text: Offensive Considerations in Counterinsurgency
  • Verify individual by checking ID cards.
  • Perform a gunpowder test or use X-spray on all individuals.
  • Photograph each detainee with evidence.
  • Collect and document all evidence, and take it to the transport vehicle.
  • Load all detainees for transit to FOB, combat outpost, patrol base, or DCP.
  Detention
  5-113. Detainee refers to any person captured or otherwise detained by an armed force (JP 1-02). The
  reason for capture or detention of a detainee, and his ultimate disposition and categorization, depends on
  the situation. Before detaining someone, a leader must first decide what to do with the person afterward.
  Does the leader want to search, question, process, or release the person?
  5-114. AR 190-8, FM 3-19.40, and, international law (including the Law of War and the Geneva
  Conventions) cover policies, procedures, and responsibilities for administering, treating, protecting,
  securing, and transferring custody of detainees. They also cover other planning factors as well as
  regulatory and legal requirements concerning detainees.
  Rules
  5-115. The six rules for processing detainees follow:
  • Search the detainee thoroughly and disarm him.
  • Silence the detainee.
  • Segregate the detainee from other detainees by sex and rank.
  • Safeguard the detainee from harm while preventing him from escaping.
  • Speed the detainee to the designated detainee collection point.
  • Tag the detainee with key information. Use approved format if possible. The tag includes the
  date of capture, location of capture (grid coordinate), capturing unit, and special circumstances
  of capture (how the person was captured).
  Protected Status
  5-116. Once the suspected insurgents are under friendly control, they assume the protected status
  of detainees. This term includes any person captured or otherwise detained by armed force. Under the law
  of war, leaders and Soldiers are personally responsible for detainees under their control. Mistreatment
  of detainees is a criminal offense under the Geneva Convention and the 1996 War Crimes Act. One of the
  most conspicuous violations of the Geneva Convention is the unauthorized photography of detainees.
  Note: Avoid photographing detainees for nonmilitary or unofficial purposes. Doing so is
  unauthorized.
  Tactical Questioning
  5-117. Units recognize value of timely information and intelligence during COIN operations and thus
  may tactically question an insurgent on the objective. Units designate or construct a detainee holding area,
  ensuring detainees are unable to communicate in any manner. Leaders then conduct tactical questioning
  of priority detainees away from the group, as they carefully gather facts and details required to establish
  consistencies or inconsistencies. Leaders then sort detainees into those to be taken off target, those without
  further value, those no longer of interest, and those who require immediate battlefield interrogation by
  qualified personnel. Leaders wanting the ability to interrogate personnel during a potential operations
  should request and incorporate qualified interrogators into their mission task organization to facilitate
  timelier information or intelligence.
  Necessity for Soldier Presence
  5-118. The terminology may change, but the need for Soldiers at the point of capture or point
  of detainment to ask questions remains. Trained interrogators are seldom on hand, but Soldiers are always