The military spokesman said categorically last week that there had been no “credible allegations” of Koran abuse at Gitmo. Money quote:
Q: Larry, just to be clear, there have been numerous allegations by detainees who have been released —
MR. DI RITA: Mm-hmm.
Q : — by attorneys who have talked to detainees, alleging mistreatment of the Koran, including instances where it was supposedly thrown into a toilet. Are you saying that none of those allegations were credible, and that none of them have — have any of them been investigated, and were any substantiated?
MR. DI RITA: We’ve found nothing that would substantiate precisely — anything that you just said about the treatment of a Koran. We have — other than what we’ve seen, that it’s possible detainees themselves have done with pages of the Koran — and I don’t want to overstate that either because it’s based on log entries that have to be corroborated… When we have received specific, credible allegations — and typically that’s not what we see when we see a lawyer speaking on Al- Jazeera — but when a specific, credible allegation of this nature were to be received, we would take it quite seriously. But we’ve not seen specific, credible allegations.
(My italics). It’s pretty clear at this point that Di Rita was not telling the truth. Thirteen credible allegations were investigated and five turned out to be valid. Someone had already been disciplined. The Red Cross had made repeated complaints. If the Red Cross isn’t “credible”, then why allow it into Gitmo? I’m sorry to say that the Pentagon’s credibility is shot. Why should we believe anything Di Rita says any more? David Corn elaborates here.
The Dish 