Posted on 05/12/2004 7:56:53 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON -
The CIA (news - web sites) did not have a trained corps of interrogators until the war on terror began and turned in part to contractors to handle the surge of detainees, including in Iraq (news - web sites). Some of those sent in are now under investigation in prisoner deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites). Officials are considering one case as a homicide and have referred it to the Justice Department (news - web sites).
In interviews, intelligence veterans who spent decades with the CIA said interrogators are needed mostly during conflicts when a nation holds large numbers of military prisoners, which, until Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States had not had since the Vietnam War.
The CIA has therefore had to develop the skill of interrogation since the 2001 Afghanistan invasion, said Milt Bearden, a former senior manager for the agency.
"There is no reserve within the CIA of experienced, trained interrogators," Bearden said. "There never was."
CIA Director George Tenet hinted at the issue in testimony before the Sept. 11 commission, saying the United States remains five years away from having the kind of clandestine service the country requires. Former officials say that would include interrogators, part of the CIA's directorate of operations.
The new focus on prisoner abuse has drawn attention to the role of the normally secretive CIA in the interrogations of prisoners. With at least two of the cases involving independent contractors, it also has highlighted the agency's practice of using short-term personnel for its missions.
It is unclear how many contract interrogators the agency uses. The Army employed 27 contract interrogators at the now-famous Abu Ghraib prison, the deputy commander of Central Command, Lt. Gen. Lance L. Smith, said in Senate testimony Friday.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the United States has detained and interrogated prisoners around the globe, including at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Afghanistan and Iraq.
The CIA's defenders caution the agency's inspector general has not completed its investigation into at least two deaths in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Some say the investigation's scope also appears to narrower than the Army's inquiries into perhaps a dozen unjustified deaths and even more allegations of abuse at military-run prisons.
But agency critics caution that, unlike the Army's leaked Taguba Report, there is no documentation to offer a glimpse of the CIA personnel's alleged abuses. And with the CIA inspector general investigating, it is possible that the final report could remain classified, as is often the case, leaving many details largely unknown.
Two agency officials declined to comment on interrogation issues.
The CIA runs a network of detention facilities worldwide, but details about them are largely kept secret, including their locations. The military and the CIA are believed to have separate rules and guidelines on prisoner detentions and interrogations, which the agency has declined to provide.
Experts generally say that interrogation is a specialty that requires training, experience and an understanding of the human psyche and cultures.
When contractors are used, the same rules of interrogation governing CIA personnel would apply, said Lee Strickland, who retired from the CIA in December after 30 years and now teaches at the University of Maryland.
Privately, others say the rules may exist but question if they're followed.
One former intelligence officer, who still works in government and was approached about becoming a contractor, said it's very possible that some contractors wouldn't have gone through the full CIA training program. The former officer spoke on the condition of anonymity.
There may be tremendous financial incentives for becoming a contractor. Known as "green badgers" for the color of their IDs, CIA contractors take various short-term assignments, sometimes for triple their government salaries. What was once a $40,000 a year government job could transition to an 18-month assignment, paying $150,000 or more.
Strickland, whose assignments included the CIA general counsel's office, said the CIA, like many government agencies and private companies, has turned to contractors as a financially effective way to bring personnel with special skills, such as interrogation, to the job.
"It is an expertise," he said.
Former U.S. Army interrogator Joel Krasnosky, who now directs the Human Intelligence Collectors course, monitors mock interrogations Wednesday, May 12, 2004, at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. James A. Marks, commander of Fort Huachuca and the Army's Intelligence Center, the nation's training ground for Army interrogators, said Wednesday that the abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison deviates from the central lessons taught here. (AP Photo/Matt York)
The Interrogator: The Story of Hans Joachim Scharff, Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe
Description at amazon.com ---
This is the story of Hanns Scharff the master interrogator of the Luftwaffe who questioned captured American fighter pilots of the USAAF Eighth and Ninth Air Forces in World War II.This Intelligence Officer gained the reputation as the man who could magically get all the answers he needed from the prisoners of war. In most cases the POWs being interrogated never realized that their words, small talk or otherwise, were important pieces of the mosaic Hanns Scharff was constructing for the benefit of Germany's war effort.
In the words of one erstwhile POW; "What did Scharff get from me? Nothing, yet there is no doubt he got something. If you talked about the weather or anything else he no doubt got some information or confirmation from it. His technique was psychic, not physical." Another POW commented, "Hanns Scharff could probably get a confession of infidelity from a Nun!"
They are right. To this day ex-POWs fret and worry over what they said or even might have implied during their interrogations, and over what use Scharff may have made of their slip-ups.
This book delves into the question: What was this magic spell or formula used by Scharff which made prisoners drop their guard and converse with him even though they are conditioned to remain silent?
The tortures and savagery of the North Koreans and North Vietnamese caused prisoners to resist to the death.
Hanns Scharff's methods broke down barriers so effectively that the USAF invited him to speak about his methods to military audiences in the United States after World War II.
Raymond Toliver is also the author (with Trevor Constable) of Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe (available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.)., over 150 b/w photographs, 6" x 9"
One of the reviewers' comments at amazon.com ---
Having researched the history of the post that was formerly Dulag Luft as it is known --- "Auswerstelle West" as it should have been referred to after 1941 --- I found this book to be extremely helpful.As children, we always think of torture when it came to interrogations --- the common TV perception.
It was refreshing to find that the techniques used were not that much different than those employed by today's law enforcement --- no, not the TV cops with the physical abuse.
I grew up on the post, later a US Army post, and the rumors were rampant.
I also find it refreshing to see that the author, Raymond Toliver, a true historian, who has a passion for the subject, addressed the issues of how prisoners were treated by the Allies after the war.
This book is a must read for anyone who is serious about researching how allied pilots were treated.
It would also serve those who are serving today to see the trickery-craft used by the interrogors.
It was also amazing to learn the types of intelligence collected and how it was collated.
Didn't this al-Quada goon bin Laden declare war or something like that?
Missed signals, easy to spot.
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