"To whom are you replying? Someone too stupid to figure out the simple
intricacies of posting on Usenet certainly doesn't warrant the wasting
of my
time trying to explain other things. But then, the stupidity explains
why
you're a Liberal. "
Um--you could look at the header, and see that my response was to you.
You might want to consider who the "too stupid to post on the internet"
line applies to.
In any case, here's some more news that will doubtlessly provoke more
weeping hysterics.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/17/AR2005051701315_pf.html
==================================================
Desecration of Koran Had Been Reported Before
By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 18, 2005; A12
Newsweek magazine's now-retracted story that a military guard at the
U.S.
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flushed a copy of the Koran down a
toilet
has sparked angry denunciations by the White House and the Pentagon,
which
have linked the article to Muslim riots and deaths abroad.
But American and international media have widely reported similar
allegations from detainees and others of desecration of the Muslim holy
book for more than two years.
James Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at the prison who was investigated
and
cleared of charges of mishandling classified material, has asserted hat
guards' mishandling and mistreatment of detainees' Korans led the
prisoners to launch a hunger strike in March 2002. Detainee lawyers,
attributing their information to an interrogator, have said the strike
ended only when military leaders issued an apology to the detainees
over
the camp loudspeaker. But they said mishandling of the Koran persisted.
Erik Saar, a former Army translator at Guantanamo Bay who has written a
book about mistreatment of detainees at the military prison, said in
interviews and in his book that he never saw a Koran flushed in a
toilet
but that guards routinely ignored prisoners' sensitivities by tossing
it
on the ground while searching their cells.
And numerous detainees, whose stories are uncorroborated, have said to
various media outlets that at detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay
and
Afghanistan, the Koran was stepped on, tossed on the floor and placed
in
latrines.
"They tore the Koran to pieces in front of us, threw it into the
toilet,"
former detainee Aryat Vahitov told Russian television in June 2004.
Under fire from the White House, Newsweek on Monday retracted the May 9
article in which it reported that a government investigation had
confirmed
an instance of a Koran being put in the toilet. Newsweek editors now
say
their source, a senior government official, is no longer sure that the
alleged incident is confirmed in the investigation.
Yesterday, the administration called on Newsweek to explain how it got
the
story wrong and to report about U.S. military efforts to ensure that
the
Koran is handled with respect. The White House, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have cited
the
damage done to the United States' reputation in the Muslim world by
Newsweek's original report.
Yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence T. Di Rita said previous
detainee
allegations have not been considered credible.
"I'm not aware that we've ever had any specific, credible allegations
to
investigate. We certainly didn't investigate detainees' lawyers on
television saying, 'This is what happened to my detainee,' " he said.
But he added that "in the wake of the Newsweek piece, we thought it
useful
to go back and review to be sure."
To Muslims, the Koran is a sacred text that should never be dropped,
defiled or ridiculed. When Newsweek's report was reprinted in the Arab
media, it sparked public protests and riots in Afghanistan and other
countries that left 16 people dead.
Several lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees contended yesterday that
other forms of alleged mistreatment of detainees, some reported in
e-mails
by FBI personnel stationed at Guantanamo Bay, have helped fuel
anti-American sentiment in Arab countries. They accused the White House
of
being disingenuous about the insults it has already acknowledged
occurred
at the base.
The government has acknowledged that two female interrogators have been
reprimanded, one for making sexually suggestive remarks to a detainee,
and
the other for smearing fake menstrual blood on a captive. Detainee
lawyers
said the purpose of the tactics was to cause stress based on the
prisoners' religious beliefs that they would be unclean and could not
pray.
FBI allegations of harsh treatment of captives are under investigation
by
the Pentagon.
"It's a measure of how deeply our global credibility has suffered that
this inflammatory allegation was given immediate credence," said Joseph
Margulies, an attorney for former detainee Mamdouh Habib. "You are only
prepared to believe this if the U.S. reputation has fallen so badly. If
you learned that a female interrogator smeared fake menstrual blood on
a
detainee, as we did learn, then, of course, you're going to believe
that
they could throw a Koran in a toilet." Dozens of detainees have said in
declassified court records that Guantanamo Bay detention officials and
military guards engaged in widespread religious and sexual humiliation
of
detainees. Detainees said the goal was to make them feel impure, shake
their faith and try to gain information.
Yesterday, several former detainees said they witnessed military police
and guards at Guantanamo Bay throwing their copies of the Koran on the
ground, stomping on them with their feet, and tossing them into buckets
and areas used as latrines.
Former detainee Abdallah Tabarak told a Moroccan newspaper in December
that he saw guards throw Korans in the toilet, according to a BBC
translation of the article.
"When I wanted to pray, they would burst into my cell with police dogs
to
terrorize me and prevent me from praying," he said. "They also would
trample the Koran underfoot and throw it in the urine bucket. We staged
protests in the prison about the desecrating of the Holy Koran, so the
management promised us that they would issue orders to the American
soldiers not to touch the copies of the Koran again."
The Pentagon issued those rules on Jan. 19, 2003, requiring that the
Koran
not be placed on "the floor, near the toilet or sink, near the feet, or
dirty/wet areas."
