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The New Yorker cast doubts on Rumsfeld's testimony about Abu Gharib
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CAIRO,
May 16 (IslamOnline.net) – The roots behind the abuse scandal in Iraq
that still continues to yield new and potentially damaging allegations
go down to a decision approved by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld himself and one of his top aides, according to the New
Yorker weekly magazine May 24 issue.
"The
Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by
several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion
and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more
intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq," wrote
veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.
"A
senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last
week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing
desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary
operations from the C.I.A," added the veteran
investigative reporter, who exposed the 1968 My Lai massacre by U.S.
troops in Vietnam.
Earlier
last week, one senior Pentagon official told a Senate hearing
investigating the Iraqi abuse scandal that Rumsfeld personally approved
the use of "harsh" interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay
and that severe interrogation techniques had been approved by military
commanders in Iraq.
This
included stripping detainees naked, making them hold "stress"
positions and depriving them of sleep, and the use of dogs to intimidate
prisoners, said Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen
Cambone.
In
a damning report presented to the administration in February, U.S. Major
General Antonio Taguba found numerous "sadistic,
blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at a
U.S.-run prison complex near Baghdad.
During
his testimony under oath before Congress about Abu Ghraib Rumsfeld
conveyed the message that he was telling the public all he knew about
the story, but according to the New Yorker article, he was
apparently not.
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