In an unprecendented move, the International Committee of the Red Cross threw itself in the middle of the Newsweek controversy by publically acknowledging documented Koran abuse cases.
NPR broke the story this morning.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has credible information that U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have mistreated the Quran. This comes just days after Newsweek retracted a story making similar allegations.
In the audio track which I heard this morning, they reported that
ICRC stressed that they are not validating the specific story cited by Newsweek.
This lead to a number of awkwardly worded print stories based on the ICRC report, Human Rights Watch and other, previously reported stories. They all do, however, basically say that abuses were made. That means
- There are multiple official sources specific for abusing the Quran by the US military.
What's worst is that there are other violations just as disturbing that haven't even seen daylight in the press yet.
So how many people died due these legitimate reportings? And who will be punished for this?
Scottie, no doubt will just "move on."
Here's some of the other coverage.
- Reuters
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the ICRC has come to the Pentagon "on rare occasion" with allegations made by detainees at Guantanamo.
"They are consistent with the type of things that we have talked about, what we have found in log entries (at Guantanamo), to include things like a Koran inadvertently falling to the floor," Whitman said.
- BBC
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had reported the allegations in confidence to Pentagon officials many times in 2002 and 2003.
- LA Times
Schorno told the Chicago Tribune, which first reported the story Thursday, that the delegates gathered and
corroborated enough similar, independent reports from detainees to raise the issue on numerous occasions with Guantanamo commanders and Pentagon officials.
"All information we received were corroborated allegations," he told the newspaper. "Obviously, it is not just one person telling us something happened and we just fire up." It was unclear what the Red Cross' corroboration process consisted of.
This brings to mind a March 2004 story in the British press about two recently released British citizens who had spent time in Guantanemo. Seems just as bad as the Quran thing to me. How many people did this legitimate story kill?
A BRITISH captive freed from Guantanamo Bay today tells the world of its full horror - and reveals how
prostitutes were taken into the camp to degrade Muslim inmates.
...
He said detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours at a time in hand and leg cuffs with metal links which cut into the skin.
Their "cells" were wire cages with concrete floors and open to the elements - giving no privacy or protection from the rats, snakes and scorpions loose around the American base.
Note that the chief issue with the supposed Newsweek riots were about Quran being disrespected by being treated uncleanly
A diet of
foul water and food up to 10 years out-of-date left inmates malnourished.
But Jamal's most shocking disclosure centred on the use of vice girls to torment the most religiously devout detainees.
Prisoners who had never seen an "unveiled" woman before would be forced to watch as the hookers touched their own naked bodies.
The men would return distraught. One said an American girl had smeared menstrual blood across his face in an act of humiliation.
Jamal said: "I knew of this happening about 10 times. It always seemed to be those who were very young or known to be particularly religious who would be taken away.
...
Jamal said: "Sometimes you would be chained up on the floor with your hands and feet actually bound together. One of my friends told me he was kept like that for 15 hours once.
"Recreation meant your legs were untied and you walked up and down a strip of gravel. In Camp X-Ray you only got five minutes but in Delta you walked for around 15 minutes."
Jamal said victims of the Extreme Reaction Force were paraded in front of cells. "It was a horrible sight and it was a frequent sight."
He said one unit used force-feeding to end a hunger strike by 70 per cent of the 600 inmates. The strike started after a guard deliberately kicked a copy of the Koran.
Rice and beans was the usual diet and the water was "filthy". Jamal added: "In Camp X-Ray it was yellow and in Delta it was black - the colour of Coca-Cola.
"We had it piped through with a tap in each 'cage' but they would often turn the water off as punishment.
...
Being forced to use a bucket as a toilet in view of other inmates and guards was particularly embarrassing. Jamal said: "I never got used to it - we would all put our towels and clothes around us.
"But the Military Police up in the tower would see us and would shout to each other.
"We were only allowed a shower once a week at the beginning and none at all in solitary confinement.
"This was very tough because you are supposed to be clean when you pray.
...
Describing medical treatment, Jamal said he knew of 11 men who had legs amputated and two who lost toes and fingers. He was told that the Americans had removed far more tissue than was necessary.
HE added: "The man in the cell next to me had frostbite in two fingers and two toes. He also had it in his big toe, but they didn't treat that for a year by which time they had to cut off much more than was needed.
"All the men who had lost limbs complained they would chop them off high up and not bother to try to save as much as possible."
Of course this was all coupled with verbal abuse and the unfortunate-yet-way-too-typical American ignorance.
"One of the Brits told me he was asked why he was a Muslim, because he ought to be praying to the Queen."
Sadly, I suspect this last remark must've been delivered with a straight face. It really is too stupid to be a genuine insult.
Given this kind of track record, is it really hard to believe the Psy-Ops guys would do something like flush a page of the Quran down the drain to infuriate a prisoner? Keep in mind that in the post-Abu Ghraib era, they are probably more likely to resort to psychological or symbolic torture methods.
I'm not saying we should believe it without proof. But we should be worried that it is believed so easily. This is a clear case of the United States being stereotyped based on previous, proven action.
Scottie Mclellan's over-dramatic "outrage" is so obviously staged.