 | | 05-22-2004, 08:21 AM |
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| U.S. Admits to Secret Interrogation Site in Baghdad
Here. Quote: U.S. admits to secret interrogation site in Baghdad
Hundreds of detainees released from Abu Ghraib prison
Friday, May 21, 2004 Posted: 6:37 PM EDT (2237 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As hundreds of detainees were released from Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, a senior U.S. official Friday confirmed that a previously undisclosed U.S. military interrogation facility at or near Baghdad International Airport does indeed exist.
The official said the site was run in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and all detainees were afforded their rights under that international document.
"That's not to say somebody didn't get their head dunked in the water," he said.
U.S. Special Forces participated in running the site, he added.
Two other intelligence experts have confirmed the existence of a secret interrogation facility as well.
It is not clear if this facility is still being used, the senior official said.
Iraqis interrogated at the site were in a broad category of "more senior than the average security detainee," but none were in the deck of cards that depicted the most senior members of Saddam Hussein's regime, he said.
Insurgents and suspected terrorists were among those questioned at the facility, he added.
The existence of such a facility has long been rumored and has been the subject of recent media reports. NBC News on Thursday reported the existence of the site and that Iraqis were abused there.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the coalition spokesman in Baghdad, Friday denied the NBC report's claims of abusive interrogation techniques being used at the site, saying that "any suggestion that torture is used is false and offensive."
He also added that "coalition forces inside Iraq adhere to the Geneva Conventions in the conduct of detention and interrogation operations."
Kimmitt admitted, however, that the NBC report "revealed specific operational locations," in the first direct confirmation of the site's existence.
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