esl
05-17-2004, 07:45 PM
THE GRAY ZONE
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
Issue of 2004-05-24
Posted 2004-05-15
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal
inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved
last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly
secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda,
to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld's decision
embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the
effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America's prospects in
the war on terror.
According to interviews with several past and present American
intelligence officials, the Pentagon's operation, known inside the
intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green,
encouraged physical coercion and ****** humiliation of Iraqi
prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the
growing insurgency in Iraq. 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.
more @ http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
Issue of 2004-05-24
Posted 2004-05-15
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal
inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved
last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly
secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda,
to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld's decision
embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the
effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America's prospects in
the war on terror.
According to interviews with several past and present American
intelligence officials, the Pentagon's operation, known inside the
intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green,
encouraged physical coercion and ****** humiliation of Iraqi
prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the
growing insurgency in Iraq. 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.
more @ http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact