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May 27, 2005
<NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Inquiry by U.S. Finds 5 Cases of Koran Harm
</NYT_HEADLINE><NYT_BYLINE type=" " version="1.0">By THOM SHANKER
</NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>WASHINGTON, May 26 - An American military inquiry has uncovered five instances in which guards or interrogators at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba mishandled the Koran, but found "no credible evidence" to substantiate claims that it was ever flushed down a toilet, the chief of the investigation said on Thursday.
All but one of the five incidents appear to have taken place before January 2003. In three cases, the mishandling of the Koran appears to have been deliberate, and in two it was accidental or unintentional, the commander said, adding that four cases involved guards, and one an interrogator. Two service members have been punished for their conduct, one recently.
In announcing preliminary findings of his investigation, which began about two weeks ago, Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood, commander of the Guantánamo Joint Task Force, said the Koran mishandling did not occur as part of any effort to demoralize or intimidate detainees for interrogation.
But General Hood declined to give further details until he had completed the investigation, which was started after Newsweek magazine published an article asserting that a separate investigation by the military was expected to find that a Koran had been flushed down a toilet at the detention center. The article, which the magazine subsequently retracted, prompted violence in the Muslim world that claimed at least 17 lives.
"I'd like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantánamo Bay ever flushed a Koran down a toilet," General Hood said in a Pentagon news briefing.
He said that his investigators conducted a new interview with one detainee who had been quoted in F.B.I. documents that were released Wednesday as having said under interrogation in 2002 that guards flushed a Koran down a toilet.
In the new interview, conducted on May 14 as part of General Hood's investigation, the detainee said he was not a witness to any Koran abuse.
General Hood said his investigators asked the detainee whether he personally had seen any incidents of Koran abuse, "and he allowed as how he hadn't, but he had heard guards - that guards at some other point in time had done this."
The general said he could offer no explanation for any contradiction between the detainee's statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in July 2002 and the interview conducted by his team on May 14.
Investigators never asked the detainee specifically about a Koran flushed down a toilet, General Hood said, nor did they mention his previous statements under interrogation, "but he was asked about defiling, desecration, mistreatment of the Koran."
It was not clear whether the military had also reinterviewed other inmates who are known, through the interrogation reports that were released on Wednesday, to have reported other instances of mishandling the Koran. General Hood did not say how many people, or whom, his team has questioned.
The five instances in which the Koran was mishandled, General Hood said, were among 13 cases investigated in the past two weeks.
"None of these five incidents was a result of a failure to follow standard operating procedures in place at the time the incident occurred," General Hood said.
But he added that in the initial months after the Guantánamo prison was set up, and until early 2003, there were not explicit, written rules about the Koran. And he said one incident concerned the breaking of another, unspecified rule, rather than the prison's standard operating procedures.
The investigation also explored six more accusations of Koran abuse involving guards. In each of those instances, General Hood said, the guard "either accidentally touched the Koran, touched it within the scope of his duties, or did not actually touch the Koran at all."
Military policy acknowledges that some Muslims view a non-Muslim touching the Koran as a desecration.
In two other instances of the 13 that were investigated, interrogators either touched a Koran or stood over the Islamic holy book during an interrogation, General Hood said.
Neither instance is being termed Koran mishandling: One involved placing two Korans on a television, General Hood said, and in the second the Koran was not touched, and the perceived insult was unintentional.
"We've also identified 15 incidents where detainees mishandled or inappropriately treated the Koran, one of which was, of course, the specific example of a detainee who ripped pages out of their own Koran," the general added.
He appeared to be referring to a report cited repeatedly by Pentagon officials, including Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that a detainee had torn pages out of a Koran and used them to stop up a toilet, perhaps in protest of his treatment.
The abuse of detainees, especially at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, has embarrassed the military and the Bush administration and created a political challenge as they defend the campaign against global terrorism against accusations that it is anti-Islam.
"We're in an environment where people react to impressions," Lawrence Di Rita, the Pentagon spokesman, said at the news conference Thursday about Guantánamo.
"And so what we're trying to make sure people understand is that the impression they ought to have is that the guards, the interrogators, the command down there have been extraordinarily cautious, and yet there have been instances where inadvertent mishandling has occurred or other types of mishandling," Mr. Di Rita added.
General Hood's inquiry is expected to be completed in advance of a wider investigation into contentions of prisoner mistreatment at Guantánamo. That broader report could be even more critical of the military because it is based on statements from F.B.I. agents - not detainees, whose credibility can be challenged - who say they observed abusive and possibly illegal treatment of detainees.
"I want to assure you that we are committed to respecting the cultural dignity of the Koran and the detainees' practice of faith," General Hood said. "Every effort has been made to provide religious articles associated with the Islamic faith, accommodate prayers and religious periods, and provide culturally acceptable meals and practices."
For the inquiry into Koran abuse, investigators reviewed three years' worth of records and 31,000 documents, both electronic files and on paper, the general said.
General Hood said he was confident that "guidance to the guard force for handling the Koran is adequate" at Guantánamo - at least the procedures for handling the Koran ordered in January 2003.
But he acknowledged "that there was a significant period of time at the very beginning of operations in Guantánamo, in which there were not written guidelines" governing how to handle a Koran.
<NYT_AUTHOR_ID>Neil A. Lewis contributed reporting for this article.
</NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
</NYT_TEXT>
<NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Inquiry by U.S. Finds 5 Cases of Koran Harm
</NYT_HEADLINE><NYT_BYLINE type=" " version="1.0">By THOM SHANKER
</NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>WASHINGTON, May 26 - An American military inquiry has uncovered five instances in which guards or interrogators at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba mishandled the Koran, but found "no credible evidence" to substantiate claims that it was ever flushed down a toilet, the chief of the investigation said on Thursday.
All but one of the five incidents appear to have taken place before January 2003. In three cases, the mishandling of the Koran appears to have been deliberate, and in two it was accidental or unintentional, the commander said, adding that four cases involved guards, and one an interrogator. Two service members have been punished for their conduct, one recently.
In announcing preliminary findings of his investigation, which began about two weeks ago, Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood, commander of the Guantánamo Joint Task Force, said the Koran mishandling did not occur as part of any effort to demoralize or intimidate detainees for interrogation.
But General Hood declined to give further details until he had completed the investigation, which was started after Newsweek magazine published an article asserting that a separate investigation by the military was expected to find that a Koran had been flushed down a toilet at the detention center. The article, which the magazine subsequently retracted, prompted violence in the Muslim world that claimed at least 17 lives.
"I'd like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantánamo Bay ever flushed a Koran down a toilet," General Hood said in a Pentagon news briefing.
He said that his investigators conducted a new interview with one detainee who had been quoted in F.B.I. documents that were released Wednesday as having said under interrogation in 2002 that guards flushed a Koran down a toilet.
In the new interview, conducted on May 14 as part of General Hood's investigation, the detainee said he was not a witness to any Koran abuse.
General Hood said his investigators asked the detainee whether he personally had seen any incidents of Koran abuse, "and he allowed as how he hadn't, but he had heard guards - that guards at some other point in time had done this."
The general said he could offer no explanation for any contradiction between the detainee's statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in July 2002 and the interview conducted by his team on May 14.
Investigators never asked the detainee specifically about a Koran flushed down a toilet, General Hood said, nor did they mention his previous statements under interrogation, "but he was asked about defiling, desecration, mistreatment of the Koran."
It was not clear whether the military had also reinterviewed other inmates who are known, through the interrogation reports that were released on Wednesday, to have reported other instances of mishandling the Koran. General Hood did not say how many people, or whom, his team has questioned.
The five instances in which the Koran was mishandled, General Hood said, were among 13 cases investigated in the past two weeks.
"None of these five incidents was a result of a failure to follow standard operating procedures in place at the time the incident occurred," General Hood said.
But he added that in the initial months after the Guantánamo prison was set up, and until early 2003, there were not explicit, written rules about the Koran. And he said one incident concerned the breaking of another, unspecified rule, rather than the prison's standard operating procedures.
The investigation also explored six more accusations of Koran abuse involving guards. In each of those instances, General Hood said, the guard "either accidentally touched the Koran, touched it within the scope of his duties, or did not actually touch the Koran at all."
Military policy acknowledges that some Muslims view a non-Muslim touching the Koran as a desecration.
In two other instances of the 13 that were investigated, interrogators either touched a Koran or stood over the Islamic holy book during an interrogation, General Hood said.
Neither instance is being termed Koran mishandling: One involved placing two Korans on a television, General Hood said, and in the second the Koran was not touched, and the perceived insult was unintentional.
"We've also identified 15 incidents where detainees mishandled or inappropriately treated the Koran, one of which was, of course, the specific example of a detainee who ripped pages out of their own Koran," the general added.
He appeared to be referring to a report cited repeatedly by Pentagon officials, including Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that a detainee had torn pages out of a Koran and used them to stop up a toilet, perhaps in protest of his treatment.
The abuse of detainees, especially at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, has embarrassed the military and the Bush administration and created a political challenge as they defend the campaign against global terrorism against accusations that it is anti-Islam.
"We're in an environment where people react to impressions," Lawrence Di Rita, the Pentagon spokesman, said at the news conference Thursday about Guantánamo.
"And so what we're trying to make sure people understand is that the impression they ought to have is that the guards, the interrogators, the command down there have been extraordinarily cautious, and yet there have been instances where inadvertent mishandling has occurred or other types of mishandling," Mr. Di Rita added.
General Hood's inquiry is expected to be completed in advance of a wider investigation into contentions of prisoner mistreatment at Guantánamo. That broader report could be even more critical of the military because it is based on statements from F.B.I. agents - not detainees, whose credibility can be challenged - who say they observed abusive and possibly illegal treatment of detainees.
"I want to assure you that we are committed to respecting the cultural dignity of the Koran and the detainees' practice of faith," General Hood said. "Every effort has been made to provide religious articles associated with the Islamic faith, accommodate prayers and religious periods, and provide culturally acceptable meals and practices."
For the inquiry into Koran abuse, investigators reviewed three years' worth of records and 31,000 documents, both electronic files and on paper, the general said.
General Hood said he was confident that "guidance to the guard force for handling the Koran is adequate" at Guantánamo - at least the procedures for handling the Koran ordered in January 2003.
But he acknowledged "that there was a significant period of time at the very beginning of operations in Guantánamo, in which there were not written guidelines" governing how to handle a Koran.
<NYT_AUTHOR_ID>Neil A. Lewis contributed reporting for this article.
</NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
</NYT_TEXT>
