2005 Quran desecration controversy The 2005 Quran desecration controversy began when " Newsweek ' s " April 30 issue contained a report asserting that United States prison guards or interrogators had deliberately damaged a copy of Islam ' s holiest book , the Quran . A week later , Hendrik Hertzberg wrote in " The New Yorker " , reporting the words of Pakistani politician Imran Khan : " This is what the U . S . is doing — desecrating the Koran . " This incident caused upset in parts of the Muslim world . The " Newsweek " article , part of which was subsequently retracted , stated that allegations that United States personnel at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had deliberately damaged a copy of the book by flushing it in a toilet in order to torment the prison ' s Muslim captives had been confirmed by government sources . The " Newsweek " article stated that an official had seen a preliminary copy of an unreleased U . S . government report confirming the deliberate damage . Later on , the magazine retracted this when the ( still ) unnamed official changed his story . A Pentagon investigation uncovered at least five cases of Quran mishandling by U . S . personnel at the base , but insisted that none of these were acts of desecration . The Pentagon ' s report also accused a prisoner of damaging a copy of the Quran by putting it in a toilet . In 2007 , the American Civil Liberties Union , suing under the Freedom of Information Act , secured the release of a 2002 FBI report containing a detainee ' s accusation of ill - treatment , including throwing a Quran into a toilet . This specific accusation had been made on several occasions by other Guantanamo detainees since 2002 ; " Newsweek " ' s initial account of a government report confirming it sparked protests throughout the Islamic world and riots in Afghanistan , where pre - planned demonstrations turned deadly . A worldwide controversy followed . The " Newsweek " affair turned the spotlight on earlier media reports of such incidents . Accusations of Quran desecration as a part of U . S . interrogations at prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as Guantánamo Bay had been made by a number of sources going back to 2002 . History . There were over a dozen pre - " Newsweek " reports in the mainstream media alleging U . S . Quran abuse , including the following : The " Newsweek " report . On April 30 , 2005 " Newsweek " magazine published an article claiming that an unnamed United States official had seen a government report supporting a " previously unreported " charge . Among the previously unreported cases that sources reportedly told " Newsweek " : interrogators , in an attempt to rattle suspects , flushed a Quran down a toilet and led a detainee around with a collar and dog leash . The prospect that U . S . personnel may have deliberately defaced the Quran provoked massive anti - U . S . demonstrations throughout the Islamic world , with at least 17 deaths during riots in Afghanistan . The " Newsweek " article , by reporter Michael Isikoff , was one of over a dozen such reports of similar incidents that had surfaced in prior months in the U . S . and UK media , but the first involving a U . S . government source acknowledging an inquiry into the event . The Isikoff article was later retracted by " Newsweek " , which nonetheless defended both its reporter and the story , stating " neither we nor the Pentagon had any idea it would lead to deadly riots . " The case turned the spotlight on other reports of desecration of the Quran at Guantánamo . The article went largely unnoticed for five days . On May 6 , a popular member of the Pakistani parliament , Imran Khan , held a press conference . Khan , who is a sharp critic of both Islamist terrorism and of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf , criticized his country ' s government , saying , " This war on terrorism is self - defeating if , on the one hand , you [ Musharraf ] are demanding that we help them and on the other hand , they are desecrating the book on which our entire faith is based . " Khan ' s press conference was rebroadcast throughout the Muslim world . The " Newsweek " report cited an anonymous source , said to be a senior government official , who claimed to have seen a confidential investigative report documenting the alleged incident — in which interrogators , " in an attempt to rattle suspects , reportedly flushed a Quran down a toilet . " However , on May 16 , " Newsweek " retracted the statement that the abuse had been uncovered by an " internal military investigation . " after the source of the story was later unable to confirm where he had seen the information . In its May 23 issue , " Newsweek " stated that : " The New York Times " quoted Isikoff as saying : International reaction . On May 10 and continuing the following week , many violent anti - American protests took place , and in some areas these turned into deadly riots . In Afghanistan , demonstrations that began in the eastern provinces and spread to Kabul were reported to have caused at least seventeen deaths . The United Nations , as a precautionary measure , withdrew all its foreign staff from Jalalabad , where two of its guest houses were attacked , government buildings and shops were targeted , and the offices of two international aid groups were destroyed . Demonstrations also took place in Palestine , Egypt , Sudan , Pakistan and Indonesia , leading to the death of at least 15 people . White House press secretary Scott McClellan said , " The report had real consequences , people have lost their lives . Our image abroad has been damaged . " However , in a press release issued by the United States Department of State on May 12 , General Richard B . Myers claimed that the " Newsweek " story was not a chief cause of the riots : " He has been told that the Jalalabad , Afghanistan , rioting was related more to the ongoing political reconciliation process in Afghanistan than anything else . " On May 27 , thousands of demonstrators gathered in what " The New York Times " referred to as " waves of protest " in Pakistan , Egypt , Indonesia , Bangladesh , and the Middle East , " mostly centered on Friday prayer gatherings . " The " Times " reported that U . S . flags were burned at some demonstrations , and that , although most of the protests were peaceful , overt calls for an " Islamic revolution " were loudly supported by the crowds in Pakistan , further complicating a difficult political situation for General Musharraf . A Red Cross spokesperson Simon Schorno confirmed that U . S . personnel at Camp X - ray had displayed " disrespect " to the Quran , and that U . S . officials knew of this activity . Delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross informed U . S . authorities , who took action to stop the alleged abuse , said Schorno . He declined to specify the nature of the incidents . Shehzad Tanweer , who participated in the 7 July 2005 London bombing , may have had his ideology reinforced by allegations of Quran abuse . His cousin Mohammad Saleem noted that " Incidents like desecration of the Koran have always been in his mind . " US military findings . On June 3 , 2005 , a U . S . military investigation by the base commander , Brigadier General Jay Hood , reported four ( possibly five ) incidents of " mishandling " of the Quran by U . S . personnel at Guantánamo Bay . Hood said his investigation " revealed a consistent , documented policy of respectful handling of the Quran dating back almost two and a half years . " CBC News reported : According to the Hood report : The report laid out the circumstances of these incidents and disciplinary actions taken . It also stressed that such mishandling was rare , and that guards were usually respectful of the Quran , following strict regulations the military laid down for handling the Quran . The Hood report also listed 15 reported incidents of detainees mishandling their own copies of the Quran , including complaints made by other detainees . One of these cases involved a prisoner " attempting to flush a Quran down the toilet and urinating on the Quran . " The statement did not provide any explanation about why the detainees might have abused their own holy books . FBI documents and other reports . The " Newsweek " article and the ensuing controversy turned the spotlight on other reports of Qu ' ran desecration and spurred additional investigations by others . After a verdict by a federal court on May 25 , 2005 , the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) obtained documents from the FBI interrogations of Guantánamo Bay detainees dating back to August 2002 . The documents stated that some detainees had claimed to have witnessed Quran desecration ( including " flush [ ing ] a Quran in the toilet " ) , among other acts , on many occasions by their guards — in a document dated August 1 , 2002 . The pertinent excerpt reads as follows : " " [ P ] rior to his capture , [ name redacted ] had no information against the United States . Personally , he has nothing against the United States . The guards in the detention facility do not treat him well . Their behavior is bad . About five months ago , the guards beat the detainees . They flushed a Koran in the toilet . The guards dance around when the detainees are trying to pray . The guards still do these things . " " The ruling of the court forcing the release of this and other documents came under the Freedom of Information Act The ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said , in a news release , that " The United States government continues to turn a blind eye to mounting evidence of widespread abuse of detainees held in its custody . " The FBI declared that it could not investigate the matter , as it was up to the Defense Department to do so . For its part , the Pentagon , through its spokesman Lawrence Di Rita , appeared to have transitioned from flat denials to vagueness and unsettled syntax : " There have been instances , and we ' ll have more to say about it as we learn more , but where a Quran may have fallen to the floor in the course of searching a cell . " Scott McClellan , the White House press secretary , told reporters that " past accusations have had credibility issues . " James Jaffer , an attorney working for the ACLU , was quoted by the " New York Times " as stating that errors in the " Newsweek " story had been used to discredit other investigative efforts conducted by his organization and other groups " that were not based on anonymous sources , but [ on ] government documents , reports written by FBI agents . " Many questioned the veracity of such accounts , noting that the FBI , in 2004 , had released a captured Al - Qaeda training manual which Bush Presidency spokesmen claim shows that Al - Qaeda members are trained to make false accusations once captured . The SERE connection . Several reports have alleged a connection between events at Guantanamo Bay and a Pentagon - funded program known as SERE , which stands for " Survival , Evasion , Resistance and Escape . " On May 16 , 2005 , Juan Cole published an email from a former SERE attendee who reported abuse of the Christian holy book in training . The emailer had no direct knowledge of operations at Guantanamo , but noted that this tactic sounded similar to that alleged in the Newsweek story . In July 2005 , an article in " The New Yorker " magazine suggested that the SERE program involved a number of techniques which paralleled those allegedly used at Guantánamo Bay , including the desecration of religious texts . The writer contacted Juan Cole ' s anonymous source who said that in 1999 he attended a Navy SERE program in California . The SERE program ' s chief psychologist , Col . Morgan Banks , issued guidance in early 2003 for " behavioral science consultants " who helped to devise Guantánamo ' s interrogation strategy — although Banks has emphatically denied that he advocated the use of SERE counter - resistance techniques to break down detainees . However , General James T . Hill , chief of the U . S . Southern Command , confirmed that a team from Guantanamo went " up to our SERE school and developed a list of techniques " for " high - profile , high - value " detainees . According to an op - ed in the November 14 , 2005 " New York Times " by M . Gregg Bloche and Jonathan H . Marks , two lawyers with no first - hand knowledge of SERE , " General Hill had sent this list - - which included prolonged isolation and sleep deprivation , stress positions , physical assault and the exploitation of detainees ' phobias - - to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld , who approved most of the tactics in December 2002 . Some within the Pentagon warned that these tactics constituted torture , but a top adviser to Secretary Rumsfeld justified them by pointing to their use in SERE training , a senior Pentagon official told us last month . "