Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

that it is typical of the other service to ignore the welfare of
its agents. The interrogator may personalize this pitch by
explaining that he has been impressed by the [source’s] courage
and intelligence. 84
This approach also leverages the psychological and emotional partition
between aforementioned values outside the interrogation room and those inside
the interrogation room. By using this approach effectively, the interrogator
continues to separate the source from his or her external anchors. In this instance,
that anchor is a belief in the parent service’s skill in managing cover to properly
protect the source operationally. This has direct application to the interrogation of
suspected terrorists, not only as it relates to cover support, but also to the threat
briefings, operational planning, and equipment provided to the source by his or
her sponsoring organization.
A key element of systematic interrogation is systematic innovation. Rather
than assume that the approaches outlined in U.S. Army Field Manual 34-52 are
the limit of their repertoire of tactics, interrogators should view those approaches
as only the very beginning. The drafters of the KUBARK manual demonstrated
the value to be found in the ability to adapt to new challenges, design innovative
strategies, identify through practical experience what appears to consistently
work well, and share these novel concepts with other interrogators. If a central
clearinghouse for new interrogation tactics, techniques, and procedures existed
— a means of capturing and widely disseminating the experience and insights of
operators in the field — it is quite probable that the art of interrogation would
currently be taught and practiced in a significantly different and far more effective
fashion.
The Need to Communicate
…continued questioning about lofty topics that the source
knows nothing about may pave the way for the extraction of
information at lower levels…complaints that he knows nothing
of such matters are met by flat insistence that he does know, he
would have to know, that even the most stupid men in his position
know…after the process has continued long enough, the source
was asked a question to which he did know the answer. Numbers
of [former] American [POWs] have mentioned “the tremendous
feeling of relief you get when [the interrogator] finally asks you
something you can answer…I know it seems strange now, but I
was positively grateful to them when they switched to a topic I
knew something about.” 85
84
KUBARK, 72.
85
KUBARK, 75.
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