Friday, Sep 5, 2008
Newly declassified files on detainee abuse include sworn statements by a Pentagon employee about a military interrogator who threw the Koran on the floor and "stepped on it" -- provoking detainees to riot.
May 27, 2005 | In sworn statements given to Pentagon investigators last summer, a Defense Department civilian employee assigned to military intelligence units described an incident in which an interrogator in Afghanistan "took a Koran, threw it on the floor and stepped on it," provoking a riot by Muslim detainees.
Along with scores of other documents and depositions concerning alleged prisoner abuse at U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the statements by the civilian employee were declassified and released last week in response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The employee's name is redacted from the depositions delivered in June 2004 to the Arizona headquarters of the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion. Those depositions and the other documents were among previously classified materials used by Gen. Paul Kern, Maj. Gen. George Fay and Lt. Gen. Anthony Jones to prepare an official Pentagon report on the Abu Ghraib scandal last summer.
Detainee charges of Quran desecration have aroused fresh controversy since Newsweek magazine published a news item about a Quran that was allegedly flushed down a toilet in order to demoralize Muslim prisoners at Guantánamo. Spokesmen for the White House and the Defense Department blamed subsequent lethal rioting by Afghan Muslims on the Newsweek report and indignantly denied that any such incidents had occurred.
Amid charges of fabrication and even treason spewed by furious right-wing pundits and bloggers, Newsweek humbly retracted its story. The magazine's embarrassment became a propaganda triumph for the White House and Pentagon, which, at least temporarily, successfully transformed concern over prisoner abuse and lack of official accountability into a debate about press standards.
Yet now the newly released documents again raise the issue of brutal and illegal tactics used against Muslim detainees -- particularly desecration of the Quran and other forms of religious pressure that violate the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law. As first reported by the Washington Post, the documents include numerous allegations of mistreatment of copies of the Muslim holy book -- including one detainee's statement to FBI agents that guards at Guantánamo had "flushed a Koran in a toilet."
Army and Defense Department officials have sought to cast doubt on the detainee allegations, suggesting that former prisoners want to stoke resentment by spreading "unsubstantiated" stories of desecration and abuse. Dismissing a reporter's question about "possible similar desecrations" of a Quran, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita last week replied that "there haven't been credible allegations to that effect."
The Pentagon's denials in the face of dozens of detainee allegations underscore the significance of the civilian employee's sworn statements. Although limited in scope, those statements represent the first independent confirmation of Quran desecration by someone other than a detainee or former prisoner.
The first statement from the civilian employee, dated June 10, 2004, included testimony about working at Abu Ghraib in October 2003 as a member of a small "Mobile Training Team" from Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The team's mission at the Iraqi prison was to "provide an overall assessment of interrogation operations, training, and advice and assistance." The civilian employee noted that the Intelligence Rules of Engagement -- Army regulations setting forth permissible interrogation methods -- "was posted and was very similar to the IROE used in Afghanistan."
While much of the June 10 statement is general and somewhat vague, the civilian employee specifically recalled an informal conversation with an Abu Ghraib interrogator about how to question detainees more aggressively:
"I gave him examples of approaches including Pride and Ego Down where an interrogator took a Koran, threw it on the floor and stepped on it ... I also explained sleep deprivation. I told him that in Afghanistan the interrogators could use an adjusted sleep schedule for detainees. The conversation was meant to explain why these activities were prohibited or restricted ... During my time at [Abu Ghraib], I did not witness any abuse or maltreatment of detainees."
Get Salon in your mailbox!
