Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

While the Joint Interrogation Facilities established during the 1990-91 Gulf
War were equipped with on-site intelligence support centers, the level of expertise
of the personnel assigned and the real-time access to intelligence information
systems fell short of what would be required of a world-class effort. In contrast,
the World War II Joint Interrogation Center at Fort Hunt, VA, included a robust
analytical support annex that was shaped by, and expanded in response to, the
specific needs of the interrogation cadre. As a result, interrogators were able
to design highly productive lines of questioning, effectively detect attempts at
deception, and often obtain compliance from prisoners as a result of the semblance
of dominant knowledge (a graphic example of Cialdini’s authority principle in
persuasion 42 ).
Interrogation centers would be well-served by the support of an on-site
analytical cell staffed with bona fide subject matter experts and configured to
exploit secure information systems that would facilitate real-time access to larger
intelligence centers. This would have a considerable positive impact on the
ultimate value of the intelligence products generated at the field level. Given the
historical precedent, this is clearly an eminently achievable goal.
Psychological Assessment: Categorizing Sources by Personality Type
The number of systems devised for categorizing human beings
is large, and most of them are of dubious validity. 43
Every interrogator knows that a real understanding of the
individual is worth far more than a thorough knowledge of this
or that pigeon-hole to which he has been consigned. And for
interrogation purposes, the ways in which he differs from the
abstract type may be more significant than the ways in which
he conforms. 44
The pursuit of a valid means of quickly and accurately assessing a source’s
psychological set — presumably with the objective of identifying an avenue
for expeditiously obtaining compliance in the form of meaningful answers to
pertinent questions — has been something of a search for the Holy Grail in the
world of interrogation. This quest raises three fundamental questions:
• Is it possible to conduct a meaningful psychological assessment of a
resistant source
• Would such an assessment provide substantial assistance in the
interrogation of that source
• Would the administration of such testing violate governing professional
standards of ethics
42
Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D., Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (New York: William Morrow,
1993), 208-236.
43
KUBARK, 19.
44
KUBARK, 20.
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