KUALA LUMPUR, 7 June 2005 — The United States military is unlikely to hold court-martial proceedings in three cases of deliberate mishandling of the Qur’an at Guantanamo Bay prison, a top military official said yesterday.
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters during a visit to Malaysia that only two or three complaints of mishandling of the Muslim holy book turned out to have involved actions done on purpose.
“This is serious, but it’s clearly not — probably — going to result in court-martial activity,” Myers said. “But it depends on why they did it — what the motivation was,” he told reporters in response to a question.
Myers is visiting Malaysia after attending a security conference in Singapore. He is visiting the region to hold talks with regional leaders. The US military released details last week about five cases in which the Qur’an was kicked, stepped on, soaked in water, and in one instance, splashed with a guard’s urine falling through an air vent.
Myers also said the Guantanamo Bay prison camp should not be closed, adding some of its inmates were so dangerous that they should not be released “under any conditions.” He was commenting on a demand by a leading US Senate Democrat, Joseph Biden, that the prison camp should be shut down as it has become “the greatest propaganda tool” for terrorists.
Myers, however, said it was for the US government to decide whether to close the camp. But he suggested that there are not many options in dealing with the combatants who are not regular soldiers and have “no moral boundaries.”
There are “some that are very, very dangerous. You wouldn’t want to release them under any conditions,” he said, adding that those suspects should move “through the court system and let justice prevail.”
