Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Kayaker]

Pentagon: Hersh report 'journalist malpractice'
Official denies existence of secret interrogation squad
Monday, May 17, 2004 Posted: 1647 GMT (0047 HKT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Officials in the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community Monday flatly denied a New Yorker magazine report that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved a clandestine unit to crack down on terrorists held at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, where inmates were abused.

The article, by Seymour Hersh, quotes a former intelligence official saying the unit's instructions were, "Grab whom you must. Do what you want." The report also says the CIA pulled its people from involvement in interrogations at the prison in October "because it was out of control."

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/17/iraq.abuse.main/