Attorney: Former Detainees Have Repeatedly Accused U.S. of Desecrating Koran at Guatanamo

by Amy Goodman

In August 2003, 23 Yemeni detainees reportedly tried to commit mass suicide after a guard stomped on the Koran. In addition, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights reported former detainees said they saw the Koran being thrown into the toilets. Three British citizens released last year from Guantanamo reported similar treatment of the Koran in a 115-page dossier on the conditions at the detention camp.

Watch The Video

Bush administration officials have blamed the Newsweek report for sparking the protests and undercutting U.S attempts to repair its reputation in the Muslim world after tha Abu Gharib prison abuse scandal. Matt Drudge reported yesterday that Michael Isikoff, the investigative journalist who was one of the two reporters who wrote the story, offered to resign from the magazine but his resignation was not accepted by Newsweek's editors. Instead, the magazine retracted the story and apologized for publishing it.

The Pentagon first complained about the article on Friday following the deadly protests. On Monday, White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said, "The report has had serious consequences. People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged." McClellan also said that the retraction was a, "good first step" but that that the magazine had an obligation to reverse the effects of its story and explain to the Muslim world "the policies and practices of our military."

However, this is not the first time such accusations surfaced about US guards desecrating the Koran. In August 2003, 23 Yemeni detainees reportedly tried to commit mass suicide after a guard stomped on the Koran. In addition, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights reported former detainees said they saw the Koran being thrown into the toilets. Three British citizens released last year from Guantanamo reported similar treatment of the Koran in a 115-page dossier on the conditions at the detention camp. Up until now, the Pentagon had been unwilling to say whether any of these allegations were investigated. But yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said these allegations were not credible. And last night the State Department sent a cable to all embassies instructing them to inform host countries of the Newsweek retraction. To talk more about this, we are joined by Michael Ratner. He is an attorney and the President of the Center for Constitutional Rights. We're also joined on the phone from London by journalist and playwright Victoria Britain who has spoken with many former detainees.

• Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
• Victoria Britain, longtime reporter for the Guardian of London and author of a play about the Gauntanamo detainees.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Matt Drudge reported yesterday that Michael Isikoff, the investigative journalist, who was one of the two reporters who wrote the story, offered to resign from the magazine, but his resignation was not accepted by Newsweek’s editors. Instead, the magazine retracted the story and apologized for publishing it.

NEWSWEEK SPOKESPERSON: We say that we feel terrible. I have expressed my sympathy and my editor's note this week to all of the people, all of the victims of the violence.

AMY GOODMAN: The Pentagon first complained about the article on Friday, following the deadly protests. On Monday, White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said, (quote), “The report has had serious consequences: People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged,” McClellan said. He also said the retraction was a, (quote), “good first step,” but that the magazine had an obligation to reverse the effects of its story and explain to the Muslim world, (quote), “the policies and practices of our military.”

However, this is not the first time such accusations have surfaced about U.S. guards desecrating the Koran. In August 2003, 23 Yemeni detainees reportedly tried to commit mass-suicide after a guard stomped on the Koran. In addition, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights reported former detainees said they saw the Koran being thrown into the toilets. Three British citizens released last year from Guantanamo reported similar treatment of the Koran in a 115-page dossier on the conditions at the detention camp. Up until now, the Pentagon had been unwilling to say whether any of these allegations were investigated. But yesterday, Pentagon spokesperson, Lawrence DiRita said these allegations were not credible, and last night the State Department sent a cable to all embassies instructing them to inform host countries of the Newsweek retraction.

To talk more about this, we are joined by Michael Ratner, attorney and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. On the phone with us from London, we are joined by long-time journalist and playwright, Victoria Britain, who has spoken with many former detainees. We're also still joined by Robert Parry in Washington, D.C.

Michael Ratner, can you talk about the Tipton Guantanamo detainees, those detainees who went back to Britain from Tipton?

MICHAEL RATNER: Right. You know, this story, it’s almost like a kill the messenger story. Here, the United States has essentially been exploiting Muslim religion in its interrogations in Guantanamo for a long period of time, and all of a sudden, Newsweek does a retraction, not of actually what happened to the Koran, but in fact of whether it was mentioned in a military report that is about to be released about Guantanamo. And what's interesting to me is over a year ago, I was in London, in England, and I interviewed three of the Tipton people who had been released, and they told me very clearly stories of the abuse of the Koran. They talked about how it was kicked around on the floor, how it was thrown into the toilet. This is a year ago –