Pentagon received documents on Qur’an abuse
5/19/2005 4:00:00 PM GMT
The International Committee of the Red Cross documented credible information about U.S. soldiers desecrating Qur'an at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and pointed it out to the Pentagon in confidential reports in 2002, an ICRC spokesman said.
Simon Schorno, an ICRC spokesman in Washington, says that the organisation representatives investigating abuse cases at the U.S. detention center in Cuba and other U.S. military prisons had never witnessed such incidents during their visits to the site.
But in an interview yesterday, Schorno asserted that ICRC delegates, who have been granted access to the camp since January 2002, gathered similar reports from detainees to raise the issue with Guantanamo commanders and with Pentagon officials.
The issue of ‘Qur’an desecration’ at Guantanamo Bay came under the spotlight after massive anti-U.S. protests across the Muslim world, including deadly riots in Afghanistan, following the now-retracted report published by the Newsweek magazine, in which it said that military investigators had confirmed that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed a Qur’an down a toilet.
The Qur’an is Islam's Holy book, and mistreating it is a great offense against God.
On Wednesday, and following riots sparked by the Qur’an abuse report, the ICRC refused to discuss what kind of incidents were involved, how many there were or how often it reported them to American officials.
"We don't want to comment specifically on specific instances of desecration, only on the general level of how the Qur’an was disrespected," Schorno said.
However, Schorno said that there were "multiple" instances involved and that the ICRC presented reports about such incidents "multiple" times to Guantanamo and Pentagon officials.
Besides the retracted Newsweek report about disrespecting the Holy Book at Guantanamo Bay, senior Bush administration officials have repeatedly downplayed other reports regarding abuses of the Qur’an at the detention center, dismissing them simply because they came from current or former detainees.
Asked about the ICRC's reports, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, confirmed on Wdnesday that the Defence Department did receive those reports, however, tried to downplay the seriousness of their content. He said they were forwarded "on rare occasions" and called them "detainee allegations which they [the ICRC] could not corroborate."
Schorno, on the other hand, asserted that "All information we received were corroborated allegations," he said, adding, "We certainly corroborated mentions of the events by detainees themselves."
"Obviously, it is not just one person telling us something happened and we just fire up. We take it very seriously, and very carefully, and document everything in our confidential reports."
The ICRC said it insists on speaking "in total privacy to each and every detainee held" when its delegates visit detention facilities.
But Whitman argued that there was nothing in the ICRC reports that approximated the information given in the Newsweek report.
Senior administration officials also have been pointing to the Jan. 19 guidelines as proof of the military's sensitivity about Muslim religious issues, but they did not note that the ICRC had confidentially reported specific concerns before the guidelines were issued.
In January 19, 2003 and following the ICRC reports, the Pentagon command in Guantanamo issued a memorandum entitled "Inspecting/Handling Detainee Qur’an Standard Operating Procedure," with guidelines for treatment of Qur’an.
Schorno said ICRC representatives did not receive any other complaints or document similar incidents following the issuance of the guidelines on Jan. 19.
He also said, "The memo doesn't mention the ICRC, but we know that our comments are taken seriously."
Still, Schorno did not say the guidelines were issued specifically in response to the ICRC's reports.
A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the issuance of the guidelines followed the ICRC's reports and that they were "a credit to the fact that we investigate and correct practices and problems."
Whitman, the Pentagon spokesman, said he was not aware of "any specific precipitating event that caused the command to codify those in a written policy."
"The ICRC works very closely with us to help us identify concerns with respect to detainees on a variety of issues, to include religious issues. But I can't make any direct correlation there" between ICRC concerns on the Qur’an and the issuance of the 2003 guidelines, Whitman said.
Sudanese angry over Qur’an desecration
Meanwhile, the Sudanese National Council(parliament) denounced the U.S. soldiers’ desecration of the Holy Qur’an at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
The parliament issued on Wednesday a statement at its session, voicing its anger over "violating the holiness of the God" and urging all parliaments across the world and the Muslim nations in particular, to close ranks on the issue.
Massive anti-U.S. protests broke out in several Muslim countries, denouncing the Abuse of Qur’an reported in Newsweek in its May 9 edition, in which it said that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo placed copies of Islam’s Holy book in toilets in an attempt to break the detainees.
The magazine retracted its report last Monday, saying "We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker wrote in a note to readers.
The Sudanese parliament's statement said that the appalling incidents reported at Guantanamo indicated "the U.S. dissolute boast which does not consider any holiness and inviability of the nations."
It added that the worldwide anti-U.S. protests opened "the U.S. eyes" to an unprecedented confrontation.
5/19/2005 4:00:00 PM GMT
The International Committee of the Red Cross documented credible information about U.S. soldiers desecrating Qur'an at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and pointed it out to the Pentagon in confidential reports in 2002, an ICRC spokesman said.
Simon Schorno, an ICRC spokesman in Washington, says that the organisation representatives investigating abuse cases at the U.S. detention center in Cuba and other U.S. military prisons had never witnessed such incidents during their visits to the site.
But in an interview yesterday, Schorno asserted that ICRC delegates, who have been granted access to the camp since January 2002, gathered similar reports from detainees to raise the issue with Guantanamo commanders and with Pentagon officials.
The issue of ‘Qur’an desecration’ at Guantanamo Bay came under the spotlight after massive anti-U.S. protests across the Muslim world, including deadly riots in Afghanistan, following the now-retracted report published by the Newsweek magazine, in which it said that military investigators had confirmed that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed a Qur’an down a toilet.
The Qur’an is Islam's Holy book, and mistreating it is a great offense against God.
On Wednesday, and following riots sparked by the Qur’an abuse report, the ICRC refused to discuss what kind of incidents were involved, how many there were or how often it reported them to American officials.
"We don't want to comment specifically on specific instances of desecration, only on the general level of how the Qur’an was disrespected," Schorno said.
However, Schorno said that there were "multiple" instances involved and that the ICRC presented reports about such incidents "multiple" times to Guantanamo and Pentagon officials.
Besides the retracted Newsweek report about disrespecting the Holy Book at Guantanamo Bay, senior Bush administration officials have repeatedly downplayed other reports regarding abuses of the Qur’an at the detention center, dismissing them simply because they came from current or former detainees.
Asked about the ICRC's reports, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, confirmed on Wdnesday that the Defence Department did receive those reports, however, tried to downplay the seriousness of their content. He said they were forwarded "on rare occasions" and called them "detainee allegations which they [the ICRC] could not corroborate."
Schorno, on the other hand, asserted that "All information we received were corroborated allegations," he said, adding, "We certainly corroborated mentions of the events by detainees themselves."
"Obviously, it is not just one person telling us something happened and we just fire up. We take it very seriously, and very carefully, and document everything in our confidential reports."
The ICRC said it insists on speaking "in total privacy to each and every detainee held" when its delegates visit detention facilities.
But Whitman argued that there was nothing in the ICRC reports that approximated the information given in the Newsweek report.
Senior administration officials also have been pointing to the Jan. 19 guidelines as proof of the military's sensitivity about Muslim religious issues, but they did not note that the ICRC had confidentially reported specific concerns before the guidelines were issued.
In January 19, 2003 and following the ICRC reports, the Pentagon command in Guantanamo issued a memorandum entitled "Inspecting/Handling Detainee Qur’an Standard Operating Procedure," with guidelines for treatment of Qur’an.
Schorno said ICRC representatives did not receive any other complaints or document similar incidents following the issuance of the guidelines on Jan. 19.
He also said, "The memo doesn't mention the ICRC, but we know that our comments are taken seriously."
Still, Schorno did not say the guidelines were issued specifically in response to the ICRC's reports.
A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the issuance of the guidelines followed the ICRC's reports and that they were "a credit to the fact that we investigate and correct practices and problems."
Whitman, the Pentagon spokesman, said he was not aware of "any specific precipitating event that caused the command to codify those in a written policy."
"The ICRC works very closely with us to help us identify concerns with respect to detainees on a variety of issues, to include religious issues. But I can't make any direct correlation there" between ICRC concerns on the Qur’an and the issuance of the 2003 guidelines, Whitman said.
Sudanese angry over Qur’an desecration
Meanwhile, the Sudanese National Council(parliament) denounced the U.S. soldiers’ desecration of the Holy Qur’an at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
The parliament issued on Wednesday a statement at its session, voicing its anger over "violating the holiness of the God" and urging all parliaments across the world and the Muslim nations in particular, to close ranks on the issue.
Massive anti-U.S. protests broke out in several Muslim countries, denouncing the Abuse of Qur’an reported in Newsweek in its May 9 edition, in which it said that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo placed copies of Islam’s Holy book in toilets in an attempt to break the detainees.
The magazine retracted its report last Monday, saying "We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker wrote in a note to readers.
The Sudanese parliament's statement said that the appalling incidents reported at Guantanamo indicated "the U.S. dissolute boast which does not consider any holiness and inviability of the nations."
It added that the worldwide anti-U.S. protests opened "the U.S. eyes" to an unprecedented confrontation.
