The Pentagon confirmed late Friday that several US guards at Guantanamo Bay had, in fact, abused the Quran on numerous occasions, but not deliberately, characterizing the incidents as "clumsy little mishaps." The Pentagon's report confirms accounts of Quran abuse that have come out of Guantanamo, including the now-retracted Newsweek article of several weeks ago.
According to the Pentagon, a soldier had in fact urinated on the Quran, but had done so accidentally. After slamming a prisoner's head against a wall for ten minutes, the guard stepped outside for a bathroom break. While he was urinating near an outside air vent, a bit of urine was sucked in by the vent, depositing approximately four droplets onto the prisoner and his Quran inside a cell. The prisoner determined that the drops of liquid were urine after he sent away for a glucose testing kit from Drugstore.com.
The Pentagon also reported that a US soldier kicked a prisoner's Holy Book, but that the incident happened accidentally when the soldier tripped over a leash that he had affixed to another prisoner's neck.
In addition, the report noted that several Qurans got wet when water balloons were mishandled in a cell block, but that the balloons accidentally slipped out of the hands of an over-enthusiastic clown who was brought in to entertain a group of detainees. Finally, the report detailed how an interrogator had stepped on a Quran during an interrogation, but specified that it happened accidentally while he was attempting to step on the prisoner's testicles.
"What you've got here are not malicious attempts to abuse the Quran, but a bunch of klutzy guards," the report concluded. "Think of it as Keystone Cops at Guantamo."
When asked about the Newsweek story and the Bush Administration's dismissal of it as false, presidential spokesman Scott McLellan said, "Newsweek said the guards flushed it down the toilet. They didn't flush it down the toilet. They peed on it and stepped on it. Such lies and mischaracterizations have caused rioting and deaths, and have tarnished the image of the United States abroad. Now does anyone have any questions about the Michael Jackson trial?"
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