Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

The Dual Nature of Interrogation
Once questioning starts, the interrogator is called upon
to function at two levels. He is trying to do two seemingly
contradictory things at once: achieve rapport with the subject
but remain an essentially detached observer. Or he may project
himself to the resistant interrogatee as powerful and ominous (in
order to eradicate resistance and create the necessary conditions
for rapport) while remaining wholly uncommitted at the deeper
level, noting the significance of the subject’s reactions and the
effectiveness of his own performance. Poor interrogators often
confuse this bi-level functioning with role-playing, but there
is a vital difference. The interrogator who merely pretends, in
his surface performance, to feel a given emotion or to hold a
given attitude toward the source is likely to be unconvincing;
the source quickly senses the deception. 64
Once again, the KUBARK manual eloquently captures the essence of the
internal dynamic of the accomplished interrogator. Reaching this state of almost
unconscious competence requires a consistent regimen of training, experience,
reflection, and peer review that can take years.
A likely factor driving the progressive “dumbing down” of interrogation and
interrogation training in the United States has been the ubiquitous treatment of the
craft in movies and Hollywood. Viewers are treated to endless examples of the
calculating, quick-witted interrogator who can rapidly assess the vulnerabilities of
the source/prisoner and instantaneously devise and orchestrate an approach that
almost immediately leverages compliance. Of course, what the viewer does not
see (or, therefore, remember) is that these five-minute long vignettes are carefully
scripted and repeatedly rehearsed. The actors do not deal with a constant chain
of unknowns, nor are they asked to remain joined in the intense interpersonal
exchange for hours, perhaps days, on end. It is critical that this artificial and often
unrealistic view of interrogation not be allowed to influence doctrine for the real
world.
Pressures and the Non-Coercive Interrogation Model
The term non-coercive is used…to denote methods of
interrogation that are not based upon the coercion of an unwilling
subject through the employment of superior force originating
outside himself. However, the non-coercive interrogation is
not conducted without pressure. On the contrary, the goal is to
generate maximum pressure, or at least as much as is needed
to induce compliance. The difference is that the pressure is
64
KUBARK, 48.
114