Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

as the sights and sounds of an outside world fade away, its
significance for the interrogatee tends to do likewise. That world
is replaced by the interrogation room, its two occupants, and
the dynamic relationship between them. As [the] interrogation
goes on, the subject tends increasingly to divulge or withhold
in accordance with the values of the interrogation world rather
than those of the outside world. 71
Inside the interrogation room, the principals (interrogator and source)
maneuver through two primary, interdependent spheres: the physical setting
and the psychological set. While the source can only realistically influence the
latter, the skillful interrogator can actively manipulate both of these elements in a
manner designed to achieve the overarching goal of obtaining source compliance.
In the effort to induce the source to respond meaningfully to pertinent questions,
the underlying strategy set forth in the KUBARK manual is systematically to
separate the source from anchors of the “outside world” and reset the operative
value system to those of the “interrogation world.”
Perhaps the most important understanding for the interrogator to draw
from this concept is that forecasting events within the interrogation world
is problematic if the prediction is based on trends in the outside world. One
excellent example of this conundrum is provided by Orrin DeForest’s experience
during the Vietnam War. Common sense would deem it unlikely that a prisoner
would willingly complete a written psychological examination (especially one
that would subsequently be used in formulating an effective means of exploiting
that prisoner). Yet that is precisely what repeatedly occurred.
This opens up tremendous possibilities for creativity on the part of the
interrogator. Employing Cialdini’s principle of social proof, for example, the
interrogator could convince the source that every one of his co-detainees has
cooperated fully with the interrogator (who, operating under the rules of the
interrogation world, can assume the persona of the helpful interviewer). Even
though experience in the outside world tells the source that his colleagues were
disciplined soldiers committed to the cause, as the outside world “fades away” so
does his confidence in the assumptions made there.
The most important point to be made in this observation is that the truth of
the interrogation room can range widely from that of the outside world. Those
involved in the quest for new and better strategies for educing information must
remain ever cognizant of this unique phenomenon.
Reconnaissance: Maintaining an Outcome-Orientation
Two dangers are especially likely to appear during the
reconnaissance. Up to this point, the interrogator has
not continued a line of questioning when resistance was
71
KUBARK, 57–58.
119