FBI report: Guantanamo Bay guards mistreated the Quran

Detainees at the U.S. naval base in &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2002/03/09/26890.html ' target=_blank>Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, alleged in 2002 that guards mistreated the Quran, according to some of the hundreds of FBI documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU obtained the documents from the FBI through a federal court order in a lawsuit based on a Freedom of Information Act request. Most of them are records of detainee interviews with FBI agents, tells CNN News.

According to the FBI documents, a detainee interviewed in August 2002 said guards had flushed the Koran in the toilet. Others reported the Koran being kicked, withheld as punishment, and thrown on the floor, and said they were mocked during prayers, the ACLU said on its Web site.

Newsweek magazine on May 16 retracted a report it published in its May 9 issue that cited an unidentified U.S. government official as saying investigators found evidence that guards at Guantanamo desecrated the &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/society/2001/12/04/22777.html ' target=_blank>Koran, including an incident in which the Muslim holy book was flushed down a toilet, in order to provoke detainees into talking. Muslim leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan seized on the article and called for anti-U.S. demonstrations. Over a four day period at least 16 people died, a United Nations compound in Afghanistan was attacked and crowds burned American flags and effigies of U.S. president George W. Bush.

Newsweek reported on May 15 its source for the story subsequently said he could not be sure the information was in the official results of the investigation, publishes Bloomberg.