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Iraqi Official: 'We have no knowledge of the existence of death squads.'

Major General Hussein Ali Kamal, under secretary of the Iraqi Interior Ministry for intelligence affairs, said: "We learned about the existence of death squads from US newspaper reports. We had no information about these squads from our agencies or from US forces."

"Tell them, Hogan!"

Speaking to Asharq al-Awsat by telephone from his office in Baghdad, Kamal added, "We have no details, except US newspaper reports indicating that US forces arrested 22 people wearing official police uniforms and holding an Iraqi official." He said, "The Iraqi Interior Ministry immediately opened an investigation yesterday. If we had any information on these squads, we would give it to the media. However, we will wait for the results of the investigation to obtain definite information."

Commenting on new torture pictures of Iraqi detainees in the Abu-Ghraib prison that were published recently, Kamal said, "These are the same pictures that were published a year ago and which caused huge media and political uproar. Our government denounced the incidents at the time."

"How the hell many times do you expect us to denounce them? Should we put it on our answering machine?"

Posted by: Fred 2006-02-19

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=143095