Interrogation Methods in Iraq Aren't All Found in Manual

On the last few pages of Army Field Manual 34-52, the American military lists 20 acceptable tactics for interrogations of prisoners, ranging from “emotional love” and “emotional hate” to “pride and ego” and “Mutt and Jeff.” Most effective of all, however, is “the direct approach” — the direct questioning of a prisoner without resorting to coercion of any kind, according to the last military intelligence manual to be made public, dated May 8, 1987. “The direct approach is often called no approach at all,” the manual states, “but it is the most effective of all the approaches.” The manual asserts that direct questioning of prisoners was 85 to 95 percent effective during World War II and 90 to 95 percent effective during Vietnam. But during the American campaign against terror and, more recently, the American-led occupation of Iraq, military intelligence experts say the direct approach has often been met with immovable resistance, leaving interrogators to depend on other means of eliciting responses that cannot be found in Field Manual 34-52. “It’s a fairly obsolete manual,” said Mike Ritz, a former Army interrogator who runs interrogation workshops for law enforcement officials and civilians. Full Story