Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

philosophy that advances the following foundational principle: If the adversary
changes — if he learns from his experiences — the interrogator must have the
capacity to learn and adapt with greater speed (what Boyd termed “asymmetric
fast transients”).
The ability to learn and adapt requires the interrogator to possess two critical
qualities. These should permeate the methods employed and inform the decisionmaking
cycle. The first is sensory acuity. This implies having sufficient situational
and interpersonal awareness to recognize, understand, and make contextual sense
of what is occurring. More specifically, it is the ability to make rapid — and
accurate — assessments of cause and effect. This might take the form of noticing
a rise in the intensity of stress-induced grooming behaviors when the source is
asked questions about certain topics (e.g., the location of a training base about
which the source claims to have no knowledge) and an absence of those same
behaviors when he/she is asked questions about other matters. The second critical
quality is fl exibility. Flexibility — in behavior, in strategy, in choice of physical
setting — ultimately means an ability to change what one is doing. The successful
interrogator can quickly and purposefully change an approach plan to fit the
source rather than the other way around (which, curiously, is a more common
phenomenon than one might expect). Flexibility is the interrogator’s key ally in
the struggle against chaos and ambiguity.
Competitive Decision-Making: Applying Boyd’s OODA Loop to
Educing Information
Reduced to its essential nature, an interrogation can be defined as a
competition between two decision-making cycles. Within this context, elements
such as adaptability, speed, sensory acuity and flexibility are critical factors, with
success accruing to the party that possesses and employs them more effectively.
The strategy of Observe—Orient—Decide—Act (the OODA Loop) originated
by Colonel Boyd exquisitely captures these elements and provides a unique
framework for their systematic, outcome-oriented orchestration. The unique
nature of this dynamic is concisely described as follows: 677
Knowledge of the strategic environment is the first priority.
Secondly, one must be able to interact with the environment
and those within it appropriately. You must be able to observe
and orient yourself in such a way that you can indeed survive
and prosper by shaping the environment where possible to your
own ends, by adapting to it where you must. Doing so requires
a complex set of relationships that involve both isolation and
interaction. Knowing when each is appropriate is critical to
your success. In OODA Loop fashion, one must continually
observe, orient, decide and act in order to achieve and maintain
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In the context of Boyd’s decision-making cycle, “knowledge of the strategic environment” can
be used interchangeably with “sensory acuity,” while “the ability to interact with the environment and
those within it appropriately” essentially implies the same meaning as “flexibility.”
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