Joint Services School of Intelligence

The Joint Services School of Intelligence was based at Templer Barracks in Ashford, Kent, United Kingdom until a final move to Chicksands at Shefford, Bedfordshire took place in 1997 when the barracks were demolished to make way for the Channel Tunnel rail link.

Taught how to resist torture

On May 8, 2004 the Guardian newspaper reported:

The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing, according to British military sources. The techniques devised in the system, called R2I - resistance to interrogation - match the crude exploitation and abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad.

One former British special forces officer who returned last week from Iraq, said: "It was clear from discussions with US private contractors in Iraq that the prison guards were using R2I techniques, but they didn't know what they were doing." He said British and US military intelligence soldiers were trained in these techniques, which were taught at the joint services interrogation centre in Ashford, Kent, now transferred to the former US base at Chicksands. "There is a reservoir of knowledge about these interrogation techniques which is retained by former special forces soldiers who are being rehired as private contractors in Iraq. Contractors are bringing in their old friends".

Many British and US special forces soldiers learn about the degradation techniques because they are subjected to them to help them resist if captured. They include soldiers from the SAS, SBS, most air pilots, paratroopers and members of pathfinder platoons. A number of commercial firms which have been supplying interrogators to the US army in Iraq boast of hiring former US special forces soldiers, such as Navy Seals.

"The crucial difference from Iraq is that frontline soldiers who are made to experience R2I techniques themselves develop empathy. They realise the suffering they are causing. But people who haven't undergone this don't realise what they are doing to people. It's a shambles in Iraq".

..."The feeling among US soldiers I've spoken to in the last week is also that 'the gloves are off'. Many of them still think they are dealing with people responsible for 9/11".

During the 1980s the (Defence) Intelligence Centre at Ashford comprised the following units and buildings -

• IPW (Later IDW) - Intelligence Planning Wing (Block 8)
• Depot (Block 8)
• D.INT - Director of the Intelligence Corps (Serving Brigadier)
• JSIW - Joint Services Interrogation Wing (RAF, RN and Int Corps staff)
• SIW - Specialist Intelligence Wing (Repton Manor) (Northern Ireland training) (aka The Barn)
• JSIW - Joint Services Interrogation Wing
• SSI - School of Service Intelligence
• FASB - Foreign Armed Service Bureau
• STB - Soviet Training Branch
• ICA - Intelligence Corps Association
• TW - Training Wing (Int Corps basic training)
• QM - Quartermasters Department and Armoury
• CIW - Combat Intelligence Wing
• ASW - Army Security Wing
• 43 Sqn RCT - A detachment from 43 Royal Corps of Transport at Shorncliffe (Folkestone)
• Officers Mess
• Sergeants and Warrant Officers Mess
• Junior Ranks Mess(JRM)
• NAFFI
• Gym
• Guardroom
• Intelligence Corps Museum
• Cookhouse (ACC)
• PSA - Property Services Agency (Department of Environment)
• HOES - Home Office Experimental Site (Secure Home Office establishment)

People

• Fred Holroyd trained here in 1973.