessed an occasion when a (Koran) was snatched from a captive's hands and thrown to the ground," said Begg who was freed without charge from Guantanamo in January.

Begg told Britain's Press Association "If (Newsweek) are retracting it, it is really silly. So many people are saying exactly the same thing."

Abassi meanwhile told of inmates having Korans taken from them and described an interpreter slapping the book, saying "Why do you want to pass this s¥¥¥ around?"

He added: "I swear by Allah! I witnessed this clearly, not 10 metres away from me, with my own eyes and ears."

None of the prisoners said they actually witnessed Korans thrown into toilets at Guantanamo, though they said it had happened.

Harith alleged that the "US has desecrated the Koran on a number of occasions" and "numerous" hunger strikes in Guantanamo's Camp Delta were sparked by a guard who threw a Koran into the toilet.

"When searching our cages the guards would sometimes throw the (Koran) onto the floor," said Harith who was freed without charge from Guantanamo last year. "During interrogation, an interrogator jumped up and down on the Quran (Koran) and taunted a prisoner."

He added that in "Afghanistan, in the American concentration camps, a (Koran) was thrown in a waste bucket by a guard."

Cageprisoners.com spokesman Adnan Siddiqui said "it should be clear to any thinking person that all these detainees could not have colluded, especially since some were in solitary confinement for their duration in Guantanamo Bay."

He added that "the US is guilty of a systematic and horrific assault on Islam and the religious beliefs and practices of a fifth of humanity in their so-called 'war on terror'.

The story is widespread, so it must be true.

Brilliant deductive reasoning, Monsieur.

You prefer to believe the US government!!

I prefer to believe the publication Newsweek, which released the story and has since admitted it was based on faulty sources.

Oh but I forgot Newsweek is just TOOL OF THE BIG MEAN US GOVERNMENTS RIGHT WING MEDIA MACHINE right?

After all, if it doesn't support the left-wing agenda, it must be a right-wing conspiracy machine.

They admitted to NOTHING. It looks like some big guys from the Pentagon (sent by Rummy) , with humvees and guns showed up at Newsweeks office to "convince" them that they were "wrong" and "Dubya" is right!

Kinda like 9/11... huh Sherlock?

This brain is available, be quite an improvment.

You and Osman are the future of mental health innovasions.

Still waiting on that conclusive evidence, only ever seen circumstantial evidence, and circumstantial evidence doesn't hold up in a court of law.

Either way, we have a CONSPIRACY theory forum for a reason, my dear Watson.

Oh yeah? Well you're just a poo head! And a stink face! And your momma's stupid too! (though not as stupid as her progeny) Nyah nyah nyah!

Oh boy! I feel like I'm back in elementary school!

...although I don't recall there being so much livestock in elementary school...




Yeah, that's where the official story belongs, because I've yet to see any PROOF of it.

Sorry Taste, but to quote Carl Sagan "Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Proof."

And not only can you not give more than circumstantial evidence, your theory ignores literally forty-five years of well documented American, Soviet, and Middle East History to prop up it's extraordinary claims.

You mean extraordinary claims like the official story? I mean, to claim that 19 guys who could barely fly Cesnas were able to avoid the air defenses of the mightiest military on the planet is beyond "extraordinary".

And I'm ignoring history? You are amusing.

I guess you need to go read the HISTORY about who CREATED the mujahedeen to fight the soviets. I guess you need to go read the HISTORY of the first WTC bombing, and how the FBI was involved. I guess you need to go read the HISTORY of how Roosevelt knew the attack on Pearl Harbor was coming a week in advance. I guess you need to go read the HISTORY of Operation Northwoods. I guess you need to go read the HISTORY of how no steel-framed building had ever previously been destroyed by fire. I guess you need to go read the HISTORY of the BUSH FAMILY, and their corrupt, traitorous operations, from drug running to supporting Nazis and beyond.

I'm ignoring history. What a riot.

The retraction is not quite as fulsome as you suggest, they released a one sentence statement as follows:

"Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Qur'an abuse at Guantanamo Bay"

However there was a caveat, Newsweek also insisted that the abuse claim was true in substance, citing several former Guantánamo detainees who say US officials repeatedly dishonoured the Qur'an.
(Source: Guardian newspaper)

I'll buy that Le Tonk. The official procedure is for the soldiers to never even touch the Koran. They will wrap it in cloth to avoid contact because touching it enrages their prisoners. They do this for self-defense as much as anything. However, I can easily see some interrogator trying to crack one of them by throwing the Koran on the floor/toilet.

It's a real shame they worship books as much as Allah. Real shame.

Also, who died in the protests? I'm not sure if it was American soldiers or the local people. If it was the local people, then the protestors are morons. If every time someone burned an American flag we killed 20 citizens, we'd be in bad shape.

I guess what I'm getting at is:
Yes, I think we should respect their belief system and their Koran. I think our official stance does this. However, I'm not going to get worked up over some interrogators jumping up and down on a book, or even tossing it in the toilet. (Yes Os, even if it was the Bible).

Interesting to note:
After the military reviewed all the complaints, the only ones resembling this incident is when Muslims were tearing pages out of the Koran to clog their toilets in protest.

In the toilet, on the floor, under foot; OH MY!
(an attempt at humor)

You prefer to believe three guys suing the US for $10 million apiece? These guys interviewed with the media before this newsweek report and none of them mentioned desecration of the Koran. Only after the story broke did these three THEN come up with the story. MARK

Perhaps one can step back and consider the physical impossibility of flushing a book down the toilet.
This is just another barrage from the "Hate-America" cabal...

No steel building had ever been destroyed by fire. ARE YOU SOME KIND OF ELABORATE JOKE? Do you know how a basic SHOCKWAVE works!?!!?! Intertia, Friction, Resistance, Matter, are these somehow new ideas to you? When a PLANE rams into a BUILDING, at EXTREMELY HIGH SPEEDSlike it did HERE:



A shockwave is created. Shockwaves are what EXPLOSIONS get their destructive power from. The planes hitting the WTC on 9/11 exerted all the power of a massive explosion against the buildings.

The Bush family having made money in oil does not provide a serious case for saying Bush allowed 9/11 to happen. The actions of Bush's Grandfather is not a case for saying he allowed 9/11 to happen. Here in the United States, we judge people based on their actions, not the actions of their ancestors.

Of course FDR knew Pearl Harbor was coming a week in advance. The actions of a man from another political party that was in power sixty years ago is not a case for judging the actions of George W. Bush.

I am well acquainted with the history of Operation Northwoods. The personal corruption and villainy of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Senior is well known to me, as well as the corruption rife throughout Camelot. The actions of the John F. Kennedy administration are not a case for charging the actions of the George Walker Bush administration.

The fact that the air defense plan for New York City that was being used pre-9/11 was a beauracratic joke is well known by all. Pointing out an inefficient foible that could easily have been avoided is not a case for saying that said foible was deliberate and/or planned.

I am well aware of who created the Muhajideen. I am also well aware that US-Muhajideen relations quickly broke down after the Soviet departure from Afghanistan. This was a PARTICUARLY sad attempt at showing only half of history's picture.

The FBI showed the kind of beauracratic inefficiency that is intrinsic to US intelligence services on the day of the first WTC bombing. Still no connection to a deliberate decision by the Federal Beaureau of Investigation to allow the bombing to happen, still no connection to a greater US control conspiracy.

Standard fair. More circumstantial evidence. More half-truths. More suppositions and theories. Still a case that would fall to pieces in a court of law.

How about these for protest slogans?

Guns don’t kill people, Newsweek kills people!!!

Newsweek Lied, People Died!!

"Interesting to note:
After the military reviewed all the complaints, the only ones resembling this incident is when Muslims were tearing pages out of the Koran to clog their toilets in protest".

Yes, Of course they did that! And Jesus lives onthe moon!

"No steel building had ever been destroyed by fire. ARE YOU SOME KIND OF ELABORATE JOKE? Do you know how a basic SHOCKWAVE works!?!!?! Intertia, Friction, Resistance, Matter, are these somehow new ideas to you? When a PLANE rams into a BUILDING......
A shockwave is created. Shockwaves are what EXPLOSIONS get their destructive power from. The planes hitting the WTC on 9/11 exerted all the power of a massive explosion against the buildings."

If this conspiracy theory was true then the building would have fallen instantly, Benny! Nice try! Its fun studying the stories that fanatic ideologues who make them up in order to support their twisted agenda.

I have news for Benny, the WTC engineers designed the buildings to withstand the impact of B707 (same size as the B767), this would include "impact shockwaves"
"

They did survive the impact. The heat from the fire brought them down. MARK

First of all, Benny is saying the "shockwaves" brought them down, secondly, jet fuel that is dispersed widely, and burnt in open air cannot generate enough heat/energy to weaken high grade steel. If you read the thread, the point is not one high rise steel structure building has ever collapsed due to heat from a fire, never in the history of modern man!

No, Os. I am saying that the explosions seriously damaged the infrastructure of the buildings. What little was left was melted. MOST of the destructive force was done by the explosions.

..... and the Tooth Fairy sits with Jesus on the moon??

Geez Benny, how did you re-write the laws of physics??

Oh dont use the term "melted" or youll get the lecture on what temperature metal turns into a liquid, as if it had any relevance, from people who have no idea what it takes to WEAKEN metal that is supporting 100s of thousands of tons of weight.
MARK

Kerosene spread thinly, burnt on open air (open system) cannot reach the temperature to weaken high grade steel, which structurally was suppose to withstand 5x the MAXIMUM LOAD. This conspiracy theory that B767's impact+ jet fuel (most of which was vaporized) was able to take down those buildings in a controlled demolishion, has NO VALIDITY or scientific backing!, it has never happened in the history of steel structures! WTCs were wired with explosives and taken down in a controlled demolishion, just like WTC7, which didn't even get a plane strike, yet collapsed!

http://serendipity.nofadz.com/wot/mslp_ii.htm

You still lack a point. If you drive a plane into a building that is supporting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of weight, you will create a massive explosion, severely weakening the metal. It is then only a matter of time before what little metal is left can no longer support the weight it is attempting to hold up and collapses.

Building 7 was destroyed by the massive blast created when the Twin Towers fell.

Hey Benny, did you know the WTC towers were DESIGNED to withstand the impact of an airplane?

How come you're the only person I've ever seen talk about this "shockwave" theory? WHERE'S YOUR PROOF?! This is YOUR THEORY.



"Bush family made money in oil" ahaha... yeah, GWB had an oil company, which he started with some help of funding from the bin Laden family.

Bush Sr. was/is a major player in the international drug trade. Ever heard of Iran-Contra? Prescott helped finance Adolph Hitler. This is FAMILY HISTORY. The history of one of the most (THE most?) corrupt families in American history. YOU'RE the one "ignoring history".



Obviously, you're NOT AT ALL "well acquainted" with Operation Northwoods, otherwise you'd know that it was approved all the way up through the military chain of command, and was NIXED by JFK.



"Air defense... was a joke... known by all." Gee, this relates right back to the statement that got me going on this thread in the first place: "The story is widespread, so it must be true."

Sorry, but it isn't "known by all". I know that there are STANDARD PROCEDURES for the interecept of wayward aircraft, no matter WHERE they are in the country. What about the air defenses around the Pentagon, I suppose the "fact" that they're a "joke" is also "known by all"?



US relations with the Mujahedeen quickly broke down? You got some proof? What about the relations between the Mujahedeen and the Pakistani ISI? I suppose that $20mil the US gave the Taliban just months prior to 9/11 was an example of our ill will?



"Still no connection to a deliberate decision by the Federal Beaureau of Investigation to allow the bombing to happen"... gee, is this another one of those situations that you're "well aqcuainted" with? The FBI SUPPLIED the bomb materials. Their informant thought it was supposed to be fake, but the FBI told them to go ahead with it. The informant taped his conversations with the FBI. Do your ###### homework.



So now, after you accused me of ignoring history, you are the one who is ignoring or sidestepping every historically relevant piece of information.



P.S. Right now I'm on dial-up, so I'm not going to spend time hunting down all the FACTUAL REFERENCE MATERIAL that supports what I'm saying, but if you wanna remind me when I get home in a couple weeks, I'd be MORE than happy to. Although, if you're half as smart as you seem to think you are, then I'm sure you know how to use Google.

P.P.S. "Shockwave"...

If it (the subject of the topic) is true. Does it set a precedent? In other words. If some wacko in Canada desecrated the King James version of the Bible, would it be acceptable, by you, for the ultra conservative, fundamentalist, Christian right to kill any Candian that they see?... without even knowing for sure that some wacko (and this probably has happend in the rolling of a joint or two when the zig zags have finished) actually did desecrate the King James version of the Bible? Would it be acceptable if they only killed the wacko and forgave everyone else?

Answer me true.

Christians wouldnt go ballistic because someone desecrated a bible. Seems to be a uniquely Muslim reaction. MARK

Most wouldn't. I think some would. (most and some refer to people acting in the name of Christianity not actual Christianity)

Point I try to make is some are making a statement of horror about the possible desecration of the book (which is at least disrespectful) without weighing that against the absurdity of the reaction. A shoe on the other foot comparison of sorts. The true answer, again to most of any persuasion, would be neither reaction would be acceptable .

Remember when the Palestinians took over the church at Jesus' birthplace, the reports of the Palestinians using the Bible AT THE BIRTHPLACE of Jesus for toilet paper? I dont recall a word of protest. MARK

Yep, another useless rag to quote from, the moonbat daily.

You seen the Photo in the media of saddam in his fruit of the loom undies? Koran thing probably didnt upset Baathist to much but this ought to get em riled up. Someone with photo shop should put in Lindy England in to point and make fun of his thingy. MARK

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/st...255E401,00.html