Declassified FBI records cite allegations of Quran abuse

WASHINGTON -- Terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison told U.S. interrogators as early as April 2002 that military guards abused them and desecrated the Quran, declassified FBI records say.

"Their behavior is bad," one detainee is quoted as saying of his guards during an interrogation by an FBI special agent on July 22, 2002. "About five months ago the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Quran in the toilet."

Lawrence Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said Wednesday that U.S. military officials at Guantanamo Bay had recently found a separate record of the same allegation by the same detainee, and he was re-interviewed. "He did not corroborate his own allegation," Di Rita said.

The statements about guards disrespecting the Quran echo allegations made months later by some detainees and their attorneys after prisoners' release. The FBI documents are consistent with the allegations and are the first indication that Justice and Defense department officials were aware in early 2002 that detainees were accusing their guards of mistreating the Quran.

One told an interrogator in March 2003 that guards had repeatedly mishandled the Quran, and asked why the United States was using the Muslim holy book as a weapon.

Amnesty International urged the United States to shut down the prison, calling it "the gulag of our time." White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that the human rights group's complaints were "unsupported by the facts" and that allegations were being investigated.

Some 540 men are being held at Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban government or the al-Qaida terror network.

Di Rita said the charges of Quran desecration by U.S. military personnel were "fantastic" and "not credible on their face" because U.S. commanders were careful not to inflame passions among the detainees. Di Rita also said that the terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay had been trained to make false claims.

The FBI records cite one instance in which a detainee is said to have claimed that a guard had dropped a Quran. "In actuality the detainee dropped the Quran and then blamed the guard," the FBI document said.

In response to a recent Newsweek story, later retracted, that U.S. officials had confirmed allegations of Quran desecration, Pentagon officials have said repeatedly that they have turned up no credible claims that guards had deliberately disrespected the Muslim holy book.

Di Rita said the Pentagon had not seen the new FBI documents until they were made public Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU said it received them in response to a federal court order that directed the FBI and other agencies to comply with the organization's request under the Freedom of Information Act.

In many of the interrogations described in the FBI documents, Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Navy and Army investigations personnel were present.

The U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for the Guantanamo Bay detention center, responded to the Newsweek story by beginning a review of written logs searching for corroborated incidents of Quran mishandling.