Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

gathered. The past two decades have witnessed an explosion in the types and
quality of technology available to warfighters and intelligence officers. During
this same period, however, little systematic work has gone into identifying
developing, and fielding technologies in support of interrogation operations.
In this context, the search for certainty through technology has led some
to place unwarranted reliance on the accuracy of the polygraph. While law
enforcement agencies and intelligence services around the world routinely employ
the polygraph, 654 it is certainly not the panacea some might suggest. Personalityand
culture-driven factors continue to present significant challenges. For example,
will the person who views lying to the enemy as an acceptable, even noble, option
provide the same physiological cues that the polygraph examiner might normally
read as deception
While additional research into this and other technical means of detecting
deception (e.g., voice stress analysis) should continue, other potential applications
of technology also merit further examination. Audio monitoring of detainees
throughout the course of their detention became de rigueur during World War
II. Both the U.S. strategic interrogation program (MIS-Y) at Fort Hunt, VA, and
the British MI-5 interrogation program at Latchmere House (Camp 020) relied
heavily upon extensive recording of conversations among prisoners. In the course
of conversations with cellmates, even highly disciplined German general officers
and Abwehr intelligence operatives routinely disclosed information that they
had carefully withheld from their interrogator. Twenty-first century electronic
technology could facilitate an unprecedented level of surreptitious audio and
video monitoring of detainees on a 24/7 basis.
The monitoring (and recording) of interrogations constitutes a broadly useful
role for technology. The potential value of such recordings is considerable.
• They relieve the interrogator of the burden of note-taking (which can
also undermine efforts to elicit cooperation from a source by serving as a
constant reminder of the true nature of the exchange).
• They offer the opportunity to systematically observe and analyze
psychophysical cues relating to deception.
• They provide the most accurate and comprehensive means of capturing
any and all information of intelligence value presented by the source.
• They can be an invaluable tool for preventing abusive conduct on the
part of interrogators as well as in investigating allegations of prisoner
mistreatment.
• They can offer an unparalleled vehicle for developing the skills
of new interrogators.
Despite the advent of behavioral science consultation teams, the actual
interrogation has unnecessarily remained an individual pursuit. Even when
654
Committee to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph, National Research Council,
The Polygraph and Lie Detection (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2003.)
249