Keith Olbermann will discuss Red Cross reports of Qu'ran abuse tonight

[Nothing Without Hope]

From his emailed newsletter today (May 19):

His show on MSNBC airs at 8 PM ET.

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Tonight on Countdown
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The Pentagon was made aware three years ago that US personnel might have been desecrating or mishandling Korans at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

The international Red Cross told U.S. authorities about American personnel at the Guantanamo Bay detention center showing disrespect to Islam's holy book, the Quran, a spokesman said Thursday. Delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross informed the relevant U.S. authorities, who took action to stop the abuse, said spokesman Simon Schorno, who declined to specify the nature of the incidents.

"We're basically referring in general terms to disrespect of the Quran, and that's where we leave it," Schorno told The Associated Press. "We believe that since, U.S. authorities have taken the corrective measures that we required in our interventions." (Associated Press) http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Red-Cross-backs-claims-of-Koran-abuse-in-US-prison-camp/2005/05/19/1116361678341.html?oneclick=true

(snip)

(Unfortunately, the AP link in the above excerpt is to the Syney Morning Herald, which requires a subscription to view the article.)

Will Qu'ran defilement in the prisons be portrayed as a past problem that has already been completely resolved and corrected? Maybe not. In his blog entry for May 18, Keith Olbermann wrote:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7873141/#050518a
(snip)

On Sunday, May 1, the New York Times reported that as the military investigated abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the paper had spoken to a former detainee named Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi. He said that in his three years at Gitmo, there were three major hunger strikes by detainees — one of them after guards there had piled up copies of the Qu'ran, and stepped on them.

Al-Mutairi said that action was so bad, that even a senior officer at Gitmo got on the camp public address system, promised that abuse of the Qu'ran would stop, and apologized for it.

The Times also quoted an unidentified former U.S. interrogator at Guantanamo, who confirmed the hunger strike, and the broadcast apology, although he evidently did not witness the piling up of, and stepping on, the Qu'rans.

We know that there are many, many other examples of Qu'ran desecration. For some examples, see this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3669550
Thread title: “Stories of Korans tossed into Gitmo toilets as early as **March 2003**”