But a new report in the New Yorker magazine says the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally authorized the use of unconventional interrogation methods in Iraq to gain intelligence about the growing insurgency.
American soldiers acting on their own accord - described by some within the Pentagon as 'recycled Hillbillies' - or did it go to the very top the military and civilian leadership?
This question now dominating the political landscape in the United States.
In an article for the New Yorker magazine - journalist Seymour Hersh claims the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld and Stephen Cambone, the Under Secretary for Intelligence - personally approved the use of harsh interrogation tactics in Iraq to counter growing resistance to the coalition in Iraq despite their denials.
According to Seymour Hersh, Rumsfeld established a highly secret program that gave blanket approval to kill or capture and interrogate high value targets in the Bush administration’s war on terror.
It was called the Special Access Program or SAP – and had the approval of President Bush himself. Stephen Cambone was deeply involved in the program.
SAP began in Afghanistan to counter Al Qaeda and the Taliban. It was regarded as one of the successes in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon, however, called the assertions, "outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with anonymous conjecture," and strongly denied that Rumsfeld, who has been under fire for the prisoner abuse scandal, or any Pentagon official had sanctioned the interrogation program.
Defense Department spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said the abuses of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison depicted in photos and videos had "no basis in any sanctioned program, training manual, instruction, or order of the Department of Defense,"
US interrogation techniques have come under scrutiny amid revelations that prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad were kept naked, stacked on top of one another, forced to engage in sex acts and photographed in humiliating poses.
Rumsfeld, who has rejected calls by some Democrats and a number of major newspapers to resign, returned on Friday from a surprise trip to Iraq and Abu Ghraib prison, calling the scandal a "body blow." Seven soldiers have been charged.
The abuse prompted worldwide outrage and has shaken US global prestige as President George W. Bush seeks re-election in November. Bush has backed Rumsfeld and said the abuse was abhorrent but represented the wrongful actions of only a few soldiers.
The US military has now prohibited several interrogation methods from being used in Iraq, including sleep and sensory deprivation and body "stress positions," defense officials said on Friday.
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