Koran
When “detainees” from the
The first Muslim prisoners were flown in – hooded, sedated, and shackled on gurneys, as the International Red Cross and Amnesty International pointed out – on January 11, 2002 (“four months to the day” after the 9/11 attacks, as one observer noted). In the days following -- January 12th through 18th, 20th through 25th, 27th through 29th and February 3rd, 4th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 13th to be exact -- no fewer than 80 news reports, editorials and letters to the editor in major papers referred to the prisoners’ receiving copies of the Koran. (The same reports and commentaries were repeated almost infinitely in smaller papers, on television and on radio.)
With no particular adherence to chronology, simultaneous accounts reported variously that the prisoners “have been issued” copies of the holy book, that prisoners “are issued” the copies, that they “are to receive” the book, that Korans “are on order,” that multiple copies were expected “by February” (future) or “eventually.” While some news articles reported prisoners still requesting copies in their own languages, other reports sighted prisoners reading their copies and/or reciting from them.
However, virtually all the early reports on the prisoners at
With the 20-20 of hindsight, both those emphases are looking a bit dubious. So much uniformity on the prisoners’ getting the Koran, and so little unanimity on the details as to whether they actually had it, suggests a message being put out.
As early as Jan. 18th the St. Petersburg Times reported that only one captive had arrived with his own copy of the Koran. The emphasis on the holy book would appear to have risen almost entirely at
At that stage, some of the prisoners were being characterized as violent, desperate, and suicidal -- "the worst of the worst," according to Navy spokesman Roberto Nelson as quoted in the Boston Globe. Certainly, issuing them copies of the Koran would make sense.
Now, however, with only six prisoners out of hundreds actually charged with anything, with scores of prisoners quietly released over a period of months, and with the ongoing criticism of international human rights groups of what’s going on at Guantanamo, one has to wonder why exactly this emphasis on the holy text came about.
On Feb. 2, 2002, the Washington Post reported that “Many of the al Qaeda and Taliban captives imprisoned at the U.S. naval base here are locked in a war of wills with their American captors, resisting giving information as interrogators devise ways to get them talking, such as engaging them in discussion about the Koran, U.S. government officials said.” (“Captives Resist
The first news item about desecrating the Koran appeared in the Miami Herald on Feb. 24: “Friday's episode occurred when a detainee thought an MP kicked a Koran, said army Lt.-Col. Bill Costello. “One started shouting, 'Allahu Akbar.' So other detainees starting [sic] shouting, 'Allahu Akbar.' Colonel Carrico has said this happened before.” The protest was contained to a 12-unit cellblock, he reported, and guards quieted it “in a couple of minutes.” (“Detainees test guards: Chants follow perceived slight to Koran by an MP,” C7).
One notices that both these two early items are shaded entirely in terms of the captives’ resistance. Too bad; it looks in retrospect as though the possibility that the Koran might be used as a pressure point against the prisoners was not anticipated, or even hypothesized, by
But then, the obvious use of those photographs of prisoners being tortured as a pressure point to humiliate them further, and to blackmail them, has still not been given adequate treatment by our major media outlets.
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