Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

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KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation
Review: Observations of an Interrogator
Lessons Learned and Avenues for Further Research
Steven M. Kleinman, M.S.
February 2006
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not reflect the
official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.
Abstract
A careful reading of the KUBARK manual is essential for anyone involved
in interrogation, if perhaps for no other reason than to uncover a definition
of interrogation that accurately captures the fundamental nature of interrogation
while also concretely establishing what it is not (i.e., a game between
two people to be won or lost). A major stumbling block to the study of interrogation,
and especially to the conduct of interrogation in field operations,
has been the all-too-common misunderstanding of the nature and scope of
the discipline. Most observers, even those within professional circles, have
unfortunately been influenced by the media’s colorful (and artificial) view
of interrogation as almost always involving hostility and the employment of
force – be it physical or psychological – by the interrogator against the hapless,
often slow-witted subject. This false assumption is belied by historic
trends that show the majority of sources (some estimates range as high as
90 percent) have provided meaningful answers to pertinent questions in response
to direct questioning (i.e., questions posed in an essentially administrative
manner rather than in concert with an orchestrated approach designed
to weaken the source’s resistance).
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