Quran questions resurface

CRAWFORD, Texas – A Pentagon report detailing incidents in which U.S. guards at Guantanamo Bay prison desecrated the Quran is creating another public relations challenge for President Bush.

Two weeks ago, the White House was thrown on the defensive by a now-retracted Newsweek report alleging that U.S. interrogators at the detention center for alleged terrorists in Cuba had flushed a Quran down a toilet.

The story stirred worldwide controversy, and the Bush administration blamed it for deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan. Saying America’s image abroad had suffered irreparable damage, the White House responded with a verbal offensive against the media.

On Saturday, a day after the Pentagon described a series of cases of U.S. personnel mishandling the Quran, the White House downplayed the issue.

“It is unfortunate that some have chosen to take out of context a few isolated incidents by a few individuals,” presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said in a statement.

The Pentagon confirmed Friday evening – after the networks’ evening news shows had aired – that a U.S. soldier had deliberately kicked a prisoner’s holy book. The report also said prison guards had thrown water balloons in a cell block, causing an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet; a guard’s urine had splashed on a detainee and his Quran; an interrogator had stepped on a Quran during an interrogation; and a two-word obscenity had been written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.