Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

source pool. The disciplined interrogator must constantly battle the tendency to
expect, and subsequently to look for, commonalities from one source to another.
This is especially true when dealing with sources from a foreign and possibly
little-understood culture and linguistic background. While a studied awareness
of culture is important in planning for the exploitation of a given source, that
newfound understanding can also cause the interrogator to catch only the cultural
overtones and miss the individual nuances that would prove critical to gaining
compliance.
The effort to build a useful model of the interrogation process must begin
with a conceptual framework. Important components of that framework are
flexibility, individuality, and constant adaptability. Inherent in the underlying
philosophy is the requirement to search for general trends and individual nuance,
commonalities and unique differences.
Ultimately, the successful model must generate an effective strategy for
successful performance in keeping with the Law of Requisite Variety, a principle
drawn from the study of cybernetics with remarkable application to the context
of interrogation. 52 Cybernetic theory suggests that in the competition between
two processes within a closed system, the one with greater variety of options
will be successful. Applying the Law of Requisite Variety to the context of an
interrogation, the individual with the larger number of available options (e.g.,
strategies, behaviors, etc.) should prevail. It is therefore of great importance that
the interrogator always have at least one more method of leveraging compliance
than the source has for resisting. 53
Saving Face: Helping the Source to Concede
Another key to the successful interrogation of the resisting
source is the provision of an acceptable rationalization for
yielding. As regression proceeds, almost all resisters feel the
growing internal stress that results from wanting simultaneously
to conceal and divulge…To escape the mounting tension, the
source may grasp at any face-saving reason for compliance —
any explanation which will placate both his own conscience
and the possible wrath of former superiors and associates if
he is returned to [his place of origin]. It is the business of the
interrogator to provide the right rationalization at the right time.
Here too the importance of understanding the interrogatee is
evident; the right rationalization must be an excuse or reason
that is tailored to the source’s personality. 54
52
Essentially, the Law of Requisite Variety states that the greater the variety of actions
available to a control system, the larger the variety of perturbations (i.e., challenges to
its control) for which it is able to compensate. (Source: Principia Cybernetic Web, URL:
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/REQVAR.html )
53
Richardson, The Magic of Rapport, 15-17.
54
KUBARK, 41.
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