Interviewing ISIS prisoners in the Nation Magazine

"For this trip I am accompanied by senior colleagues; by Scott Atran, an academic based in France; and by Doug Stone, a retired American general who spent over two years in Iraq during the US occupation, interviewing prisoners on a daily basis."  I am sure that this made the interview process quite free and independent.   Is this the new trend in academia? To conduct research while accompanied by former US generals?  Also, how valuable and reliable the information when extracted or delivered when prisoners are in the custody of groups who resort to torture?