Official: CIA Not Involved in Abu Ghraib Abuses

by on May 3rd, 2004

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=5019005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The CIA inspector general is conducting an investigation of the death of an Iraqi prisoner while being held at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, a senior CIA official said on Monday.

But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was not aware that any CIA officers involved in interrogating prisoners there participated in the abuses depicted by recent photographs.

“I know of no CIA officers involved in the abuses which are now so famously described,” the official told Reuters.

“There were a small number of prisoners at Abu Ghraib who are of interest to CIA, and a small number of CIA officers would periodically visit the prison to interrogate them,” the official said.

“But I don’t know of anything which connects us to those particularly ugly photos,” the official said.

Michael Hussey