Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

POW records can be objectively analyzed by following five steps:
Step 1: Develop specific criteria for determining, on the basis of
verbal descriptions, the eduction practices employed. This step
should be completed before the records that will be part of the
formal analysis are examined.
Step 2: Partition each record into three sets of statements
S1: Statements about the eduction practices employed
S2: Statements about the information educed
S3: Statements not related to either method or information.
To the extent possible, the timing of the S1 and S2 statements
should be noted to indicate when the event occurred. With POW
data such timing information will be approximate at best (e.g.,
“This happened during the first few months after I was captured.”),
but it will still be useful.
Step 3: Analyze S1 statements and apply the criteria in Step 1 to
determine the eduction practices employed. This assessment must
be performed by individuals who were not involved in Step 2 or
Step 4 below. This will ensure that knowledge of the information
educed does not influence the determination of the method
employed.
Step 4: Analyze the S2 statements. This should be done by an
analyst or historian who is asked to rate information statements
for accuracy, usefulness, and completeness. Step 4 must also be
executed by people who were not involved in Steps 2 or 3.
Step 5: Analyze the statistical correlation between the eduction
practices employed and the accuracy, usefulness, and completeness
of the information educed. The person performing the statistical
analysis need not be informed of the content of the S1 and S2
statements.
Using these data sets and analysis procedures, it should be possible to test
some of the claims about the efficacy of eduction practices that the United States
does not now employ. For example, the claim that subjects can be “broken” implies
that subjects will reach a point where they will simply “tell all.” The independent
assessments resulting from Step 4 may shed considerable light on whether
this is true. Similarly, the claim that torture results in unreliable information is
equally testable, provided we have an independent evaluation of the information
educed. 695
While an objective analysis of historical data is unlikely to generate definitive
results on many questions of interest, it will provide some scientific feedback on
the validity of claims about coercive techniques. These data should be exploited.
695
We believe it may be possible to acquire North Vietnamese records of POW internments.
307