Friday, May 20, 2005


Detainees' stories
As you probably already know, the Washington Post noted yesterday that detainees' stories about desecration of the Koran have been widely reported for years (and the WaPo wasn't alone in trying to keep it real.) Human Rights First has more today. They've released a batch of recently declassified interviews with six Guantanamo detainees from Bahrain, about their treatment both at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan, that show a clear pattern of interrogators using people's faith as a weapon against them, in addition to physical abuse. Guards interfered with prayers, cursed Mohammed, placed shoes on top of the Koran, or threw it on the floor. They told detainees that there was a "holy war" against them. One guard told a prisoner that he beat him "because I'm Christian."...

...These are prisoners' claims, of course, not verified facts. But the prisoners' descriptions of their treatment often match, and the physical signs of abuse have been observed and reported by others....