Interagency teams can now question terror suspects

Washington Post, 6 Feb 10: Interagency interrogation teams have started to question key terrorism suspects under a classified charter approved last week, but authorities have been slower to resolve pressing issues that emerged since Christmas — including how to draw the line between gathering intelligence and building a legal case, according to federal officials and experts following the process.

The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, announced to fanfare by White House officials last summer, was not formally authorized until Jan. 28, under a previously unreported 14-page memo signed by the president’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones. The delay became a matter of political debate last month after members of Congress asked why the group had been not deployed to interrogate Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is accused of trying to detonate an explosive Dec. 25 on an airliner about to land in Detroit.

Authorities, with help from the National Counterterrorism Center, are developing a list of terrorism suspects who represent critical intelligence targets. Each suspect will be assigned to an FBI-led interagency mobile interrogation team that will be ready in the event of a capture, several officials said. . . . Interrogators from the CIA, the FBI and the Defense Department, with expertise in a particular country and jidahist group, will assemble background information on each suspect on the list even before he or she is apprehended, two officials said. The teams will create a preauthorized strategy for each target. . . . .