Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

een accomplished would the interrogator begin the formal examination process.
Such an approach has often proven effective.
The shock of capture phenomenon, by contrast, suggests that there are
instances where a brief window of opportunity presents itself for the interrogator
to question the source with little or no preliminary assessment. This approach has
also proven effective.
Which method is better If research were able to provide a valid answer,
or to point to a protocol that could assist an interrogator in making the correct
call on a consistent basis, this would then become an element of the overall
interrogation process that could be moved from the category of “art” to “science.”
Until then, the selection of an approach for dealing with newly detained sources
remains not unlike the artist’s selection of paint from a palette filled with an array
of attractive hues…the appropriateness of the selection largely reflects the talent
of the artist.
The Challenge of Apathy
Little is gained if confinement merely replaces one routine
with another. Prisoners who lead monotonously unvaried lives
“cease to care about their utterances, dress, and cleanliness.
They become dulled, apathetic, and depressed.” And apathy
can be a very effective defense against interrogation. 101
Little is known about the duration of confinement calculated
to make a subject shift from anxiety, coupled with a desire
for sensory stimuli and human companionship, to a passive,
apathetic acceptance of isolation and ultimate pleasure in the
negative state. Undoubtedly, the rate of change is determined
almost entirely by the psychological characteristics of the
individual. 102
Once again, this observation demonstrates the unique challenge of source
management: a challenge made even more complex by the introduction of coercive
measures. Perhaps the principle to be drawn here is that the interrogator may use
the advantage of physical setting (i.e., confinement, routine, movement) to his
advantage…but only to a point. The prolonged effort to influence psychological
set by controlling the physical setting can quickly and unexpectedly become
counterproductive when, as in the scenario cited above, the source’s routine
existence and distant hope of release cause him to view his circumstances — and
his life, his future, and the prospects for change — with apathy.
This brings up a larger point about the fundamental nature of interrogation as
either a “push” or “pull” (“control” or “rapport”) phenomenon. In the former, the
101
KUBARK, 86.
102
KUBARK, 87.
135