Since the Iraq war began, the U.S. Army has quadrupled the number of soldiers it trains each year to be detainee interrogators, according to Army officials involved in the program.
Next year, 1,200 interrogators are set to be trained at the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., up from about 300 in 2003. "The number being trained is based on the current need of interrogators in theater," said Angela Moncur, deputy public affairs officer at the intelligence center.
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The Army is gearing up for the effort by hiring private companies to handle the training. Last month, the service awarded contracts that could grow to more than $50 million in the next five years to three private firms to provide additional instructors to the 18-week basic course in human-intelligence interrogation at Fort Huachuca.
"If you are qualified as interrogator, you now are either in Iraq or teaching others how to do it when they go there," said Pat Gromek, who spent 23 years as an Army intelligence officer and now handles business development for Integrated Systems Improvement Services Inc. in Sierra Vista, Ariz., the site of Fort Huachuca. ISIS is one of the firms selected to supply interrogation instructors.
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One little-publicized problem in Iraq has been the paucity of intelligence for tactical, or day-to-day, use by commanders on the ground, and the lack of trained Army personnel to do the job. CIA officials have said privately that they have been forced to strip stations in Europe and elsewhere to provide case officers for tours in Iraq. The agency's Baghdad operations office is its largest. The CIA officials want to see the military take up tactical intelligence so CIA officers and analysts can concentrate on broader, strategic targets.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/22/AR2006092201486.html
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