[Leica] OT: Koran Desecrations at Gitmo

[bdcolen at comcast.net (B. D. Colen)]

I, too, Mark, wondered from the beginning about the idea of a Koran fitting
down the toilet. However - I have right here in my home a "History of the
Bible" published in the late 1840s, with wood cuts of all the Prophets, that
measures about an inch-and-a-half by about two inches by about 3/4 of an
inch. I wouldn't put it past the Pentagon to have supplied prisoners with
itty bitty Korans.


On 6/8/05 7:50 PM, "Marc James Small" <msmall@aya.yale.edu> wrote:

> At 03:11 PM 6/8/05 -0400, B. D. Colen wrote:
>> Uh, "cheesy Newsweek hoax?" Isn't it odd that while the world has been
>> trashing Newsweek for its "cheesy hoax," verified report after verified
>> report of Koran desecration has come out - including from the Pentagon? 
>> Yet
>> people speak of the "cheesy Newsweek hoax." Seems to me Newsweek got the
>> essential story right, and first; they were simply off on some of what are
>> essentially meaningless details.
> 
> BD
> 
> You and I are probably closer on this than we are on many other issues:  I
> distrust the government inherently and my anarchist beliefs tell me that
> the sort of extraordinary imprisonment used on these folks is offensive to
> all traditions of US law.
> 
> However, most of the documented cases of Koran abuse at Gitmo seem to be by
> the inmates themselves.  It is intolerable for the US to allow abuse of a
> religious work either by its own people or by inmates, but the big picture
> seems to be that the greater abuses have been committed by the inmates
> themselves and not by their interrogators.
> 
> Now, the mechanics of flushing a book down a toilet does interest me, and
> it ought to have raised the hackles of everyone in the editorial chain at
> NEWSWEEK.  You simply cannot flush a book down any toilet in current use in
> the US or at Guantanomo Bay.  Was anyone thinking when this story was run?
> (It is possible, of course, that the book was torn into small pieces and
> then flushed but I find this most imrobable, given the sort of arrogant
> jerks who end up employed as interrogators, and their short attention span:
>  it strikes me as funny to contemplate one of these dudes spending eight or
> ten hours hacking down a Koran into bits small enought to be flushed.)  In
> the end, a capable editor ought to have bounced the story back to the
> writer and demanded an explanation for the bizarre omission of discussing
> HOW a book was to be flushed down a toilet.
> 
> I still have no idea why the US is involved in either Afghanistan or Iraq,
> as I am a convinced adherent of national isolation.  If the US would simply
> abandon the blind support of Israel it has adopted since 1948, the Islamic
> nations would see the US in a far more positive light.  The only edge they
> hold is their possession of oil, and, were the US to adopt a stature of
> absolute neutrality, they would certainly sell it to the highest bidder.
> (And, in the end, the Big Hammer remians in the background:  the US could,
> though I certainly do not advocate this, seize the oil fields and use the
> US Army's Corps of Engineers to pump the oil by contracting the oil
> companies who do this today.  The fortunate reality is that the oil fields
> are located in areas bereft of a populace, so enraged Arabs could then blow
> themselves up without cost to the US.)
> 
> But the entire Gitmo thing is an example of the policies of Janet Reno run
> mad:  crazy as she was in her disregard of human rights, Ashcroft proved
> himself much goofier.  Charge these guys and try them in conventional
> courts under conventional rules,. or release them.  This Star Chamber stuff
> is offensive to every tradition of US jurisprudence and ought to be
> offensive to every US citizen.
> 
> Marc
> 
> msmall@aya.yale.edu
> Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
> 
> NEW FAX NUMBER:  +540-343-8505
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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