WASHINGTON, May 15 (Xinhuanet) -- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved a secret operation last year that expanded interrogation methods used in Afghanistan to the Abu Ghraib prisonin Baghdad, The New Yorker magazine reported Saturday.

    Rumsfeld authorized the highly secret operation to obtain intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq after deadly bombings in August last year, said the report, citing unnamed current and former intelligence officials. The report was released on the magazine's Web site.

    The program "encouraged physical coercion and the sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq," the report added.

    The report said the clandestine interrogation plan was known asa special access program, that gave advance approval to kill, capture or interrogate so-called "high-value" targets in the battle against terror.

    Its rules of the secret operation were "grab whom you must. Do what you want," the report said, quoting one former intelligence official.

    The report said Rumsfeld left the details of planning to Stephen Cambone, the undersecretary for intelligence, and the program was ultimately approved by Rumsfeld and Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The program also got approval from the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and President George W. Bush was informed of its existence, according to the report.

    The Central Intelligence Agency opposed the decision to expand the interrogation methods to the Abu Ghraib prison, the report said.

    Interrogation techniques used by US military personnel in Iraq have come under scrutiny following the revelation of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison that has sparked calls for Rumsfeld's resignation and caused anger around the world.

    Photos taken inside the prison showed US soldiers abusing Iraqiinmates, forcing them into sexually humiliating positions. Seven soldiers are facing military charges related to the abuse.

    The US military decided on Thursday to abandon several interrogation techniques in Iraq, including sleep deprivation and placing prisoners in body stressful positions, defense officials said on Friday. Enditem