The so-called "Hard Site" at Abu Ghraib purportedly housed the prisoners military intelligence officers believed possessed valuable intelligence. In addition to these prisoners, the families of these high value captures were also housed at the hard site, presumably for leverage over the prisoners. Only 6-7 soldiers from the 372nd MP Company would guard over one thousand detainees and their families at any given time.
During the course of the summer of 2003, the growing insurgency within Iraq would make the American intelligence community desperate. A campaign of bombing attacks, including the Syrian and Turkish embassies and culminating in the October 26, 2003 Rashid Hotel bombing raised questions about the insurgency with few readily available answers. The United States Armed Forces had no idea who they were fighting or why. To resolve this situation, the determination was made to interrogate as many Iraqis as possible. The desperate need for intelligence no matter the cost brought a flood of prisoners into Abu Ghraib's Hard Site.
Military intelligence officers responsible for interrogations at Abu Ghraib were completely unprepared for the sheer number of people they were expected to interrogate; by the interrogator's own estimates, less than 25% of the prisoners housed at the hard site were in fact members of groups the United States military was targeting or had any pertinent intelligence.
No comments:
Post a Comment