New interrogation techniques at the scandal-plagued Abu Ghraib prison are yielding three times as many intelligence tips as in January, when commanders allowed controversial methods that have been labeled as torture.
The new methods have increased "high-value intelligence" reports from detainees from around 100 in January, when the Abu Ghraib scandal erupted, to 345 last month, the chief of detention operations in Iraq, Major General Geoffrey Miller, told reporters on Monday.
Miller, the former detention facility commander at Guantanamo Bay, asserted that civilian law-enforcement methods were more productive than the "hard" methods -- like stress positions and sleep deprivation -- that he once advocated.
"I believe ... interrogations based on rapport are the most effective way to develop intelligence and increase the validity of intelligence," he said.
Since he arrived in April, Miller has overseen a dramatic reform of interrogation procedures at Abu Ghraib as seven prison guards face criminal charges. More than two dozen intelligence officers are also expected to be indicted.
He rolled back the very same controversial measures he recommended be employed at the prison last August on a fact-finding mission as the military scrambled desperately for intelligence about a fledgling insurgency. Of those notorious tactics that were misused by intelligence officers and prison guards at Abu Ghraib last autumn -- climaxing in the physical and sexual abuse of detainees -- the only coercive method still allowed, with authorization from US generals, is solitary confinement for over 30 days.
Miller has apparently broken with the Pentagon's post Sept. 11 inclination for "extraordinary methods" to obtain intelligence, and instead is relying on civilian law enforcement procedures to defeat the insurgency.
Procedures are now "similar to what you would see civilian law enforcement authorities use ... because we think, No. 1, they get very good intelligence, and ... the accuracy improves."
At the center of this is a gentler approach.
"In my experience, to develop a rapport and treat the detainee with respect and dignity allows this rapport to develop rapidly and this exchange of information to go on very quickly," he said.
The interrogation teams at Abu Ghraib are now stocked with reservists who work in civilian law enforcement back home. Training for the teams was supervised until last month by a 30-year veteran of the Chicago police homicide division.
Miller said the new approach paid dividends last month when the number of intelligence reports jumped by 40 percent from July.
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