Prison Interrogations in Iraq Seen as Yielding Little Data on Rebels

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/politics/27ABUS.html?ex=1086235200&en=34417083b8bdeeb4&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

WASHINGTON, May 26 — The questioning of hundreds of Iraqi prisoners last fall in the newly established interrogation center at Abu Ghraib prison yielded very little valuable intelligence, according to civilian and military officials.

The interrogation center was set up in September to obtain better information about an insurgency in Iraq that was killing American soldiers almost every day by last fall. The insurgency was better organized and more vigorous than the United States had expected, prompting concern among generals and Pentagon officials who were unhappy with the flow of intelligence to combat units and to higher headquarters.

But civilian and military intelligence officials, as well as top commanders with access to intelligence reports, now say they learned little about the insurgency from questioning inmates at the prison. Most of the prisoners held in the special cellblock that became the setting for the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib apparently were not linked to the insurgency, they said.

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The officials could not say whether the harsh interrogation methods used at Abu Ghraib were counterproductive. But they said few if any prisoners there had been able to shed light on questions to which General John P. Abizaid, the top American commander for the Middle East, and his deputies had assigned highest priority, including the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein and the nature of the insurgency's leadership.

...more...

Does anyone else feel that this just linked Abizaid to the interrogations?

Apparently anyone Chalabi et al had a grudge against.

I wonder if we are going to see some heads roll.

This whole episode is being spun to fit the end of "it was only done to protect the troops"---Disgusting

:( very short sighted plan by the misadministration....and it was planned by administration starting after 9/11.

With none of the "fun" of the Nam

At least we had a cool radio station in Saigon