News briefing on Koran mishandling allegations, Brigadier General Jay Hood, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, May 26, 2005. Excerpt:

For the last 12 days, we have conducted an extensive inquiry into the allegations concerning mishandling of the Koran. From the beginning of the inquiry, I directed that we look into all alleged Koran mishandling allegations, and specifically focused on whether any member of the Joint Task Force had flushed a Koran down a toilet.

Additionally, I asked the team to identify the documented procedures for handling the Koran from 2002 until the present and identify any incidents where Joint Task Force personnel failed to follow established procedures, and then to make any recommended changes to our current procedures for handling the Koran or any religious items provided to the detainees.

To date, we have reviewed over three years worth of records compiled by Joint Task Force Guantanamo and its headquarter predecessors to answer these questions. We've reviewed approximately 31,000 documents, both electronic and hard copy. And what I'd like to do now is provide you an interim update to my inquiry in terms of our findings.

First off, I'd like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Koran down a toilet. We did identify 13 incidents of alleged mishandling of the Koran by Joint Task Force personnel.

Ten of those were by a guard and three by interrogators.

We found that in only five of those 13 incidents, four by guards and one by an interrogator, there was what could be broadly defined as mishandling of a Koran. None of these five incidents was a result of a failure to follow standard operating procedures in place at the time the incident occurred.

Read the full transcript of the briefing. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.