True art of Interrogation

[jhungary]

People who saw too many movie, especially the die hard, 24 fans will tell you, just-beat-the-crap-of-them up. Or people who read too many novel or watch one too many movie are all familiarized with the term "Waterboarding", "Mock Execution" "Sleep Deprivation" and so on...

But you ever wonder how a pro actually did it, or you just buy in whatever media is telling you

Being an Battalion S2, I can shed some light on the topic.

First of all, "PHYSICAL TOUTURE NEVER WORK", this is the first rule, when you torture someone, that person will say ANYTHING to make you stop. Even for just a second, at best it waste you second, minutes, or worse, lead you in a wild goose chase and you waste days if not month on bad Intel.

Physical torture only work in the movie, it NEVER EVER work in real life.

Getting information out of someone is easy, getting the useful information from someone is not. And the purpose of interrogation is to bring the latter, not the first.

So, interrogation is simply just like a chess game, a game of psychological status. Where he make you think what he is tell you is true while he is withholding some the real stuff that you want, and you let him know you are too desperate and will do anything in your power to get what you think he knows.

Different interrogator have their own ways to interrogate their "mark" There are 3 steps involved in my way, taught to me by my mentor.

Step 1: Don't talk to him, talk to people he knows and people know him. That way, you get a better picture of him (or reluctantly says, sometimes "her" too) than the one he is telling you.

A person is made out of different opinion from different people, if you ask someone who know Hilter by person, I bet you some say he is a ruthless dictator, but some will say he is a gentle, caring person. You never depend on one dimension information and see what kind of person your mark is, you need to talk to people he knows, find out what he's like and what he's don't like, and a lot of stuff about him. You need those information and use it to make him talk

Step 2: Always take what he wanted out of the table and find something he cannot live with. If he is a suicide bomber, and you want to get him to tell you who's building bomb, it's no good that he died, right? Cause dead man don't talk. If death is what he want, then put death out of the equation. See, there are only 2 type of person who you, as an interrogator deal with, 1 is highly trained, the other is not, with the untrained one, it's easy to make them talk, but with the trained mark, they won't.

See, a trained person will always have a lie, a cover and true story. Essentially what you want is to get over the Lie and his cover story and get to the truth ASAP. What he will do is, he expect you to interrogate him, then he will stick with his lies, when you put some heat on, he will pretend to break down and tell you the cover story, this always happens just how long it takes from getting a lie to getting into his cover is different.

What I do is, I stick with their lies and run with it, and when I find out (Well, I actually know from the get go) it's a dead end, what I will do is, I will find something dear to him, strike it there and skip their cover. People all have secret, you are lying to yourselves to say if you do not, what I would do is, uncover this, find out what he cannot live with, and die trying to protect it. You break him down in piece, and you will eventually find out, and I make sure I let him know I am too desperate to do anything I want because of that lies.What you looking for is essentially, a very good acting skill.

If he don't take your buff, then he will tell you the cover story, if he did, then he WILL tell you what you want?

Step 3: Always treat your marks good, then take a photo. Essentially is this, if he is affiliated, you essentially uses the photo to black mail him. If he did not talk the truth before, he will now, cause he knows, we will not do jack shiite to him, but his local commander will, and if we pass on those intimate photo to their local commander, what would he think? His life won't worth 3 second, worse, his reputation is trashed. That's essentially better for him to be dead.

This does not work if you beat him up and take a photo like enjoying the process, in fact it may earn him some extra point with his local commander.

Real torture worth jack shiite, this is how pros get their job done. This is just a page, a brief, if i were to go into the up and low of the technique, it will take me days, this is by know mean what we all do as an interrogator.

See you later

 

[Amaa'n]

Physical torture is never the way to go in current WoT. Especially with focus on SERE training as part of Basic Infantry Course with in the armed forces it is hard to break a solider. Terrorist / militants are not left behind either when it comes to SERE. The hardcore militants won't just give away the useful piece of information. A very simple and basic rule to counter interrogation is speak half truth and half a lie.
So when it comes to interrogating a professional the best approach is to get to know about the suspect as much as possible. try to gather information from past intelligence, other prisoners / militants in the captivity. the more you know better it is to interrogate.
In one of the cases last year MI was to interrogate a terrorist. They tried every technique in the book of Physical torture but the guy wouldn't just give up the information. It was than , they decided to change the interrogator with much softer approach (a major rank officer). he puffed away a cigarette with the militant. had a meal with him, and some other techniques. At the day the militant didn't even realize he gave up the information which was required off him.

CIA has been highly critique of ISI's interrogating methods as most of the time it involves physical torture. That is why in OBL case CIA analysts interrogated the militant themselves. @Aeronaut @nuclearpak approval for the post please, if it worth it.

 

[jhungary]

Physical torture is never the way to go in current WoT. Especially with focus on SERE training as part of Basic Infantry Course with in the armed forces it is hard to break a solider. Terrorist / militants are not left behind either when it comes to SERE. The hardcore militants won't just give away the useful piece of information. A very simple and basic rule to counter interrogation is speak half truth and half a lie.
So when it comes to interrogating a professional the best approach is to get to know about the suspect as much as possible. try to gather information from past intelligence, other prisoners / militants in the captivity. the more you know better it is to interrogate.
In one of the cases last year MI was to interrogate a terrorist. They tried every technique in the book of Physical torture but the guy wouldn't just give up the information. It was than , they decided to change the interrogator with much softer approach (a major rank officer). he puffed away a cigarette with the militant. had a meal with him, and some other techniques. At the day the militant didn't even realize he gave up the information which was required off him.

CIA has been highly critique of ISI's interrogating methods as most of the time it involves physical torture. That is why in OBL case CIA analysts interrogated the militant themselves. @Aeronaut @nuclearpak approval for the post please, if it worth it.

I am not gonna be proud when I say these.

Most of the time, we use their family.......

 

[Slav Defence]

We know that every criminal has different personality which means that he has different level of sustaining physical torture, or mental pressure of manipulative investigation by officers.
So, techniques are carried out on the basis of criminal’s psychology and strength to sustain pressure.
Some criminals confess simply without physical torture due to following factors:
--They are not capable to sustain mental pressure.
--The manipulative technique of officer on the basis of data he collected and his guesses about certain missing puzzles of cases.
--And most prominently threshold of reaction of criminal.

 

[AHMED85]

Most of intelligence agencies using the neural system of human mind to detect what he is actually thinking but it is failed one well trained agents and these agent do not accept it.. Such as psychiatric work which is consider as same as to killing the person near to American thinkers..

Now the all war on GWOT required to start new war
On fundamental rights...
It will providing the effective range of results for those who are influenced of deprivations...

 

[Echo_419]

Thx when I will interrogate a person I will know what to do
Very Useful

 

[Bratva]

I am not gonna be proud when I say these.

Most of the time, we use their family.......

What about certain chemicals which subdues person subconscious and acts as a truth serum and whatever we ask them, they will tell it subconsciously?

 

[Secur]

I am not gonna be proud when I say these.

Most of the time, we use their family.......

If you have time , can you tell me a little about what you think of ' Operation MK ULTRA ' ?

 

[jhungary]

We know that every criminal has different personality which means that he has different level of sustaining physical torture, or mental pressure of manipulative investigation by officers.
So, techniques are carried out on the basis of criminal’s psychology and strength to sustain pressure.
Some criminals confess simply without physical torture due to following factors:
--They are not capable to sustain mental pressure.
--The manipulative technique of officer on the basis of data he collected and his guesses about certain missing puzzles of cases.
--And most prominently threshold of reaction of criminal.

The end result is to "Break" your mark, it does not matter how you do it, but you need to do that within given specific time.

There are all sort of people, range from people who break with the slightest wind blow. To people who don't even blink when you put a knife at his throat. The key is and always is know your mark. And again different people have a different way to do them, I like to talk, but other don't usually seems agree to me.

There is another way you can separate a trained hardcore from untrained whistle guy, that is put them in a stress test.

I once saw a captain perform a stress test to a detainee. He hollow out a grenade (the detainee don't know) pull the pin and put it in his hand, he have the detainee stand on 109 degree heat standing up with arm lifted holding a grenade and see how long he last. If he last long, he is definitely a trained operative

If you have time , can you tell me a little about what you think of ' Operation MK ULTRA ' ?

Op MKUltra or Project MKUltra is a well known covert ops that CIA done in the 50s, 60s and probably 70s. It made famous by the movie Manchurian Candidate. And some do say this is where the CIA got their idea from.

What exactly happened inside MKUltra is unknown, as majority of the document were burned under the direction of CIA director at the time. But Highly probably the project is around alternative interrogation method and deniability.

It based around how your brain allow and control you to divulge the information and how you can get around them(the brain) and get the information you need, or Fooling the brain into giving you what you want. As far as I know the method they use involve a range of operation, from Drugging the mark, to Hypnosis, to Psychics...... They have done this to many American, some Foreigner and some Enemy Combatant (Vietnamese and North Korean and Some Chinese who was captured by the ROC government during the civil war that did not end until 1959)

There are not much I CAN tell you as either the stuff that I know is already declassified and the stuff that I don't know, well, I don't know......But I can tell you this, and this is what I know and I hear and I can tell you as a hearsay

Op MKUltra survived and turn into a form of Commercial Experiment. Where you literally test the limit of the Brain. There are data that collected from MKUltra are still being used today, data like how long a person can hold sleep until he gone insane. How effective according to different race to Brain Stimuli. And how the Brain and Micro-movement from the face change when a person is lying(to be exact, with neuro-signal). Those are information that carried out of the Original MKUltra Plan, and as far as I know, those issue are still under experimenting some corner in this world as part of Human Behavioural Experiment.

Literally, you can claim "Poker Face" (Not the lady gaga song) is a product of MKUltra

Please do understand this topic is sensitive and I cannot tell you most of the stuff I know, this is all I can tell you about MKUltra and stuff that's related within my power I don't want to get "Disappeared" by the CIA

 

[F.O.X]

The Art of Interrogation is the Right mix between .

Physiological Damage x Environment x Intimidation x Something to Loose x Something to Gain .

It is not True that Torture Does not Work .. It Does .. how ever only on grunts. . who have nothing to gain from hiding information & everything to loose .

There is no 100% proven interrogation method .. it changes with the person you are interrogating .

 

[jhungary]

The Art of Interrogation is the Right mix between .

Physiological Damage x Environment x Intimidation x Something to Loose x Something to Gain .

It is not True that Torture Does not Work .. It Does .. how ever only on grunts. . who have nothing to gain from hiding information & everything to loose .

There is no 100% proven interrogation method .. it changes with the person you are interrogating .

have some reserve on that.

You either can take a beating or you don't. People who do will take a beating and say nothing, people who don't will say anything before said beating happened. If you are to divulge the information in the end and you know it, why you need to take the beating?? It's not like you want to be a tough guy that you are not....hehe

As I said. People who can't take it will break before you finish this sentence "I will beat you up"

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

have some reserve on that.

You either can take a beating or you don't. People who do will take a beating and say nothing, people who don't will say anything before said beating happened. If you are to divulge the information in the end and you know it, why you need to take the beating?? It's not like you want to be a tough guy that you are not....hehe

As I said. People who can't take it will break before you finish this sentence "I will beat you up"

I think the effectiveness of interrogation methods will be different up on person to person. The key is to find a "right mixture of interrogation techniques at right amount for each person being interrogated."Professionals, soldiers and terrorists also are trained to take physical torture to some extend, but how much more one can take ? especially when on the hands of people who have no rules or on limitation on what they can do or can't do to you. I think even a trained person himself doesn't know much torture he can take, he himself will find out the breaking point only when it comes to him for real.most of them will break at some point while few will hold up.

 

[Thəorətic Muslim]

Some points:

Violence perceived is the same as violence achieved.

Working a person is all about impairing their judgement, fear and the perception of violence, as above, works wonders.

A skilled interrogator will always be able to Break someone. Everyone has a breaking point. No matter the training of the person being interrogated. The only question is whether the interrogator is able to get the information he/she needs at the right time to be able to act upon it.

Every skilled interrogator will know that the more they work the person, the more likely they will believe any false information they spu out because it was much harder to get.

 

[Neptune]

@jhungary Well I have a few serious questions. I'd be glad if you answer.

1- what are the differences of Interrogation Technics when compared between Law Enforcements, MI and Intelligence Organisations.

2- Do all these are based on the same doctrine? Or do they have their own systems?

3- How's the American Community's view on US Goverment's Interrogation tactics?

4- How's the post-interrogation process of suspects/terrorists?

5- Well, of course it depends on the guy's views but what is the avarage technique/style of a successful interrogator?

6- During Officer/NCO trainings. Do soldiers get a course like "basic interrogation techniques" or sth? Or it's all up to the branch of the cadet?

Thanks

 

[RescueRanger]

The only thing I know about interrogation is what they teach in Investigative interviewing technique. But thank you for he op for an excellent summary on the subject.