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So, now we FINALLY know the truth about the "mishandling" of Koran's in Guantanamo Bay.
I know there's a lot of people on this board who mistakenly believed that the US was committing all these heinous crimes against the Koran, and I guess that's understandable, given the propensity of our media to do whatever they can to make Bush look bad.
Now the facts have come out, and once and for all, it's time to get the record straight.
Of course, true to form, the NYT has to lead with a paragraph that suggests heinous crimes, and spent the entire first page of the article criticizing the facility.
But then, we get down to the details:
So a detainee claimed that an interrogator had kicked his neighbors Koran, 4 or 5 days after the fact. The neighbor never claimed that, and there was no proof it happened. Doesn't seem logical.
Seems like the situation was handled pretty well to me.
Sounds like military people stuck in a shitty job had some fun that was inappropriate, but again, not intentionally harmful.
With no more evidence than that, and proof that the detainees have been told to make allegations of abuse and torture, I'm not willing to draw judgement.
This is the only incident which, to me, looks like anything bad happened to the Koran. It seems almost 100% obvious that this was a mistake, and that it was resolved as quickly and in the best way possible. I really don't know what else could be done about a situation like this.
The article then goes on into more interesting detail:
I know we have to be sensitive, but COME ON!
"Squatted down in an aggressive manner?" This is grounds for a complaint from someone who's being held in Guantanamo Bay? Oi. If all the terrorists we were fighting were this easily intimidated, there would be peace in the middle east.
And then, of course, typical of the New York Times, any information which would either
a) Make it seem like the military took these allegations seriously and did a fine job, or
b) Make it seem like the detainees aren't exactly holy
is relegated to the last paragraphs.
After all this information has come to light, can anyone truly doubt that
a) the US Military is making every effort possible to behave in a manner fitting with Islamic law regarding the Koran.
b) the Military is doing their damndest to be treat the detainees themselves well.
c) any incidents where the Koran was mishandled were either accidental or extremely isolated, or
d) the Newsweek story, and the dozens of other stories in the mainstream media, were complete lies.
If you want to talk about media bias, read the NYT article. After you finish the article, read the headline and the first few paragraphs, and see if you feel those give you an accurate synopsis of the entire article, or if they're the worst sections, cut and pasted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/04/politics/04koran.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
I know there's a lot of people on this board who mistakenly believed that the US was committing all these heinous crimes against the Koran, and I guess that's understandable, given the propensity of our media to do whatever they can to make Bush look bad.
Now the facts have come out, and once and for all, it's time to get the record straight.
Of course, true to form, the NYT has to lead with a paragraph that suggests heinous crimes, and spent the entire first page of the article criticizing the facility.
WASHINGTON, June 3 - A military inquiry has found that guards or interrogators at the Guantánamo Bay detention center in Cuba kicked, stepped on and splashed urine on the Koran, in some cases intentionally but in others by accident, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The final report released on Friday said that four of the five incidents took place after January 2003, after written procedures governing the handling of the Koran had been put in place. That contradicted an account provided last Thursday by General Hood, who was asked directly whether all five of the incidents had taken place before January 2003, and replied: "Not all of them. One of them occurred since then."
A spokesman for the task force, Capt. Jeffrey Weir, said in a telephone interview that he could not explain General Hood's comments last week. "Maybe he misspoke," Captain Weir said. "I'm not sure why he would have put it that way."
The military released the findings of the investigation about 7:15 p.m., Eastern time, well after the broadcasts of the network television evening news programs. A Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, denied that the military was trying to bury bad news late on a Friday night, a tactic often used by government agencies. "It was completed and we try not to hold these things after their reviews are completed," Mr. Whitman said in a telephone interview.
But then, we get down to the details:
The report said investigators had examined nine alleged incidents in which the Koran was mishandled, either intentionally or unintentionally, and confirmed five of them. Four involved guards at the detention center; one involved an interrogator.
According to the military's statement on Friday, this is what happened in the five confirmed incidents of Koran abuse.
In February 2002, a detainee complained during an interrogation that guards at Camp X-Ray had kicked the Koran of a detainee in a neighboring cell four or five days earlier, the inquiry's report said. The interrogator reported the complaint on Feb. 27, and confirmed that the guards were aware of the complaint.
The report said there was no evidence of any investigation into the incident, and investigators did not say why they believed it was credible or who might have been responsible.
So a detainee claimed that an interrogator had kicked his neighbors Koran, 4 or 5 days after the fact. The neighbor never claimed that, and there was no proof it happened. Doesn't seem logical.
On July 25, 2003, a contract interrogator apologized to a detainee for stepping on the detainee's Koran in an earlier interrogation. The detainee accepted the apology and agreed to tell other detainees and ask them to stop disruptive behavior caused by the incident.
The interrogator was later fired for "a pattern of unacceptable behavior, an inability to follow direct guidance and poor leadership," the military statement said.
Seems like the situation was handled pretty well to me.
On Aug. 15, 2003, two detainees complained to one set of guards that their Korans were wet because guards on the night shift had tossed water balloons on the cellblock. The complaints were recorded in the cellblock's log, but there was no indication that the incident was ever investigated. Investigators described the guards' conduct as "clearly inappropriate" but said it did not cause any disturbance among detainees.
Sounds like military people stuck in a shitty job had some fun that was inappropriate, but again, not intentionally harmful.
Less than a week later, on Aug. 21, a detainee who spoke conversational English complained that someone had written a two-word obscenity in English in his English-version Koran. The complaint was recorded in an electronic log. "It is possible," the military's statement said, "that a guard committed this act; it is equally possible that the detainee wrote in his own Koran."
With no more evidence than that, and proof that the detainees have been told to make allegations of abuse and torture, I'm not willing to draw judgement.
On March 25, 2005, a detainee complained to the guards that urine had come through an air vent in his cellblock, and splashed him and his Koran as he lay near the vent. A guard who had left his observation post to urinate outside acknowledged that he was to blame. He had urinated near the vent, and the wind blew it into the vent, from which it splashed into the cell.
The senior guard on duty immediately relieved the guard, and ordered that the detainee receive a fresh uniform and a new Koran. The guard was reprimanded and assigned to duty where he had no contact with detainees for the remainder of his assignment at the detention center.
This is the only incident which, to me, looks like anything bad happened to the Koran. It seems almost 100% obvious that this was a mistake, and that it was resolved as quickly and in the best way possible. I really don't know what else could be done about a situation like this.
The article then goes on into more interesting detail:
General Hood's report found 10 other alleged incidents, 7 involving guards and 3 involving interrogators, where the military personnel accidentally touched the Koran, touched a Koran within the scope of their regular duties or did not touch the Koran at all.
The inquiry concluded that none of these events involved mishandling of the Koran, but that some were clearly alarming to detainees, including a case in late 2002 in which an unidentified marine, during an interrogation, was said to have squatted down in front of a detainee "in an aggressive manner."
In the process, the report said, the marine "unintentionally squatted down over the detainee's Koran," and "this provoked a visible reaction from the detainee."
I know we have to be sensitive, but COME ON!
"Squatted down in an aggressive manner?" This is grounds for a complaint from someone who's being held in Guantanamo Bay? Oi. If all the terrorists we were fighting were this easily intimidated, there would be peace in the middle east.
And then, of course, typical of the New York Times, any information which would either
a) Make it seem like the military took these allegations seriously and did a fine job, or
b) Make it seem like the detainees aren't exactly holy
is relegated to the last paragraphs.
The report also found 15 incidents in which detainees had mishandled the Koran.
The military's statement said the investigation had examined 31,000 documents, both on paper and electronically; classified and unclassified computer drives used by task force personnel; and legal documents and news articles for any mention of possible abuses of the Koran.
After all this information has come to light, can anyone truly doubt that
a) the US Military is making every effort possible to behave in a manner fitting with Islamic law regarding the Koran.
b) the Military is doing their damndest to be treat the detainees themselves well.
c) any incidents where the Koran was mishandled were either accidental or extremely isolated, or
d) the Newsweek story, and the dozens of other stories in the mainstream media, were complete lies.
If you want to talk about media bias, read the NYT article. After you finish the article, read the headline and the first few paragraphs, and see if you feel those give you an accurate synopsis of the entire article, or if they're the worst sections, cut and pasted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/04/politics/04koran.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
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