Iraq Notebook
CIA denies it endorsed Iraq abuses

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Related stories U.S. death toll in Iraq at 783

The New Yorker cited current and former intelligence officials as saying a top-secret Defense Department program approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners to gain intelligence about the growing insurgency.

"The New Yorker story is fundamentally wrong; there was no DOD/CIA program to abuse and humiliate Iraqi prisoners," CIA spokesman Bill Harlow said.

The Pentagon has also said the magazine report is incorrect.

Pentagon wants IRS help in tracking down reservists

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Defense Department, strapped for troops for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, has proposed to Congress that it tap the Internal Revenue Service to locate out-of-touch reservists.

The unusual measure, which the Pentagon said has been examined by lawyers, would allow the IRS to pass on addresses for tens of thousands of former military members, members of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), who still face recall to active duty.

Congress and President Bush would have to approve the proposal, which would involve amending the tax code.

Ari Schwartz, an associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, said granting access to any IRS data would open the door to more requests from other arms of the government.

The IRR is distinctly different than the drilling reserves or National Guard.

Those in the IRR are people who have completed their active-duty tours but are subject to involuntary recall for a certain number of years. For example, a soldier who serves four years on active duty remains in the IRR for another four years. The whereabouts of about 50,000 such veterans are unknown.
 
The Defense Department has called on members of the IRR before. About 7,000 people have been recalled since Sept. 11, 2001. Approximately 30,000 were recalled in 1990 and 1991 during the buildup for the Persian Gulf War.

Also ...

Gunnery Sgt. Gus Covarrubias, a Marine reservist, has pleaded guilty to lying to a Las Vegas newspaper about killing two Iraqis in Baghdad more than a year ago. He was docked $1,500 in pay and given an honorable discharge. ... An Italian soldier, 22, died yesterday from wounds suffered a day earlier in fighting on an Italian military base in Nasiriyah. He was the first Italian service member to die in combat in Iraq.

... The U.S. yesterday confirmed South Korean media reports and said it is pulling 3,600 Army soldiers out of the Asian nation and sending them to Iraq.... The U.S. military said yesterday that it had killed 20 insurgents in fighter-plane attacks on the southern city of Nasiriyah. Iraqis said the planes destroyed homes and killed civilians, as well as fighters.