Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

Certainly, the last question must be satisfactorily answered before a sanctioned
effort can be launched to study the feasibility suggested by the first two. Ethical
considerations aside, the use of some manner of personality assessment presents
intriguing possibilities. As the quotations above indicate, the KUBARK manual
appears to dismiss the potential of in-depth assessment, noting that an interrogator
“does not dispose of the time or personnel to probe the depths of each source’s
individuality.” 45 Instead, it suggests some form of categorizing sources based
on observations made in early rounds of interrogation. Even then, the manual is
quick to emphasize that this method, “like other interrogation aids, [is] a scheme
of categories [that] is useful only if recognized for what it is — a set of labels that
facilitate communication but are not the same as the persons thus labeled.” 46
In contrast, at least one account would appear to support the concept of a
formal program for assessing sources. According to Orrin DeForest, a CIA
intelligence officer and interrogator during the Vietnam War, psychological
testing was employed with significant success. The test, based on work conducted
by Dr. John Gittinger, sought to measure IQ in addition to three other components
of personality reflected in demonstrated propensities toward Externalizing or
Internalizing, Regulation or Flexibility, and Role Adaptivity or Role Uniformity. 47
This test was administered to the interrogator and interpreter staff (and used to
design tailored training programs and subsequent assignments) as well as to the
Vietcong undergoing interrogation. According to DeForest’s account, this tool
proved consistently effective and a valuable supplemental tool used in conjunction
with other creative systems for interrogation. 48
Perhaps the most important role psychological testing can play in interrogation
is as a means for enhancing communication and accord between two people;
anything beyond this would be an unexpected windfall. If a current or emerging
testing protocol would prove valid in accurately measuring a relevant component
of the source’s personality — and thereby assisting the interrogator to design an
effective means of approach — it would offer an important alternative that could
help stem the trend of default to coercion that has occurred too often in the course
of dealing with a resistant high-value source.
Screening: Overlooking a Critical Phase of the Exploitation Process
The purpose of screening is to provide the interrogator, in
advance, with a reading on the type and characteristics of the
interrogatee…even a preliminary estimate, if valid, can be a
boon to the interrogator because it will permit him to start with
45
KUBARK, 20.
46
KUBARK, 20.
47
Orrin DeForest, Slow Burn: The Rise and Bitter Fall of American Intelligence in Vietnam (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 62-65.
48
Some observers might find it curious that a source would voluntarily submit to psychological
testing, yet this is precisely what occurred. This seemingly inexplicable compliance may be a result
of a “conditioned reflex” to completing the ubiquitous paperwork intractably associated with military/
paramilitary service.
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