Protests in Afghanistan over the Qur'an in the toilet rumor. "Afghan students say 'Death to America,'" from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan students chanted "Death to America" and burned an effigy of President Bush on Tuesday, following a report that copies of the Quran were desecrated at the U.S. detention center for terror suspects Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials and witnesses said.Hundreds of students marched from a university campus into the eastern city of Jalalabad and blocked the main road toward the capital, Kabul, intelligence chief Sardar Shah said. There were no reports of violence.
Television footage showed students chanting and calling for an apology for the alleged abuse of Islam's holy book. An object which witnesses said was an effigy of Bush could be seen burning.
In a recent edition, Newsweek magazine reported that in order to rattle suspects, U.S. interrogators placed Qurans on toilets and in at least one case "flushed a holy book down the toilet."
In Washington, the State Department on Tuesday described the reported desecration of copies of the Quran as "reprehensible."
"Obviously, the destruction of any kind of holy book, whether it's a Bible or a Koran or any other document like that, is something that's
reprehensible and not in keeping with U.S. policies and practices," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.Casey said the allegations are "certainly serious and it would be important to have them be looked into."...
Gitmo has apparently not coverted to low flow toilets yet.
Can't help but think that the toilet is the best place for that evil piece of work.
"flushed a holy book down the toilet."
To quote Kurtz: "The horror. The horror." (snicker)
It totally amazes me that such a rumor would disturb anyone enough to march in the streets. Obviously it doesn't take much to get these people weirded out and that is why they are so easily manipulated by their masters.
"chanting and calling for an apology"
Oh my, Islam has been offended!(gasp)
You know, Islam and apparently Allah are just a bunch of cry-babies with the emotional intellegence of an autistic sloth.
f.g.
I guess someone forgot to tell them that yesterday was national Flush-a-Koran-Down-Yur-Toilet Day.
I always keep a copy handy for when I run out of paper.
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Feb. 16, 2005 -- The detainee population at the U.S. naval base here is a diverse group. The roughly 545 detainees hail from some 40 countries and speak at least 17 different languages.
But nearly as diverse as the individuals themselves are the conditions in which they're held.
Since U.S. officials began holding enemy combatants here in January 2002, an elaborate system to manage those detainees in a humane manner, protect guards and maximize intelligence has evolved here.
Today, prisoners are divided into four levels, based on how well they comply with camp rules, explained a senior Navy petty officer serving here.
Navy Master Chief Petty Officer Tracy Padmore, an aviation maintenance technician from Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., explained that detainees are placed in levels based solely on how well they cooperate with guards' instructions. "(The levels) have nothing to do with what a detainee's (intelligence) value is or what he might say or do in an interrogation booth," he said.
"Humane" and "consistent" seem to be watchwords for members of the joint task force here. Anyone working with detainees uses these words right off the bat when describing what they do. Guards and officers at Guantanamo consistently appear genuinely offended when asked about allegations in the civilian media about detainee abuses at Guantanamo Bay.
"I'm not here to say we're all perfect," Padmore said. "But these young men and women carry out their duties in a highly professional manner." He added that when minor infractions of the rules by guards have occurred, they've been punished swiftly.
"Detainees here at Guantanamo are treated in a humane manner at all times by the security folks and the intelligence folks who work with them," Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said.
He said all JTF members are strongly focused on their mission, "the safe, secure, humane custody of the detainees under our charge."
Hood explained that information collected since the detainees have been held here has helped officials learn how best to handle the detainees' continued detention and to design suitable facilities.
Level 1 detainees wear white "uniforms" and share living spaces with other detainees. At the other end of the spectrum, Level 4 detainees wear orange, hospital scrub-type outfits and have fewer privileges.
Padmore, who is assigned to Joint Task Force Guantanamo based on prior corrections experience, described a typical Level 1 detainee as "compliant and willing to follow camp rules." Whereas, Level 4 detainees generally "have a litany of offenses," from threatening other detainees or guards to hurling bodily fluids at guards or refusing to come out of the cell when ordered.
To a certain extent, the level a detainee is placed in determines where he is housed, as well. Most Level 1 detainees are afforded extra privileges in Camp 4. (Camps are numbered based on the order in which they were built, not their order of precedence or level of security.)
Gone are the days of concrete slabs and open-air chain-link enclosures in Camp X-Ray. Hood explained that Camp X-Ray was a hastily built structure to deal with a rapidly changing situation in the war on terrorism and that the facilities there were never meant to be used for long-term detention. Engineers began construction on Camp Delta, which replaced Camp X-Ray in April 2002, shortly after detainees began arriving here, he said.
In Camp 4, part of Camp Delta, detainees live in 10-man bays with nearly all- day access to exercise yards and other recreational privileges.
Sgt. 1st Class Todd Rundle, an Army Reserve military police officer, explained that Camp 4 is Camp Delta's only medium-security facility. Doors in the camp are normally opened with keys, but a mechanical override can be controlled from inside the centrally located "Liberty Tower," the camp's command post, in an emergency.
Detainees generally are allowed out in exercise yards attached to their living bays seven to nine hours a day. Exercise yards include picnic tables under cover and ping-pong tables. Detainees also have access to a central soccer area and volleyball court.
Rundle said the large amount of outdoor time is a huge incentive for detainees to want to be transferred to Camp 4, which is based on good behavior. "The increased incentive of the additional time out here, that's a big thing for detainees to be able to come out for that duration of time over the course of every single day of the week," he said.
Part of the rationale behind the living arrangements at Camp 4 is to rebuild detainees' social skills, "which might have been lost over time," Rundle said. Detainees are provided games -- chess, checkers and playing cards are the most requested items -- and are responsible for keeping their own living areas clean.
They also eat meals together within their cellblocks. Food-service personnel bring the food, always culturally sensitive, and detainees apportion it among themselves at mealtime. Padmore said a guard always supervises so "Detainee A is not getting three plates while Detainee B gets none."
Books and other reading material are available during periodic visits from a designated librarian. A security official explained Agatha Christie books in Arabic are very popular and that camp officials are working to get copies of the Harry Potter books in Arabic.
Also in Camp 4, detainees are issued a full roll of toilet paper each week. In other camps detainees have to ask guards to apportion toilet paper when they need it. Padmore said many people take toilet paper for granted and that the detainees in Camp 4 value having their own supplies.
Other privileges unique to Camp 4 include electric fans in the bays, ice water available around the clock, plastic tubs with lids for the detainees to store their personal items, and the white uniforms. White is a more culturally respected color and also serves as an incentive to detainees in other camps.
"It's almost like a status symbol," he said. "Detainees come past and see detainees from Camp 4 playing volleyball, playing soccer or in white uniforms. The hope is that other detainees will play by the rulebook and aspire to get to Camp 4 to get those privileges afforded to them."
Not too far away, in Camp 1, some detainees are just one step away from being moved to Camp 4. They wear tan uniforms and are afforded such comfort items as prayer rugs and canvas sneakers. Many of these detainees are being considered for transfer to Camp 4, Rundle said.
Detainees in Camp 1 are housed in individual cells with a toilet and sink in each cell. The have 30 minutes in one of two exercise yards at the end of each cellblock twice a week, Padmore explained. Showers are allowed in outdoor shower stalls after exercise periods.
There are 10 cellblocks with 48 cells each, but guards generally don't fully populate the cellblocks to minimize the guard-to-detainee ratio.
Movement into and within the camp is funneled through "sally ports," entrances and passageways with two gates. One gate must be closed before the next can be opened. Military police officers man each sally port from inside.
Each detainee gets basic items such as a "finger toothbrush" -- short and stubby so it can't be used as a weapon -- toothpaste, soap, shampoo, plastic flip flops, and cotton underwear, shorts, pants and a shirt.
Guards are not allowed to remove basic items, but comfort items can be taken away for behavior infractions. Comfort items can include such simple things as Styrofoam cups and caps to the water bottles.
Some seemingly innocent items are kept from detainees to prevent them from harassing guards. For instance, sport tops on water bottles can make it easier for detainees to shoot bodily fluids onto guards, Padmore said.
The most recently completed detention facility, Camp 5, is a state-of-the-art prison that many states would envy. The $16 million facility, completed in May 2004, is composed of four wings of 12 to 14 individual cells each.
The two-story maximum-security detention and interrogation facility can hold up to 100 people and houses Level 4 detainees and those deemed to be the most valuable intelligence assets. The camp is run from a raised, glass-enclosed centralized control center that sits in the middle of the facility, giving the MPs a clear line of sight into both stories of each wing. Army National Guard Maj. Todd Berger called the control room "the nerve center of the camp."
Berger, who in civilian life is a state trooper in New Jersey, explained that all detainee movement in Camp 5 is monitored and controlled through touch- screen computers in the control center.
Thick steel airlock doors clang shut with a hiss and an echo as guards move through the cellblocks. In Camp 5, media and other visitors are not permitted to tour occupied cellblocks. The modern facility features some cells equipped with overhanging sinks and grab bars on the toilets for detainees with a physical disability and 10-foot-by-20-foot outdoor exercise yards that detainees generally have access to for an hour every day.
Camp rules are posted in four languages -- Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and Pashto -- in the exercise yards in each of the camps. Recently, the enclosed bulletin boards have also featured posters with information about the Afghan elections. "It talks about the fact that 10 million Afghanis freely elected their own government," Rundle said. "So it's a bit of news from home … for a chunk of the detainee population here."
Cultural sensitivity is consistently practiced in each of the camps. Respect for Islam is evident in many of the policies. For instance, in each cell in Camp 1, a Koran is stored hanging in a surgical mask from the cell wall. The purpose of the surgical mask is to hold the Muslim holy book "in a place of reverence," Padmore said.
In each cell block a painted arrow points toward Mecca, Saudi Arabia, so the detainees know which way to face during their daily prayers. During Ramadan, detainees were allowed to break their daily fast with water and dates at the appropriate time, and prayer calls are broadcast over loudspeakers five times a day.
Regardless of his assigned level or camp, no detainee is considered to be more or less dangerous than another. "I can't say who's dangerous and who's not," Padmore said. "I consider them all dangerous people because they're here."
Let's hear your Top Ten Uses for the Koran!
10. Book burning parties
9. Fireplace fuel
8. Bird cage liner
7. Cat litter liner
6. Cleaning up barf
5. DemoKKKratic Convention speeches
4. Speeches at nazi rallies
3. Tampons
2. Wrapping pork
1. Toilet paper for Fido
On a more serious note, the editors of Newsweek showed extremely poor judgement in publishing this article. Either they are totally ignorant about the things that make Muslims go postal or they could care less (more likely, a combination of both).
Frankly, I can't think of a better place for the Koran, but the agent who leaked this story and all of the people involved in transmitting this inflammatory piece of news are spineless traitors.
Rublev, you bet; if it weren't for jerks like the one who leaked the story, we could routinely use the emotional fragility and volatility of the Muslims to our own advantage. They're SO PREDICTABLE!
Shiva,
How about 11. Paper mache for the kids' craft projects, 12. soil cover in the garden to prevent weeds from emerging, 13. joining the Sears catalogue in the outhouse, 14. shredded for use in the compost pile, and 15. raw material for spitwads for misbehaving 3rd graders to use in class.
f.g.,
Since Islam isn't about happiness (Khomeini himself said so!), I guess getting weirded out is the only form of amusement they are permitted. And they do it so well!
Kim Hartveld,
Was it yesterday? Damn! I thought it was tomorrow!
I just caught the last few seconds of a CNN report on this.
It sounded REALLY important.
I'll try to catch it again later.
Proving once again that all the claims about the US government treating prisoners well in Guantanamo is nothing more than hollow propaganda...
Hey what's going on (dip)Shitkri. What does flushing bound pieces of paper down the loo have to do with mistreating your precious muslim brethern? What's that? mental torture you say, well you and your pals are so emotionally retarded, yes retarded, that just about anything the infidel world does makes you go ballistic. Guess what, nobody cares what you brainwashed twits feel anymore. We do pity you however, for knowing your going to the hellfire for believing in a false prophet and his make believe god. Now excuse me while I go and tear a couple of pages from my old koran and make another deposit into the loo......
Im thrilled with the reaction.
they are going after the UN and killing each other. there should be a game show based of winding up these deranged louts
Really, think about it. The islamic world is poor and backward because nobody has time to work and produce anything. They are too busy praying five times a day, and if not at the mosque, they are having a hissy fit over some rumor they have heard about how a muslim somewhere in the world that has been *gulp*...humiliated.
I'm sure that after someone explained to the mob of afghanis what a flush toilet is, they were outraged.
Oh those poor toilets!! I pity the sewer system, too.
And you know, it's a shame..because they were being so nice to us before we handed over custody of their deluded and apocryphal rantings to the Ti-D-Bowl Man.
As far as I'm concerned, the guests at Gitmo are living it up better than some of the hotels I've been to in Iran. This is seriously ridiculous. And people are actually listening to complaints about this place??
Straining for the moral high, will leave you open to attacks by the immoral low. Remember, to the VICTOR go the spoils, not to the moral. Better to err on the side of caution than let our children bear the consequences of our inaction.
"On a more serious note, the editors of Newsweek showed extremely poor judgement in publishing this article. Either they are totally ignorant about the things that make Muslims go postal or they could care less (more likely, a combination of both)."
I will never understand why our media doesn't understand that if we lose this war ( the greater war, not Iraq ) they will not be free to report a damned thing. It is time for our press to get with the program.
Book worshippers are apostates! They should be killed. There is only one God.
Hey,I thought of having a Quran in my washroom
and show Allah exactly what I thought of his Death-Cult and "Infidelophobia" against us
lowly peons that are such a threat to Islam,but
we have laws against flushing toxic materials
down a toilet into the sewage system.
As for uses - #1.Toilet paper for fido,that's really cruel and PETA would go ape over the
forcing of a dog to touch a Quran.
NO ISLAM - KNOW PEACE
If desecrating the quran is not US policy, it should be. Let's start right away.
No muslims. No mosques.
- Havoc
Posted by: f.g. at May 11, 2005 09:25 AM
ROTFL
Gold Star for you !!
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
GOD BLESS THE USA AND HER FIGHTING FORCES AND ALL WHO FIGHT WITH HER GIVE THEM STRENGTH, WISDOM, SIGHT, AND COURAGE TO DESTROY ALL ISLAMIC TERRORIST AND ALL WHO SUPPORT THEM AMEN
I think someone should have also explained to them that there is no way a book could fit down the hole of a toilet.
[The website administrator will probably not post this message on the site, but it's worth a shot.]
You guys are so misguided. Seriously, you should find out what Islam really is before you start talking trash. Though it may be too late for that now (you guys are waaaay off to the edge), here's a link that might help:
www.HarunYahya.com (lots of free DivX documentaries about Islam, etc... there)
Oh, and this one is really GOOD... The ENTIRE Holy Quran in MP3 format with an English translation:
http://www.aswatalislam.net/DisplayFilesP.aspx?TitleID=97
And if you guys are lucky enough to be forgiven and guided (I doubt it though... You just pushed the limit with that stuff you said about Allah) then repent SEVERELY!
P.S. - I dont know where you guys come up with all that sinful non-sense about Allah because Allah is just the Arabic word for God.
I'm thinking that Koran TP might sell well on the internet, anyone know someone able to produce such a lovely product?
Templar2005