Prisoner Recants Quran Claim

[gilliam]

A prisoner at Guantanamo Bay who complained that a military guard threw a Quran holy book in the toilet has since recanted the story, senior Pentagon officials said Thursday.

The prisoner, who made his complaint in an FBI interrogation in July 2002, is one of several quoted in newly released documents as saying that U.S. military personnel desecrated the Qurans of Muslim detainees at the prison.

Allegations of Quran abuse have led to heated discussion — and even deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan — since a Newsweek magazine report, later retracted, that U.S. officials had confirmed a Quran was flushed in a toilet.

“Their behavior is bad,” one detainee is quoted as saying of his guards during an interrogation by an FBI special agent on July 22, 2002. “About five months ago the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Quran in the toilet.”

Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, told reporters that U.S. investigators had re-interviewed the unidentified prisoner on May 14.

“He has said it didn’t happen,” Di Rita said. A day earlier the spokesman had said the detainee had not corroborated his original story when he was re-questioned, but on Thursday the spokesman went a step further.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com …

Note al-Qaeda handbooks instruct their people to make such claims

 

[jlw]

Note al-Qaeda handbooks instruct their people to make such claims

Noted.

 

[Fitz]

I wonder, has anyone read an article about the training manual that teaches Al Qaida prisoners to say this? Wouldn’t it be in our best interests to make this manual known? I would like to hear more about it.

 

[jlw]

Fitz:

I wonder, has anyone read an article about the training manual that teaches Al Qaida prisoners to say this? Wouldn’t it be in our best interests to make this manual known? I would like to hear more about it.

usdoj.gov/ag/trainingmanual.htm

To quote that al-Qaeda training manual:
Missions Required of the Military Organization:… 5)Spreading rumors and writing statements that instigate people against the enemy…

IF AN INDICTMENT IS ISSUED AND THE TRIAL, BEGINS, THE BROTHER HAS TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING: 1. At the beginning of the trial, once more the brothers must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by State Security [investigators] before the judge. 2. Complain [to the court] of mistreatment while in prison. 3. Make arrangements for the brother’s defense with the attorney, whether he was retained by the brother’s family or court-appointed. 4. The brother has to do his best to know the names of the state security officers, who participated in his torture and mention their names to the judge. [These names may be obtained from brothers who had to deal with those officers in previous cases.]

Whether it happened or not.