When Riots Go Bad

Continuing in today's theme of riots...

At least four people have died and many were hurt after police fired shots to disperse anti-US protests in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, officials say.

Hundreds rioted over reports that interrogators at America's Guantanamo Bay prison had flushed at least one copy of the Koran down a toilet.

The city is now said to be calm after widespread damage to property. All but essential UN staff are being withdrawn.

US authorities have said they are investigating the Koran allegations.

"Obviously the destruction of any kind of holy book... is something that is reprehensible and not in keeping with US policies and practices," state department spokesman Tom Casey said.

I'm pretty skeptical of this. Gitmo isn't some game of grab-ass like abu Ghurayb. At Gitmo, you have trained interrogators, and I severely doubt that this kind of behavior would go on in the first place. I could be wrong, but I think it's important to reiterate: these aren't a bunch of juvenile squaddies who decide to screw with the detainees. The guys at Gitmo are the best personnel available to the Department of Defense and the Federal Government, and anyone who's studied this at all (which I have) knows that this kind of behavior is counter-productive.

Take it for what it's worth, but my guess is that this is just another bullshit claim from a bunch of honor-defficient terrorists, and it's now caused the death of several Afghans who aren't educated enough to know the difference.