Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

program organization; procedures for screening, selecting and handling
POWs; training for interrogators; methods of interrogation; Allied
information requirements; and intelligence collected.
Lifton, R. J. (1956). “‘Thought Reform’ of Western Civilians in Chinese
Communist Prisons.” Psychiatry 19, 173–195.
Lifton, formerly a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Medical Institute,
interviewed Western civilians released from Chinese Communist
prisons in 1955 and 1956. In this account, he provides a window into
Chinese penal “thought reform,” citing the experiences of individual
prisoners. Chinese Communist “thought reform” seeks to annihilate
identity, establish guilt, and create internal conflict. The interrogator
demands more and more information and the prisoner develops an
increasing need to meet those demands. The struggle continues back
in the cell where “reformed” cellmates harass the prisoner. When the
prisoner has reached the “breaking point,” captors adopt a policy of
leniency or calculated kindness that rewards cooperation. Coached by
his interrogators, the prisoner gives in to the compulsion to confess
to real and fantasized actions, ultimately writing a well-crafted final
confession. With reeducation, the prisoner spends most of his waking
hours in study group sessions transferring his guilt for confessed crimes
to major elements of his identity. He begins to interpret his past life
as evil and completely identifies with the aggressor. Lifton maintains
that the Chinese Communist prison is “probably the most thoroughly
controlled and manipulated group environment that has ever existed.”
MacDonald, H. (2005). “How to Interrogate Terrorists.” City Journal.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspID=16572.
Accessed 5/8/2006.
This controversial piece discusses the consequences of the Abu Ghraib
scandal for military interrogation practices and defends the use of stress
techniques. Case studies from Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and
interviews with interrogators are included.
Mayer, J. (2005, 14 February). “Outsourcing Torture.” The New Yorker.
The United States established an “extraordinary rendition” program to
transfer terror suspects to foreign countries for interrogation. Mayer
documents the rendition program’s history, identifies shortcomings, and
provides case studies.
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