Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

words and deeds that individuals or populations consider offensive. While many
in the West were disgusted by the treatment of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib,
it deeply shocked the Arab world for reasons poignantly described by George
Friedman:
Sexual humiliation of Arabs as a means of extracting information
had been practiced before — by the Ottoman Turks. As some
societies treat women who are raped, Arab society holds the
victim of sexual torture responsible for their fate. So taking
pictures of sexual humiliation was a perfect tool of blackmail.
Like a woman in nineteenth-century Sicily who had been raped,
the revelation of sexual abuse could be worse than the abuse
itself. No fingernails were pulled, but the spirit was broken. It
was an effective means of non-physical torture. 649
Whether the interrogator’s objective is to establish operational accord,
psychologically intimidate, emotionally provoke, or infer guilt, the attempt will
fail if it is not orchestrated in a manner that is culturally meaningful to the target of
these efforts. One cannot “know the enemy” without understanding his culture.
Breaking The Cultural Barrier — Shaping “Logical” Appeals to the
Source’s Belief Structure
In this heading the word “logical” is enclosed in quotation marks to denote its
unique application in the context of interrogation: specifically, its use to convince
a reluctant source of the merits of an interrogator’s appeal. The logic used by the
interrogator is not constrained by convention; rather, its purpose is to present an
apparently logical explanation — or rationalization — for the source to capitulate.
An (admittedly simple) example would be as follows:
Interrogator: You have told me before — several times — that
you believe in God. And we both agree that God would condemn
acts that result in the deaths of innocent people, especially
women and children. If you truly believe in God as you have
said, then it is imperative that you tell me about Al Qaeda’s next
target so that you and I, two believers in God, can work together
to prevent the tragic deaths of so many innocent people.
Resistance instructors refer to such an approach as “circular logic” and
caution against underestimating the persuasive potential of this tactic. Employing
this ruse in the context of interrogating a follower of Islam, however, can be
problematic if not informed by the necessary cultural intelligence. Given the
important differences in beliefs about the role of God in matters both prosaic and
profound, interrogators unfamiliar with Islam must be cautious in the use of a
circular logic approach that incorporates analogous examples of, for example, right
and wrong, to persuade a source to provide information (e.g., on an impending
649
George Friedman, America’s Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between
America and Its Enemies (New York: Doubleday, 2004), 327-8.
246