This is an update to this morning's post about the ACLU's press release on the Government being aware of a detainee's claim in August, 2002 that guards flushed a Koran down the toilet.

Here is one such document, you may have to zoom in to read it. It's stamped August 1, 2002, but the interview referred to took place on July 22 and July 29, 2002. (Or you can find it among dozens on this page (pdf) at the ACLU site - scroll down to page 44 or 45.)

It's an FBI interview of a detainee, conducted with a translator present. It's document number 4136-4137, referred to here as

DETAINEES 4136-4137 Summary of FBI interview of detainee at Guantanamo Bay 07/22/02 Records detainee's responses to questions.

Scroll down to the last paragraph on the page. It says,

Prior to his capture he had no information against the United States. Personally, he had nothing against the United States. The guards at the detention facility do not treat him well. Their behavior is bad. About five months ago, the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Koran in the toilet.

You can also see just this quote from the page here. So the incident occurred around February, 2002.

The documents keep coming. You can read them here. The documents recently obtained by the ACLU show detainee claims of Koran desecration by Guards at Guantanamo in 2002. Many of the documents are interviews with prisoners and show that officials were aware of the claims.

Via Press Release today, the ACLU reports:

New documents released by the FBI include previously undisclosed interviews in which prisoners at Guantánamo complain that guards have mistreated the Koran, the American Civil Liberties Union said today. In one 2002 summary, an FBI interrogator notes a prisoner’s allegation that guards flushed a Koran down the toilet.

The disclosure comes on the heels of controversy over a Newsweek report saying that government investigators had corroborated an almost identical incident. Newsweek ultimately retracted its story because a confidential government source could not be confirmed.

According to the FBI documents, a detainee interviewed in August 2002 said that guards had flushed the Koran in the toilet. Others reported the Koran being kicked, withheld as punishment, and thrown on the floor, and said they were mocked during prayers.

The Associated Press this week obtained 2,000 pages of documents related to the military tribunals held at Guantanamo.

Their stories are tucked inside nearly 2,000 pages of documents the U.S. government released to the Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Representing a fraction of some 558 tribunals held since July, the testimonies capture frustration on both sides - judges wrestling with mistaken identity and scattered information from remote corners of the world, and prisoners complaining there's no evidence against them.

The detainees' accounts are harrowing. Testimony from at least 60 prisoners have been filed as part of a federal court habeas lawsuit challenging their detention. You can read them here.

In the upcoming issue of Newsweek, Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas have a new article on detainee claims of Koran mishandling by officials at Guantanamo. It refers only to Pentgagon documents - incident logs created by guards and/or other military personnel. The article reports the Pentagon's conclusion, that none of the log entries reporting mishandling of the Koran were credible.

In fewer than a dozen log entries from the 31,000 documents reviewed so far, said Di Rita, there is a mention of detainees' complaining that guards or interrogators mishandled their Qur'ans.

Isikoff totally ignores claims made by released detainees. (pdf) Does he really think a guard who threw a Koran in the toilet, or worse, is going to write himself up in a log report?

Here is an interesting assemblage of photographs of Guantantano. They were taken by reporters. See how artfully arranged some of them are, particularly those of the possessions of detainees, including religious items like Korans, which also are pictured hanging inside surgical masks. There's also photos of a board with leg irons, of cuffs protruding from the floor and stark interrogation rooms.

Considering this is a prison, conditions don't look too bad, but keep in mind these are government-approved photos.

Newsweek continues to play the Administration's blame game over its mention of a Koran desecration incident and subsequent retraction. Kevin Drum gets it exactly right, calling Newsweek's blunder the equivalent of jaywalking, and concluding:

Newsweek and the rest of the media need to get up off their knees and start fighting back. They've done enough apologizing.

The L.A. Times today reports on the dozens who have alleged mishandling of the Koran. Our compilation on prior Koran abuse claims is here. Our point: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should appoint a special counsel to investigate the prisoner abuse claims.

Bump and Update: This story's gaining traction. Afghan President Karzai today demanded action against those repoonsible for the abuse. The Arab News Services also are giving it prominence. Armando at Daily Kos has more.

Update: Karzai is coming to the U.S. for a showdown. He's demanding control of all Afghan prisoners. The U.S., meanwhile, is blaming Karzqi for Afghanistan's soaring opium production. This should get interesting.

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original post

The days of quelling criticism of the Administration by labeling it "un-American" are coming to an end. As more and more Americans come to understand that this criminal treatment of detainees was systematic, and endemic to the Bush Administration, not only will our world image continue to plunge, but it may well result in Bush leaving office as the most disgraced President in history since Richard Nixon.

Raw Story reports on the 2002 Koran Incident at Guantanamo. Here's a Miami Herald report from February, 2002.

Friday's episode occurred when a guard entered the 8-by-8-foot chain-link-fence cell of a prisoner who was away, and was going through the prisoner's ''comfort items'' -- which include towels and a toothbrush, two buckets, personal hygiene products and a Pentagon-provided copy of the Muslim holy book, the Koran.

''Another detainee thought that an MP kicked a Koran,'' said Army Lt. Col. Bill Costello. ``One started shouting, `Allahu Akbar.' So other detainees starting shouting, `Allahu Akbar.' Col. Carrico has said this happened before.'' The protest was contained to a 12-unit cellblock, he reported, and guards quieted it ``in a couple of minutes.''After that, the U.S. announced its official policy of respect for the Koran and the detainees' religious beliefs.

But, Raw Story reports that many of the mainstream press articles on the 2002 incident have disappeared:

"Ghost Air," the CIA Gulfstream that flew detainees around the world for interrogation, on occasion went to Sweeden. The Washington Post reports that the Swedish authorities have released their own report on the CIA's treatment of prisoners in this secret renditon program. This paragraph says it all:

"Should Swedish officers have taken those measures, I would have prosecuted them without hesitation for the misuse of public power and probably would have asked for a prison sentence," the investigator, Mats Melin, said in an interview. He said he could not charge the CIA operatives because he was authorized to investigate only Swedish government officials, but he did not rule out the possibility that other Swedish prosecutors could do so.

Human Rights First has printed some newly declassified notes of U.S. lawyers, made during interviewes with their clients at Guantanamo. The detainees describe the use of tactics by interrogators intended to degrade their religious beliefs. Here is a direct link to their stories. (pdf.)

“In detention centers around the world, the United States has been humiliating Muslim prisoners by offending their religious beliefs,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch.

The group also asserts that Newsweek is not to blame for the riots and deaths in Afghanistan that occurred in the wake of it's article:

“The damage in the riots was directly caused by violent protestors and poorly disciplined Afghan police and troops, not by Newsweek’s editors,” said Brody. Human Rights Watch noted that the Newsweek story would not have resonated had it not been for the United States’ extensive abuse of Muslim detainees.

As for repairing the image of the U.S. in the Arab World,

"If the U.S. government wants to repair the public relations damage caused by its mistreatment of detainees, it needs to investigate those who ordered or condoned this abuse, not attack those who have reported on it. " Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch.

The ACLU has obtained more than 2,000 new torture documents this week. From their newest press release:

New documents released by the Department of Defense reveal more cases of abuse including mock executions and use of a religious symbol to taunt detainees, the American Civil Liberties Union said today.

....The latest documents include medical records and several hundred pages relating to Army investigations into abuse of Iraqi and Afghan detainees and civilians by U.S. forces. One investigation into abuses at Rifles Base in Ramadi, Iraq details an incident in July 2003 in which an Army captain took an Iraqi welder into the desert, told him to dig his own grave, verbally threatened to kill him and had other soldiers stage a shooting of the man.

As we first reported Sunday, for two years the media has published allegations by detainees that interrogators at Guantanamo and Kandahar desecrated the Koran, threw it in the toilet and worse. Today, the Washington Post recaps some of the claims. So does The Age (Australia); The Associated Press; Daily Times (Pakistan).

The New York Times calls upon Sen. John Warner, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee to investigate the claims. The LA Times calls on the Administration to close Guantanamo and provide detainees with legal protections. The Star Tribune calls the White House "Nixonian" and tells Newsweek to "resist."

We continue to call on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to appoint a special counsel to investigate. Someone should be listening to these 51 members of Congress, not Scott McCellan.

Update: Thanks to Ian at Political Teen for posting the video to today's MSNBC Connected Coast to Coast show that showed a screen shot of this post and talked about it. It was a good segment, also highlighting Daily Kos and Volokh on the nuclear option.