Iraqi Prisoners at Abu Ghraib Aren't Singing Like Canaries

[las47032]

Coinciding with the topic "'Torture' on Trial (WSJ Opinon re Abu Ghraib)"
'Torture' on Trial (WSJ Opinon re Abu Ghraib)

U.S. military interrogators in Iraq tell Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin prisoners are doing far less talking since the publicity of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the crackdown on harsh techniques used in questioning them.

"Do you want to know why there are so many successful attacks –– attacks that are not averted because of good intelligence?" asked one military source familiar with the situation. "Because we're getting next to nothing out of the prisoners. Our information flow has dried up."

That's the story told by several military sources, all of whom work closely with prisoners or interrogators.

But some counterintelligence analysts in Baghdad see other problems with recent interrogations.

A memo obtained by the premium, weekly, online intelligence newsletter G2 Bulletin, published by WND, from a source in Centcom reveals the general ineffectiveness of female interrogators in Iraq.

"(Female) interrogation techniques are ineffective because they fail to provide useful information, and the detainees, once released, communicate to other (insurgent) personnel that there is nothing to be afraid of from (female) interrogators: just maintain your innocence and give no information and they will release you in 72 hours," said the memo.

However, there are exceptions, the memo suggests. Women interrogators at Abu Ghraib and some other detention facilities use more effective techniques. As a result, the terrorists have specifically targeted these women for attacks.

The memo says there have been at least three documented reports in the last month of captured insurgents stating that female interrogators are not effective because they do not threaten or intimidate the prisoners.

Last spring, in a story on Iraq headlined, "U.S. losing 'hearts, minds,'" WND reported that the Army was switching to kinder, gentler interrogation tactics of Iraqi detainees. This was before several U.S. guards at a Baghdad prison recently were criminally charged with abusing detainees.

At that time, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq put limits on harsh questioning tactics. Sanchez passed around a memo saying interrogators could use no harsh techniques –– no "Mutt-n-Jeff" approaches or any "pride-and-ego-down" approaches –– without his permission, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

"Mutt-n-Jeff" refers to a good-cop, bad-cop routine to pry information out of a detainee. And "ego down" involves deflating a defiant detainee whose pride is his armor against questioning.

WND also first reported –– even before the war started –– the shortage of those trained to be military police and Arabic-language interrogators. The military brass now says the prison abuse in part stemmed from these shortages.

Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib are no longer talking. The reason? Because of the prison scandal there, the interrogations have become weaker. That's too bad, but it proves the point that American men and women are going to die because of that scandal.

Why Iraq prisoners no longer talking
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42412

[AMVET91ALPHA]

So in other words we should continue violating the Geneva convention and torturing prisoners? I don't think so.

[scott.voigt]

So what do we do with the illegal combatants in Iraq? Go figure... the US is the devil right? Whatever

[Snowden]

There seems to be no answer; nothing will work unless we succeed in frightening these people - and obviously they were afraid at first.

I can not humiliating them in the disgusting ways they were treated in Abu Ghraib; it's downright un-American.

So why don't we ask some Shi'ite guards to do the guarding and questioning, with our forces merely ensuring their safety, as much as possible. These are Iraqi prisoners who have practiced "questioning" the Shi'ite prisoners for 30+ years. Maybe those are the proper people to do the questioning about their family members who have disappeared, etc., etc.

We should turn the prisoners over to the proper authorities in Iraqi, IMO - the Iraqis.

I'm editing to point out that it seems to me that unless we are "an occupying force" in Iraq, we have no business running their prison system. An outlying guard to prevent raids by those who would release the prisoners, if wanted by the Iraqi government, could be arranged. However - what business is it of ours to question Iraqi prisoners in Iraq, unless we have conquered and are occupying the entire country?