Pentagon Says Qur'an Was Not Purposefully Mishandled

The investigation identified 13 "incidents of alleged mishandling of the Qur'an by Joint Task Force personnel," Hood said.

Of those, only five "could be broadly defined as mishandling of a Qur'an," Hood said. Six additional episodes were "accidental incidents involving guards, that the guard either accidentally touched a Qur'an, touched it within the scope of his duties or did not actually touch the Qur'an at all," he said.

Those six incidents are considered "resolved," Hood said. Hood would not disclose the exact circumstances of the incidents in question while the investigation is ongoing.

Hood spoke at the midpoint of an ongoing investigation that covers approximately 31,000 documents regarding activities from 2002 to the present. Under normal Pentagon procedure, a preliminary report is unusual, Hood said, but the incendiary nature of these allegations made comment necessary.

Hood announced that there is "no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Qur'an down the toilet." Earlier, an FBI document obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union had alleged such an incident in August 2002. On Thursday, the detainee who had made that allegation recanted his statement.

Hood said written procedures for handling the Qur'an were distributed to Guantanamo Bay personnel in January 2003, and that those procedures have been followed with few exceptions.

Twice, Hood said, guards or interrogators have been punished for violating the protocol, though he declined to discuss the specific violation or the punishment.

In Islam, the world's second-largest religion, it is not permitted to touch a Qur'an without first ritually washing one's hands. Further, a Qur'an is not permitted to touch the floor, be placed under other books or objects, or otherwise be treated casually.