- CAIRO (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.
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- "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.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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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- http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-05/16/article02.shtml
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