Word: qaeda
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...mounting furor over the CIA's harsh interrogation of imprisoned terror suspects - but he's quickly assuming a leading role. Though the mild-mannered lawyer has attracted little public attention, as a top Justice Department official he approved an array of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" against alleged al-Qaeda members that many observers call torture. They include forcing prisoners to stay awake for a week or more, waterboarding them and trapping them with an insect to exploit their fear of bugs...
...turned down a request from TIME for comment about current interrogation techniques and the Army Field Manual. But some agency veterans say the manual, while serving as a good starting point, is ultimately inadequate against hardened al-Qaeda operatives. "There's a feeling among [some current agency staffers] that the Army Field Manual is useless against the really bad guys," says a retired CIA staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Typically, these guys have been through brutal torture by the authorities in their own countries - Yemen, Jordan, Egypt - so they're not going to talk if you just tickle...
Even those who oppose all forms of harsh interrogation are not convinced that the Army manual is adequate. Matthew Alexander, a former military interrogator in Iraq, says he found "police interrogation techniques much more appropriate" when questioning al-Qaeda operatives and Sunni insurgents. Alexander, who uses a pseudonym for security reasons, is the author of How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq. His interrogations led to the location and killing of Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi...
...they face a potentially restless Mahdi Army while Sunni militants step up attacks at the same time. "We have information that our enemies are re-energizing themselves," said Brigadier General Faisal Malik Mohsen, an Iraqi National Police commander in Baghdad. "That goes for the militias as well as al-Qaeda in Iraq...
Like other Iraqis, Jabouri wonders who exactly is behind the latest spate of killings. Possibilities include agents of Iran as well as a reconstituting Ba'athist movement. The umbrella insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq remains the most vocal and visible among Iraq's militants, however. Many Iraqi security officials, insurgency experts in Baghdad and Awakening leaders worry that the militants, who melted away during the U.S surge, may have reformed into smaller, yet increasingly lethal, movements in their existing havens of Mosul and Diyala province. Indeed, there is some fear that al-Qaeda may be infiltrating the Awakening...