Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

seeking to induce sufficient pressure to obtain the desired level of cooperation
and compliance, but not so much pressure as to violate international convention
or cause a sudden and/or severe emotional or psychological breakdown on the
part of the source.
If the application and management of pressure are inherent components of the
interrogation process, interrogators require a far more sophisticated understanding
of the dynamics involved and more useful methods for accurately identifying and
measuring that pressure. Cross-cultural studies are of great interest in this regard
as an interrogator must, at the very least, appreciate the culturally based pressures
a given source will likely encounter as he or she decides whether to cooperate or
resist.
Deconstructing Resistance
Most resistant interrogatees block off access to significant
[intelligence] in their possession for one or more of four reasons.
The first is a specific negative reaction to the interrogator…The
second cause is that some sources are resistant “by nature”—
i.e., by early conditioning — to any compliance with authority.
The third is that the subject believes that the information sought
will be damaging or incriminating for him personally, that
cooperation with the interrogator will have consequences more
painful for him than the results of non-cooperation. The fourth
is ideological resistance. The source has identified himself with
a cause, a political movement or organization…Regardless of
his attitude toward the interrogator, his own personality, and
his fears for the future, the person who is deeply devoted to
a hostile cause will ordinarily prove strongly resistant under
interrogation. 66
“If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result
of a hundred battles. But, if you know yourself but not the enemy, for every
victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.” This timeless observation from the
renowned strategist Sun Tzu is as true in the interrogation room as it is on the
battlefield. An interrogator acting upon this counsel would be reasonably expected
to spend considerable time in identifying and deconstructing the source’s resistant
posture and strategies. Unfortunately, current interrogation training — and thus
the subsequent interrogation processes employed in the field — fail to invest
sufficient time and energy in this important area.
Sales professionals and clandestine case officers are well-schooled in
identifying areas of resistance and quickly designing a strategy for overcoming
that resistance. The interrogator must be similarly skilled. And while resistance
66
KUBARK, 53–54.
116