Doğu Strateji ve Tahlil Merkezi

KUBARK: INTELLIGENCE INTERROGATION MANUAL (II)

Regression

There are a number of non-coercive techniques for inducing
regression, All depend upon the interrogator's control of the
environment and, as always, a proper matching of method to source.
Some interrogatees can be repressed by

76 [page break]



persistent manipulation of time, by retarding and advancing clocks
and serving meals at odd times -- ten minutes or ten hours after the
last food was given. Day and night are jumbled. Interrogation
sessions are similarly unpatterned the subject may be brought back
for more questioning just a few minutes after being dismissed for the
night. Half-hearted efforts to cooperate can be ignored, and
conversely he can be rewarded for non-cooperation. (For example, a
successfully resisting source may become distraught if given some
reward for the "valuable contribution" that he has made.) The Alice
in Wonderland technique can reinforce the effect. Two or more
interrogators, questioning as a team and in relays (and thoroughly
jumbling the timing of both methods) can ask questions which make it
impossible for the interrogatee to give sensible, significant
answers. A subject who is cut off from the world he knows seeks to
recreate it, in some measure, in the new and strange environment. He
may try to keep track of time, to live in the familiar past, to cling
to old concepts of loyalty, to establish -- with one or more
interrogators -- interpersonal relations resembling those that he has
had earlier with other people, and to build other bridges back to the
known. Thwarting his attempts to do so is likely to drive him deeper
and deeper into himself, until he is no longer able to control his
responses in adult fashion.

The placebo technique is also used to induce regression The
interrogatee is given a placebo (a harmless sugar pill). Later he is
told that he has imbibed a drug, a truth serum, which will make him
want to talk and which will also prevent his lying. The subject's
desire to find an excuse for the compliance that represents his sole
avenue of escape from his distressing predicament may make him want
to believe that he has been drugged and that no one could blame him
for telling his story now. Gottschelk observes, "Individuals under
increased stress are more likely to respond to placebos."(7)

Orne has discussed an extensions of the placebo concept in explaining
what he terms the "magic room" technique. "An example... would be...
the prisoner who is given a hypnotic suggestion that his hand is
growing warm. However,

77 [page break]



in this instance, the prisoner's hand actually does become warm, a
problem easily resolved by the use of a concealed diathermy machine.
Or it might be suggested... that... a cigarette will taste bitter.
Here again, he could be given a cigarette prepared to have a slight
but noticeably bitter taste." In discussing states of heightened
suggestibility (which are not, however, states of trance) Orne
says, "Both hypnosis and some of the drugs inducing hypnoidal states
are popularly viewed as situations where the individual is no longer
master of his own fate and therefore not responsible for his actions.
It seems possible then that the hypnotic situation, as distinguished
from hypnosis itself, might be used to relieve the individual of a
feeling of responsibility for his own actions and thus lead him to
reveal information."(7)

In other words, a psychologically immature source, or one who has
been regressed, could adopt an implication or suggestion that he has
been drugged, hypnotized, or otherwise rendered incapable of
resistance, even if he recognizes at some level that the suggestion
is untrue, because of his strong desire to escape the stress of the
situation by capitulating. These techniques provide the source with
the rationalization that he needs.

Whether regression occurs spontaneously under detention or
interrogation, and whether it is induced by a coercive or non-
coercive technique, it should not be allowed to continue past the
point necessary to obtain compliance. Severe techniques of regression
are best employed in the presence of a psychiatrist, to insure full
reversal later. As soon as he can, the interrogator presents the
subject with the way out, the face-saving reason for escaping from
his painful dilemma by yielding. Now the interrogator becomes
fatherly. Whether the excuse is that others have already confessed
("all the other boys are doing it"), that the interrogatee had a
chance to redeem himself ("you're really a good boy at heart"), or
that he can't help himself ("they made you do it"), the effective
rationalization, the one the source will jump at, is likely to be
elementary. It is an adult's version of the excuses of childhood.

78 [page break]



The Polygraph

The polygraph can be used for purposes other than the evaluation of
veracity. For example, it may be used as an adjunct in testing the
range of languages spoken by an interrogatee or his sophistication in
intelligence matters, for rapid screening to determine broad areas of
knowledgeability, and as an aid in the psychological assessment of
sources. Its primary function in a counterintelligence interrogation,
however, is to provide a further means of testing for deception or
withholding.

A resistant source suspected of association with a hostile
clandestine organization should be tested polygraphically at least
once. Several examinations may be needed. As a general rule, the
polygraph should not be employed as a measure of last resort. More
reliable readings will be obtained if the instrument is used before
the subject has been placed under intense pressure, whether such
pressure is coercive or not. Sufficient information for the purpose
is normally available after screening and one or two interrogation
sessions.

Although the polygraph has been a valuable aid, no interrogator
should feel that it can carry his responsibility for him. [approx. 7
lines deleted] (9)

The best results are obtained when the CI interrogator and the
polygraph operator work closely together in laying the groundwork for
technical examination. The operator needs all available information
about the personality of the source, as well as the operational
background and reasons for suspicion. The CI interrogator in turn can
cooperate more effectively and can fit the results of technical
examination more accurately into

79 [page break]



the totality of his findings if he has a basic comprehension of the
instrument and its workings.

The following discussion is based upon R.C. Davis' "Physiological
Responses as a Means of Evaluating Information."(7) Although
improvements appear to be in the offing, the instrument in widespread
use today measures breathing, systolic blood pressure, and galvanic
skin response (GSR). "One drawback in the use of respiration as an
indicator," according to Davis, "is its susceptibility to voluntary
control." Moreover, if the source "knows that changes in breathing
will disturb all physiologic variables under control of the autonomic
division of the nervous system, and possibly even some others, a
certain amount of cooperation or a certain degree of ignorance is
required for lie detection by physiologic methods to work." In
general, "... breathing during deception is shallower and slower than
in truth telling... the inhibition of breathing seems rather
characteristic of anticipation of a stimulus."

The measurement of systolic blood pressure provides a reading on a
phenomenon not usually subject to voluntary control. The
pressure "... will typically rise by a few millimeters of mercury in
response to a question, whether it is answered truthfully or not. The
evidence is that the rise will generally be greater when (the
subject) is lying." However, discrimination between truth-telling and
lying on the basis of both breathing and blood pressure "... is poor
(almost nil) in the early part of the sitting and improves to a high
point later."

The galvanic skin response is one of the most easily triggered
reactions, but recovery after the reaction is slow, and "... in a
routine examination the next question is likely to be introduced
before recovery is complete. Partly because of this fact there is an
adapting trend in the GSR with stimuli repeated every few minutes the
response gets smaller, other things being equal."

Davis examines three theories regarding the polygraph. The
conditional response theory holds that the subject reacts to
questions that strike sensitive areas, regardless of whether he is
telling the truth or not. Experimentation has not sub-

80 [page break]



stantiated this theory. The theory of conflict presumes that a large
physiologic disturbance occurs when the subject is caught between his
habitual inclination to tell the truth and his strong desire not to
divulge a certain set of facts. Davis suggests that if this concept
is valid, it holds only if the conflict is intense. The threat-of-
punishment theory maintains that a large physiologic response
accompanies lying because the subject fears the consequence of
failing to deceive. "In common language it might be said that he
fails to deceive the machine operator for the very reason that he
fears he will fail. The 'fear' would be the very reaction detected."
This third theory is more widely held than the other two.
Interrogators should note the inference that a resistant source who
does not fear that detection of lying will result in a punishment of
which he is afraid would not, according to this theory, produce
significant responses.

Graphology

The validity of graphological techniques for the analysis of the
personalities of resistant interrogatees has not been established.
There is some evidence that graphology is a useful aid in the early
detection of cancer and of certain mental illnesses. If the
interrogator or his unit decides to have a source's handwriting
analyzed, the samples should be submitted to Headquarters as soon as
possible, because the analysis is more useful in the preliminary
assessment of the source than in the later interrogation. Graphology
does have the advantage of being one of the very few techniques not
requiring the assistance or even the awareness of the interrogatee.
As with any other aid, the interrogator is free to determine for
himself whether the analysis provides him with new and valid
insights, confirms other observations, is not helpful, or is
misleading.

81 [page break]
IX. Coercive Counterintelligence Interrogation
of Resistant Sources

A. Restrictions

The purpose of this part of the handbook is to present basic
information about coercive techniques available for use in the
interrogation situation. It is vital that this discussion not be
misconstrued as constituting authorization for the use of coercion at
field discretion . As was noted earlier, there is no such blanket
authorization.

[approx. 10 lines deleted]

For both ethical and pragmatic reasons no interrogator may take upon
himself the unilateral responsibility for using coercive methods.
Concealing from the interrogator's superiors an intent to resort to
coercion, or its unapproved employment, does not protect them. It
places them, and KUBARK, in unconsidered jeopardy.


B. The Theory of Coercion

Coercive procedures are designed not only to exploit the resistant
source's internal conflicts and induce him to wrestle with himself
but also to bring a superior outside force to bear upon the subject's
resistance. Non-coercive methods are not

82 [page break]



likely to succeed if their selection and use is not predicated upon
an accurate psychological assessment of the source. In contrast, the
same coercive method may succeed against persons who are very unlike
each other. The changes of success rise steeply, nevertheless, if the
coercive technique is matched to the source's personality.
Individuals react differently even to such seemingly non-
discriminatory stimuli as drugs. Moreover, it is a waste of time and
energy to apply strong pressures on a hit-or-miss basis if a tap on
the psychological jugular will produce compliance.

All coercive techniques are designed to induce regression. As Hinkle
notes in "The Physiological State of the Interrogation Subject as it
Affects Brain Function"(7), the result of external pressures of
sufficient intensity is the loss of those defenses most recently
acquired by civilized man: "... the capacity to carry out the highest
creative activities, to meet new, challenging, and complex
situations, to deal with trying interpersonal relations, and to cope
with repeated frustrations. Relatively small degrees of homeostatic
derangement, fatigue, pain, sleep loss, or anxiety may impair these
functions." As a result, "most people who are exposed to coercive
procedures will talk and usually reveal some information that they
might not have revealed otherwise."

One subjective reaction often evoked by coercion is a feeling of
guilt. Meltzer observes, "In some lengthy interrogations, the
interrogator may, by virtue of his role as the sole supplier of
satisfaction and punishment, assume the stature and importance of a
parental figure in the prisoner's feeling and thinking. Although
there may be intense hatred for the interrogator, it is not unusual
for warm feelings also to develop. This ambivalence is the basis for
guilt reactions, and if the interrogator nourishes these feelings,
the guilt may be strong enough to influence the prisoner's
behavior.... Guilt makes compliance more likely...."(7).

Farber says that the response to coercion typically contains "... at
least three important elements: debility, dependency, and dread."
Prisoners "... have reduced viability, are helplessly dependent on
their captors for the

83 [page break]



satisfaction of their many basic needs, and experience the emotional
and motivational reactions of intense fear and anxiety.... Among the
[American] POW's pressured by the Chinese Communists, the DDD
syndrome in its full-blown form constituted a state of discomfort
that was well-nigh intolerable." (11). If the debility-dependency-
dread state is unduly prolonged, however, the arrestee may sink into
a defensive apathy from which it is hard to arouse him.

Psychologists and others who write about physical or psychological
duress frequently object that under sufficient pressure subjects
usually yield but that their ability to recall and communicate
information accurately is as impaired as the will to resist. This
pragmatic objection has somewhat the same validity for a
counterintelligence interrogation as for any other. But there is one
significant difference. Confession is a necessary prelude to the CI
interrogation of a hitherto unresponsive or concealing source. And
the use of coercive techniques will rarely or never confuse an
interrogatee so completely that he does not know whether his own
confession is true or false. He does not need full mastery of all his
powers of resistance and discrimination to know whether he is a spy
or not. Only subjects who have reached a point where they are under
delusions are likely to make false confessions that they believe.
Once a true confession is obtained, the classic cautions apply. The
pressures are lifted, at least enough so that the subject can provide
counterintelligence information as accurately as possible. In fact,
the relief granted the subject at this time fits neatly into the
interrogation plan. He is told that the changed treatment is a reward
for truthfulness and an evidence that friendly handling will continue
as long as he cooperates.

The profound moral objection to applying duress past the point of
irreversible psychological damage has been stated. Judging the
validity of other ethical arguments about coercion exceeds the scope
of this paper. What is fully clear, however, is that controlled
coercive manipulation of an interrogatee may impair his ability to
make fine distinctions but will not alter his ability to answer
correctly such gross questions as "Are you a Soviet agent? What is
your assignment now? Who is your present case officer?"

84 [page break]



When an interrogator senses that the subject's resistance is
wavering, that his desire to yield is growing stronger than his wish
to continue his resistance, the time has come to provide him with the
acceptable rationalization: a face-saving reason or excuse for
compliance. Novice interrogators may be tempted to seize upon the
initial yielding triumphantly and to personalize the victory. Such a
temptation must be rejected immediately. An interrogation is not a
game played by two people, one to become the winner and the other the
loser. It is simply a method of obtaining correct and useful
information. Therefore the interrogator should intensify the
subject's desire to cease struggling by showing him how he can do so
without seeming to abandon principle, self-protection, or other
initial causes of resistance. If, instead of providing the right
rationalization at the right time, the interrogator seizes gloatingly
upon the subject's wavering, opposition will stiffen again.

The following are the principal coercive techniques of interrogation:
arrest, detention, deprivation of sensory stimuli through solitary
confinement or similar methods, threats and fear, debility, pain,
heightened suggestibility and hypnosis, narcosis, and induced
regression. This section also discusses the detection of malingering
by interrogatees and the provision of appropriate rationalizations
for capitulating and cooperating.


C. Arrest

The manner and timing of arrest can contribute substantially to the
interrogator's purposes. "What we aim to do is to ensure that the
manner of arrest achieves, if possible, surprise, and the maximum
amount of mental discomfort in order to catch the suspect off balance
and to deprive him of the initiative. One should therefore arrest him
at a moment when he least expects it and when his mental and physical
resistance is at its lowest. The ideal time at which to arrest a
person is in the early hours of the morning because surprise is
achieved then, and because a person's resistance physiologically as
well as psychologically is at its lowest.... If a person cannot be
arrested in the early hours..., then the next best time is in the
evening....

85 [page break]



[approx. 10 lines deleted]" (1)

D. Detention

If, through the cooperation of a liaison service or by unilateral
means, arrangements have been made for the confinement of a resistant
source, the circumstances of detention are arranged to enhance within
the subject his feelings of being cut off from the known and the
reassuring, and of being plunged into the strange. Usually his own
clothes are immediately taken away, because familiar clothing
reinforces identity and thus the capacity for resistance. (Prisons
give close hair cuts and issue prison garb for the same reason.) If
the interrogatee is especially proud or neat, it may be useful to
give him an outfit that is one or two sizes too large and to fail to
provide a belt, so that he must hold his pants up.

The point is that man's sense of identity depends upon a continuity
in his surroundings, habits, appearance, actions, relations with
others, etc. Detention permits the interrogator to cut through these
links and throw the interrogatee back upon his own unaided internal
resources.

Little is gained if confinement merely replaces one routine with
another. Prisoners who lead monotonously unvaried lives "... cease to
care about their utterances, dress, and cleanliness. They become
dulled, apathetic, and depressed."(7) And apathy can be a very
effective defense against interrogation. Control of the source's
environment permits the interrogator to

86 [page break]



determine his diet, sleep pattern, and other fundamentals.
Manipulating these into irregularities, so that the subject becomes
disorientated, is very likely to create feelings of fear and
helplessness. Hinkle points out, "People who enter prison with
attitudes of foreboding, apprehension, and helplessness generally do
less well than those who enter with assurance and a conviction that
they can deal with anything that they may encounter.... Some people
who are afraid of losing sleep, or who do not wish to lose sleep,
soon succumb to sleep loss...." (7)

In short, the prisoner should not be provided a routine to which he
can adapt and from which he can draw some comfort -- or at least a
sense of his own identity. Everyone has read of prisoners who were
reluctant to leave their cells after prolonged incarceration. Little
is known about the duration of confinement calculated to make a
subject shift from anxiety, coupled with a desire for sensory stimuli
and human companionship, to a passive, apathetic acceptance of
isolation and an ultimate pleasure in this negative state.
Undoubtedly the rate of change is determined almost entirely by the
psychological characteristics of the individual. In any event, it is
advisable to keep the subject upset by constant disruptions of
patterns.

For this reason, it is useful to determine whether the interrogattee
has been jailed before, how often, under what circumstances, for how
long, and whether he was subjected to earlier interrogation.
Familiarity with confinement and even with isolation reduces the
effect.


E. Deprivation of Sensory Stimuli

The chief effect of arrest and detention, and particularly of
solitary confinement, is to deprive the subject of many or most of
the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile sensations to which
he has grown accustomed. John C. Lilly examined eighteen
autobiographical accounts written by polar explorers and solitary
seafarers. He found "... that isolation per se acts on most persons
as a powerful stress.... In all cases of survivors of isolation at
sea or in the polar night, it was the first exposure which caused

87 [page break]



the greatest fears and hence the greatest danger of giving way to
symptoms; previous experience is a powerful aid in going ahead,
despite the symptoms. "The symptoms most commonly produced by
isolation are superstition, intense love of any other living thing,
perceiving inanimate objects as alive, hallucinations, and
delusions." (26)

The apparent reason for these effects is that a person cut off from
external stimuli turns his awareness inward, upon himself, and then
projects the contents of his own unconscious outwards, so that he
endows his faceless environment with his own attributes, fears, and
forgotten memories. Lilly notes, "It is obvious that inner factors in
the mind tend to be projected outward, that some of the mind's
activity which is usually reality-bound now becomes free to turn to
phantasy and ultimately to hallucination and delusion."

A number of experiments conducted at McGill University, the National
Institute of Mental Health, and other sites have attempted to come as
close as possible to the elimination of sensory stimuli, or to
masking remaining stimuli, chiefly sounds, by a stronger but wholly
monotonous overlay. The results of these experiments have little
applicability to interrogation because the circumstances are
dissimilar. Some of the findings point toward hypotheses that seem
relevant to interrogation, but conditions like those of detention for
purposes of counterintelligence interrogation have not been
duplicated for experimentation.

At the National Institute of Mental Health two subjects were "...
suspended with the body and all but the top of the head immersed in a
tank containing slowly flowing water at 34.5 [degrees] C (94.5
[degrees] F)...." Both subjects wore black-out masks, which enclosed
the whole head but allowed breathing and nothing else. The sound
level was extremely low; the subject heard only his own breathing and
some faint sounds of water from the piping. Neither subject stayed in
the tank longer than three hours. Both passed quickly from normally
directed thinking through a tension resulting from unsatisfied hunger
for sensory stimuli and concentration upon the few available
sensations to private reveries and fantasies and eventually to visual
imagery somewhat resembling hallucinations.

88 [page break]



"In our experiments, we notice that after immersion the day
apparently is started over, i. e., the subject feels as if he has
risen from bed afresh; this effect persists, and the subject finds he
is out of step with the clock for the rest of the day."

Drs. Wexler, Mendelson, Leiderman, and Solomon conducted a somewhat
similar experiment on seventeen paid volunteers. These subjects
were "... placed in a tank-type respirator with a specially built
mattress.... The vents of the respirator were left open, so that the
subject breathed for himself. His arms and legs were enclosed in
comfortable but rigid cylinders to inhibit movement and tactile
contact. The subject lay on his back and was unable to see any part
of his body. The motor of the respirator was run constantly,
producing a dull, repetitive auditory stimulus. The room admitted no
natural light, and artificial light was minimal and constant." (42)
Although the established time limit was 36 hours and though all
physical needs were taken care of, only 6 of the 17 completed the
stint. The other eleven soon asked for release. Four of these
terminated the experiment because of anxiety and panic; seven did so
because of physical discomfort. The results confirmed earlier
findings that (1) the deprivation of sensory stimuli induces stress;
(2) the stress becomes unbearable for most subjects; (3) the subject
has a growing need for physical and social stimuli; and (4) some
subjects progressively lose touch with reality, focus inwardly, and
produce delusions, hallucinations, and other pathological effects.

In summarizing some scientific reporting on sensory and perceptual
deprivation, Kubzansky offers the following observations:

"Three studies suggest that the more well-adjusted or 'normal' the
subject is, the more he is affected by deprivation of sensory
stimuli. Neurotic and psychotic subjects are either comparatively
unaffected or show decreases in anxiety, hallucinations, etc." (7)

89 [page break]



These findings suggest - but by no means prove - the following
theories about solitary confinement and isolation:

1. The more completely the place of confinement eliminates sensory
stimuli, the more rapidly and deeply will the interrogatee be
affected. Results produced only after weeks or months of imprisonment
in an ordinary cell can be duplicated in hours or days in a cell
which has no light (or weak artificial light which never varies),
which is sound-proofed, in which odors are eliminated, etc. An
environment still more subject to control, such as water-tank or iron
lung, is even more effective.

2. An early effect of such an environment is anxiety. How soon it
appears and how strong it is depends upon the psychological
characteristics of the individual.

3. The interrogator can benefit from the subject's anxiety. As the
interrogator becomes linked in the subject's mind with the reward of
lessened anxiety, human contact, and meaningful activity, and thus
with providing relief for growing discomfort, the questioner assumes
a benevolent role. (7)

4. The deprivation of stimuli induces regression by depriving the
subject's mind of contact with an outer world and thus forcing it in
upon itself. At the same time, the calculated provision of stimuli
during interrogation tends to make the regressed subject view the
interrogator as a father-figure. The result, normally, is a
strengthening of the subject's tendencies toward compliance.


F. Threats and Fear

The threat of coercion usually weakens or destroys resistance more
effectively than coercion itself. The threat to inflict pain, for
example, can trigger fears more damaging than the immediate sensation
of pain. In fact, most people underestimate their capacity to
withstand pain. The same principle holds for other fears: sustained
long enough, a strong fear of anything vague or unknown induces
regression,

90 [page break]



whereas the materialization of the fear, the infliction of some form
of punishment, is likely to come as a relief. The subject finds that
he can hold out, and his resistances are strengthened. "In general,
direct physical brutality creates only resentment, hostility, and
further defiance." (18)

The effectiveness of a threat depends not only on what sort of person
the interrogatee is and whether he believes that his questioner can
and will carry the threat out but also on the interrogator's reasons
for threatening. If the interrogator threatens because he is angry,
the subject frequently senses the fear of failure underlying the
anger and is strengthened in his own resolve to resist. Threats
delivered coldly are more effective than those shouted in rage. It is
especially important that a threat not be uttered in response to the
interrogatee's own expressions of hostility. These, if ignored, can
induce feelings of guilt, whereas retorts in kind relieve the
subject's feelings.

Another reason why threats induce compliance not evoked by the
inflection of duress is that the threat grants the interrogatee time
for compliance. It is not enough that a resistant source should
placed under the tension of fear; he must also discern an acceptable
escape route. Biderman observes, "Not only can the shame or guilt of
defeat in the encounter with the interrogator be involved, but also
the more fundamental injunction to protect one's self-autonomy
or 'will'.... A simple defense against threats to the self from the
anticipation of being forced to comply is, of course, to
comply 'deliberately' or 'voluntarily'.... To the extent that the
foregoing interpretation holds, the more intensely motivated the
[interrogatee] is to resist, the more intense is the pressure toward
early compliance from such anxieties, for the greater is the threat
to self-esteem which is involved in contemplating the possibility of
being 'forced to' comply...." (6) In brief, the threat is like all
other coercive techniques in being most effective when so used as to
foster regression and when joined with a suggested way out of the
dilemma, a rationalization acceptable to the interrogatee.

91 [page break]



The threat of death has often been found to be worse than useless.
It "has the highest position in law as a defense, but in many
interrogation situations it is a highly ineffective threat. Many
prisoners, in fact, have refused to yield in the face of such threats
who have subsequently been 'broken' by other procedures." (3) The
principal reason is that the ultimate threat is likely to induce
sheer hopelessness if the interrogatee does not believe that it is a
trick; he feels that he is as likely to be condemned after compliance
as before. The threat of death is also ineffective when used against
hard-headed types who realize that silencing them forever would
defeat the interrogator's purpose. If the threat is recognized as a
bluff, it will not only fail but also pave the way to failure for
later coercive ruses used by the interrogator.


G. Debility

No report of scientific investigation of the effect of debility upon
the interrogatee's powers of resistance has been discovered. For
centuries interrogators have employed various methods of inducing
physical weakness: prolonged constraint; prolonged exertion; extremes
of heat, cold, or moisture; and deprivation or drastic reduction of
food or sleep. Apparently the assumption is that lowering the
source's physiological resistance will lower his psychological
capacity for opposition. If this notion were valid, however, it might
reasonably be expected that those subjects who are physically weakest
at the beginning of an interrogation would be the quickest to
capitulate, a concept not supported by experience. The available
evidence suggests that resistance is sapped principally by
psychological rather than physical pressures. The threat of debility -
for example, a brief deprivation of food - may induce much more
anxiety than prolonged hunger, which will result after a while in
apathy and, perhaps, eventual delusions or hallucinations. In brief,
it appears probable that the techniques of inducing debility become
counter-productive at an early stage. The discomfort, tension, and
restless search for an avenue of escape are

92 [page break]



followed by withdrawal symptoms, a turning away from external
stimuli, and a sluggish unresponsiveness.

Another objection to the deliberate inducing of debility is that
prolonged exertion, loss of sleep, etc., themselves become patterns
to which the subject adjusts through apathy. The interrogator should
use his power over the resistant subject's physical environment to
disrupt patterns of response, not to create them. Meals and sleep
granted irregularly, in more than abundance or less than adequacy,
the shifts occuring on no discernible time pattern, will normally
disorient an interrogatee and sap his will to resist more effectively
than a sustained deprivation leading to debility.


H. Pain

Everyone is aware that people react very differently to pain. The
reason, apparently, is not a physical difference in the intensity of
the sensation itself. Lawrence E. Hinkle observes, "The sensation of
pain seems to be roughly equal in all men, that is to say, all people
have approximately the same threshold at which they begin to feel
pain, and when carefully graded stimuli are applied to them, their
estimates of severity are approximately the same.... Yet... when men
are very highly motivated... they have been known to carry out rather
complex tasks while enduring the most intense pain." He also
states, "In general, it appears that whatever may be the role of the
constitutional endowment in determining the reaction to pain, it is a
much less important determinant than is the attitude of the man who
experiences the pain." (7)

The wide range of individual reactions to pain may be partially
explicable in terms of early conditioning. The person whose first
encounters with pain were frightening and intense may be more
violently affected by its later infliction than one whose original
experiences were mild. Or the reverse may be true, and the man whose
childhood familiarized him with pain may dread

93 [page break]



it less, and react less, than one whose distress is heightened by
fear of the unknown. The individual remains the determinant.

It has been plausibly suggested that, whereas pain inflicted on a
person from outside himself may actually focus or intensify his will
to resist, his resistance is likelier to be sapped by pain which he
seems to inflict upon himself. "In the simple torture situation the
contest is one between the individual and his tormentor (.... and he
can frequently endure). When the individual is told to stand at
attention for long periods, an intervening factor is introduced. The
immediate source of pain is not the interrogator but the victim
himself. The motivational strength of the individual is likely to
exhaust itself in this internal encounter.... As long as the subject
remains standing, he is attributing to his captor the power to do
something worse to him, but there is actually no showdown of the
ability of the interrogator to do so." (4)

Interrogatees who are withholding but who feel qualms of guilt and a
secret desire to yield are likely to become intractable if made to
endure pain. The reason is that they can then interpret the pain as
punishment and hence as expiation. There are also persons who enjoy
pain and its anticipation and who will keep back information that
they might otherwise divulge if they are given reason to expect that
withholding will result in the punishment that they want. Persons of
considerable moral or intellectual stature often find in pain
inflicted by others a confirmation of the belief that they are in the
hands of inferiors, and their resolve not to submit is strengthened.

Intense pain is quite likely to produce false confessions, concocted
as a means of escaping from distress. A time-consuming delay results,
while investigation is conducted and the admissions are proven
untrue. During this respite the interrogatee can pull himself
together. He may even use the time to think up new, more
complex "admissions" that take still longer to disprove. KUBARK is
especially vulnerable to such tactics because the interrogation is
conducted for the sake of information and not for police purposes.

94 [page break]



If an interrogatee is caused to suffer pain rather late in the
interrogation process and after other tactics have failed, he is
almost certain to conclude that the interrogator is becoming
desperate. He may then decide that if he can just hold out against
this final assault, he will win the struggle and his freedom. And he
is likely to be right. Interrogatees who have withstood pain are more
difficult to handle by other methods. The effect has been not to
repress the subject but to restore his confidence and maturity.


I. Heightened Suggestibility and Hypnosis

In recent years a number of hypotheses about hypnosis have been
advanced by psychologists and others in the guise of proven
principles. Among these are the flat assertions that a person connot
be hypnotized against his will; that while hypnotized he cannot be
induced to divulge information that he wants urgently to conceal; and
that he will not undertake, in trance or through post-hypnotic
suggestion, actions to which he would normally have serious moral or
ethical objections. If these and related contentions were proven
valid, hypnosis would have scant value for the interrogator.

But despite the fact that hypnosis has been an object of scientific
inquiry for a very long time, none of these theories has yet been
tested adequately. Each of them is in conflict with some observations
of fact. In any event, an interrogation handbook cannot and need not
include a lengthy discussion of hypnosis. The case officer or
interrogator needs to know enough about the subject to understand the
circumstances under which hypnosis can be a useful tool, so that he
can request expert assistance appropriately.

Operational personnel, including interrogators, who chance to have
some lay experience or skill in hypnotism should not themselves use
hypnotic techniques for interrogation or other operational purposes.
There are two reasons for this position. The first is that hypnotism
used as an operational tool by a practitioner who is not a
psychologist, psychiatrist, or M.D. can produce irreversible
psychological damage. The

95 [page break]



lay practitioner does not know enough to use the technique safely.
The second reason is that an unsuccessful attempt to hypnotize a
subject for purposes of interrogation, or a successful attempt not
adequately covered by post-hypnotic amnesia or other protection, can
easily lead to lurid and embarrassing publicity or legal charges.

Hypnosis is frequently called a state of heightened suggestibility,
but the phrase is a description rather than a definition. Merton M.
Gill and Margaret Brenman state, "The psychoanalytic theory of
hypnosis clearly implies, where it does not explicitly state, that
hypnosis is a form of regression." And they add, "...induction [of
hypnosis] is the process of bringing about a regression, while the
hypnotic state is the established regression." (13) It is suggested
that the interrogator will find this definition the most useful. The
problem of overcoming the resistance of an uncooperative interrogatee
is essentially a problem of inducing regression to a level at which
the resistance can no longer be sustained. Hypnosis is one way of
regressing people.

Martin T. Orne has written at some length about hypnosis and
interrogation. Almost all of his conclusions are tentatively
negative. Concerning the role played by the will or attitude of the
interrogates, Orne says, "Although the crucial experiment has not yet
been done, there is little or no evidence to indicate that trance can
be induced against a person's wishes." He adds, "...the actual
occurrence of the trance state is related to the wish of the subject
to enter hypnosis." And he also observes, "...whether a subject will
or will not enter trance depends upon his relationship with the
hyponotist rather than upon the technical procedure of trance
induction." These views are probably representative of those of many
psychologists, but they are not definitive. As Orne himself later
points out, the interrogatee "... could be given a hypnotic drug with
appropriate verbal suggestions to talk about a given topic.
Eventually enough of the drug

96 [page break]



would be given to cause a short period of unconsciousness. When the
subject wakes, the interrogator could then read from his 'notes' of
the hypnotic interview the information presumably told him." (Orne
had previously pointed out that this technique requires that the
interrogator possess significant information about the subject
without the subject's knowledge.) "It can readily be seen how this...
maneuver... would facilitate the elicitation of information in
subsequent interviews." (7) Techniques of inducing trance in
resistant subjects through preliminary administration of so-called
silent drugs (drugs which the subject does not know he has taken) or
through other non-routine methods of induction are still under
investigation. Until more facts are known, the question of whether a
resister can be hypnotized involuntarily must go unanswered.

Orne also holds that even if a resister can be hypnotized, his
resistance does not cease. He postulates "... that only in rare
interrogation subjects would a sufficiently deep trance be obtainable
to even attempt to induce the subject to discuss material which he is
unwilling to discuss in the waking state. The kind of information
which can be obtained in these rare instances is still an unanswered
question." He adds that it is doubtful that a subject in trance could
be made to reveal information which he wished to safeguard. But here
too Orne seems somewhat too cautious or pessimistic. Once an
interrogatee is in a hypnotic trance, his understanding of reality
becomes subject to manipulation. For example, a KUBARK interrogator
could tell a suspect double agent in trance that the KGB is
conducting the questioning, and thus invert the whole frame of
reference. In other words, Orne is probably right in holding that
most recalcitrant subjects will continue effective resistance as long
as the frame of reference is undisturbed. But once the subject is
tricked into believing that he is talking to friend rather than foe,
or that divulging the truth is the best way to serve his own
purposes, his resistance will be replaced by cooperation. The value
of hypnotic trance is not that it permits the interrogator to impose
his will but rather that it can be used to convince the interrogatee
that there is no valid reason not to be forthcoming.

97 [page break]



A third objection raised by Orne and others is that material elicited
during trance is not reliable. Orne says, "... it has been shown that
the accuracy of such information... would not be guaranteed since
subjects in hypnosis are fully capable of lying." Again, the
observation is correct; no known manipulative method guarantees
veracity. But if hypnosis is employed not as an immediate instrument
for digging out the truth but rather as a way of making the subject
want to align himself with his interrogators, the objection
evaporates.

Hypnosis offers one advantage not inherent in other interrogation
techniques or aids: the post-hypnotic suggestion. Under favorable
circumstances it should be possible to administer a silent drug to a
resistant source, persuade him as the drug takes effect that he is
slipping into a hypnotic trance, place him under actual hypnosis as
consciousness is returning, shift his frame of reference so that his
reasons for resistance become reasons for cooperating, interrogate
him, and conclude the session by implanting the suggestion that when
he emerges from trance he will not remember anything about what has
happened.

This sketchy outline of possible uses of hypnosis in the
interrogation of resistant sources has no higher goal than to remind
operational personnel that the technique may provide the answer to a
problem not otherwise soluble. To repeat: hypnosis is distinctly not
a do-it-yourself project. Therefore the interrogator, base, or center
that is considering its use must anticipate the timing sufficiently
not only to secure the obligatory headquarters permission but also to
allow for an expert's travel time and briefing.


J. Narcosis

Just as the threat of pain may more effectively induce compliance
than its infliction, so an interrogatee's mistaken belief that he has
been drugged may make him a more useful interrogation subject than he
would be under narcosis. Louis A. Gottschalk cites a group of studies
as indicating "that 30 to 50 per cent of individuals are placebo
reactors, that is, respond

98 [page break]



with symptomatic relief to taking an inert substance." (7) In the
interrogation situation, moreover, the effectiveness of a placebo may
be enhanced because of its ability to placate the conscience. The
subject's primary source of resistance to confession or divulgence
may be pride, patriotism, personal loyalty to superiors, or fear of
retribution if he is returned to their hands. Under such
circumstances his natural desire to escape from stress by complying
with the interrogator's wishes may become decisive if he is provided
an acceptable rationalization for compliance. "I was drugged" is one
of the best excuses.

Drugs are no more the answer to the interrogator's prayer than the
polygraph, hypnosis, or other aids. Studies and reports "dealing with
the validity of material extracted from reluctant informants...
indicate that there is no drug which can force every informant to
report all the information he has. Not only may the inveterate
criminal psychopath lie under the influence of drugs which have been
tested, but the relatively normal and well-adjusted individual may
also successfully disguise factual data." (3) Gottschalk reinforces
the latter observation in mentioning an experiment involving drugs
which indicated that "the more normal, well-integrated individuals
could lie better than the guilt-ridden, neurotic subjects." (7)

Nevertheless, drugs can be effective in overcoming resistance not
dissolved by other techniques. As has already been noted, the so-
called silent drug (a pharmacologically potent substance given to a
person unaware of its administration) can make possible the induction
of hypnotic trance in a previously unwilling subject. Gottschalk
says, "The judicious choice of a drug with minimal side effects, its
matching to the subject's personality, careful gauging of dosage, and
a sense of timing... [make] silent administration a hard-to-equal
ally for the hypnotist intent on producing self-fulfilling and
inescapable suggestions... the drug effects should prove...
compelling to the subject since the perceived sensations originate
entirely within himself." (7)

99 [page break]



Particularly important is the reference to matching the drug to the
personality of the interrogatee. The effect of most drugs depends
more upon the personality of the subject than upon the physical
characteristics of the drugs themselves. If the approval of
Headquarters has been obtained and if a doctor is at hand for
administration, one of the most important of the interrogator's
functions is providing the doctor with a full and accurate
description of the psychological make-up of the interrogatee, to
facilitate the best possible choice of a drug.

Persons burdened with feelings of shame or guilt are likely to
unburden themselves when drugged, especially if these feelings have
been reinforced by the interrogator. And like the placebo, the drug
provides an excellent rationalization of helplessness for the
interrogatee who wants to yield but has hitherto been unable to
violate his own values or loyalties.

Like other coercive media, drugs may affect the content of what an
interrogatee divulges. Gottschalk notes that certain drugs "may give
rise to psychotic manifestations such as hallucinations, illusions,
delusions, or disorientation", so that "the verbal material obtained
cannot always be considered valid." (7) For this reason drugs (and
the other aids discussed in this section) should not be used
persistently to facilitate the interrogative debriefing that follows
capitulation. Their function is to cause capitulation, to aid in the
shift from resistance to cooperation. Once this shift has been
accomplished, coercive techniques should be abandoned both for moral
reasons and because they are unnecessary and even counter-productive.

This discussion does not include a list of drugs that have been
employed for interrogation purposes or a discussion of their
properties because these are medical considerations within the
province of a doctor rather than an interogator.

100 [page break]



K. The Detection of Malingering

The detection of malingering is obviously not an interrogation
technique, coercive or otherwise. But the history of interrogation is
studded with the stories of persons who have attempted, often
successfully, to evade the mounting pressures of interrogation by
feigning physical or mental illness. KUBARK interrogators may
encounter seemingly sick or irrational interrogatees at times and
places which make it difficult or next-to-impossible to summon
medical or other professional assistance. Because a few tips may make
it possible for the interrogator to distinguish between the
malingerer and the person who is genuinely ill, and because both
illness and malingering are sometimes produced by coercive
interrogation, a brief discussion of the topic has been included here.

Most persons who feign a mental or physical illness do not know
enough about it to deceive the well-informed. Malcolm L. Meltzer
says, "The detection of malingering depends to a great extent on the
simulator's failure to understand adequately the characteristics of
the role he is feigning.... Often he presents symptoms which are
exceedingly rare, existing mainly in the fancy of the layman. One
such symptom is the delusion of misidentification, characterized by
the... belief that he is some powerful or historic personage. This
symptom is very unusual in true psychosis, but is used by a number of
simulators. In schizophrenia, the onset tends to be gradual,
delusions do not spring up full-blown over night; in simulated
disorders, the onset is usually fast and delusions may be readily
available. The feigned psychosis often contains many contradictory
and inconsistent symptoms, rarely existing together. The malingerer
tends to go to extremes in his portrayal of his symptoms; he
exaggerates, overdramatizes, grimaces, shouts, is overly bizarre, and
calls attention to himself in other ways....

"Another characteristic of the malingerer is that he will usually
seek to evade or postpone examination. A study

101 [page break]



of the behavior of lie-detector subjects, for example, showed that
persons later 'proven guilty' showed certain similarities of
behavior. The guilty persons were reluctant to take the test, and
they tried in various ways to postpone or delay it. They often
appeared highly anxious and sometimes took a hostile attitude toward
the test and the examiner. Evasive tactics sometimes appeared, such
as sighing, yawning, moving about, all of which foil the examiner by
obscuring the recording. Before the examination, they felt it
necessary to explain why their responses might mislead the examiner
into thinking they were lying. Thus the procedure of subjecting a
suspected malingerer to a lie-detector test might evoke behavior
which would reinforce the suspicion of fraud." (7)

Meltzer also notes that malingerers who are not professional
psychologists can usually be exposed through Rorschach tests.

An important element in malingering is the frame of mind of the
examiner. A person pretending madness awakens in a professional
examiner not only suspicion but also a desire to expose the fraud,
whereas a well person who pretends to be concealing mental illness
and who permits only a minor symptom or two to peep through is much
likelier to create in the expert a desire to expose the hidden
sickness.

Meltzer observes that simulated mutism and amnesia can usually be
distinguished from the true states by narcoanalysis. The reason,
however, is the reverse of the popular misconception. Under the
influence of appropriate drugs the malingerer will persist in not
speaking or in not remembering, whereas the symptoms of the genuinely
afflicted will temporarily disappear. Another technique is to pretend
to take the deception seriously, express grave concern, and tell
the "patient" that the only remedy for his illness is a series of
electric shock treatments or a frontal lobotomy.

102 [page break]



L. Conclusion

A brief summary of the foregoing may help to pull the major concepts
of coercive interrogation together:

1. The principal coercive techniques are arrest, detention, the
deprivation of sensory stimuli, threats and fear, debility, pain,
heightened suggestibility and hypnosis, and drugs.

2. If a coercive technique is to be used, or if two or more are to be
employed jointly, they should be chosen for their effect upon the
individual and carefully selected to match his personality.

3. The usual effect of coercion is regression. The interrogatee's
mature defenses crumbles as he becomes more childlike. During the
process of regression the subject may experience feelings of guilt,
and it is usually useful to intensify these.

4. When regression has proceeded far enough so that the subject's
desire to yield begins to overbalance his resistance, the
interrogator should supply a face-saving rationalization. Like the
coercive technique, the rationalization must be carefully chosen to
fit the subject's personality.

5. The pressures of duress should be slackened or lifted after
compliance has been obtained, so that the interrogatee's voluntary
cooperation will not be impeded.

No mention has been made of what is frequently the last step in an
interrogation conducted by a Communist service: the attempted
conversion. In the Western view the goal of the questioning is
information; once a sufficient degree of cooperation has been
obtained to permit the

103 [page break]



interrogator access to the information he seeks, he is not ordinarily
concerned with the attitudes of the source. Under some circumstances,
however, this pragmatic indifference can be short-sighted. If the
interrogatee remains semi-hostile or remorseful after a successful
interrogation has ended, less time may be required to complete his
conversion (and conceivably to create an enduring asset) than might
be needed to deal with his antagonism if he is merely squeezed and
forgotten.

104 [page break]
X. Interrogator's Check List

The questions that follow are intended as reminders for the
interrogator and his superiors.

1. Have local (federal or other) laws affecting KUBARK's conduct of a
unilateral or joint interrogation been compiled and learned?

2. If the interrogatee is to be held, how long may he be legally
detained?

3. Are interrogations conducted by other ODYOKE departments and
agencies with foreign counterintelligence responsibilities being
coordinated with KUBARK if subject to the provisions of Chief/KUBARK
Directive [one-word deletion] or Chief/KUBARK Directive [one-word
deletion] ? Has a planned KUBARK interrogation subject to the same
provisions been appropriately coordinated?

4. Have applicable KUBARK regulations and directives been observed?
These include [approx. 1/2 line deleted], the related Chief/KUBARK
Directives, [approx. 1/2 line deleted] pertinent [one or two words
deleted], and the provisions governing duress which appear in various
paragraphs of this handbook.

5. Is the prospective interrogatee a PBPRIME citizen? If so, have the
added considerations listed on various paragraphs been duly noted?

6. Does the interrogators selected for the task meet the four
criteria of (a) adequate training and experience, (b) genuine
familiarity with the language to be used, (c) knowledge of the
geographical/cultural area concerned, and (d) psychological
comprehension of the interrogatee?

105 [page break]



7. Has the prospective interrogatee been screened? What are his major
psychological characteristics? Does he belong to one of the nine
major categories listed in pp. 19-28? Which?

8. Has all available and pertinent information about the subject been
assembled and studied?

9. Is the source [approx. 2/3 line deleted], or will questioning be
completed elsewhere? If at a base or station, will the interrogator,
interrogatee, and facilities be available for the time estimated as
necessary to the completion of the process? If he is to be sent to a
center, has the approval of the center or of Headquarters been
obtained?

10. Have all appropriate documents carried by the prospective
interrogatee been subjected to technical analysis?

11. Has a check of logical overt sources been conducted? Is the
interrogation necessary?

12. Have field and headquarters traces been run on the potential
interrogatee and persons closely associated with him by emotional,
family, or business ties?

13. Has a preliminary assessment of bona fides been carried out? With
what results?

14. If an admission of prior association with one or more foreign
intelligence services or Communist parties or fronts has been
obtained, have full particulars been acquired and reported?

15. Has LCFLUTTER been administered? As early as practicable? More
than once? When?

16. Is it estimated that the prospective interrogatee is likely to
prove cooperative or recalcitrant? If resistance is expected, what is
its anticipated source: fear, patriotism, personal considerations,
political convictions, stubbornness, other?

106 [page break]



17. What is the purpose of the interrogation?

18. Has an interrogation plan been prepared?

19. [approx. 5 lines deleted]

20. Is an appropriate setting for interrogation available?

21. Will the interrogation sessions be recorded? Is the equipment
available? Installed?

22. Have arrangements been made to feed, bed, and guard the subject
as necessary?

23. Does the interrogation plan call for more than one interrogator?
If so, have roles been assigned and schedules prepared?

24. Is the interrogational environment fully subject to the
interrogator's manipulation and control?

25. What disposition is planned for the interrogatee after the
questioning ends?

26. Is it possible, early in the questioning, to determine the
subject's personal response to the interrogator or interrogators?
What is the interrogator's reaction to the subject? Is there an
emotional reaction strong enough to distort results? If so, can the
interrogator be replaced?

27. If the source is resistant, will noncoercive or coercive
techniques be used? What is the reason for the choice?

28. Has the subject been interrogated earlier? Is he sophisticated
about interrogation techniques?

29. Does the impression made by the interrogatee during the

107 [page break]



opening phase of the interrogation confirm or conflict with the
preliminary assessment formed before interrogation started? If there
are significant differences, what are they and how do they affect the
plan for the remainder of the questioning?

30. During the opening phase, have the subject's voice, eyes, mouth,
gestures, silences, or other visible clues suggested areas of
sensitivity? If so, on what topics?

31. Has rapport been established during the opening phase?

32. Has the opening phase been followed by a reconnaissance? What are
the key areas of resistance? What tactics and how much pressure will
be required to overcome the resistance? Should the estimated duration
of interrogation be revised? If so, are further arrangements
necessary for continued detention, liaison support, guarding, or
other purposes?

33. In the view of the interrogator, what is the emotional reaction
of the subject to the interrogator? Why?

34. Are interrogation reports being prepared after each session, from
notes or tapes?

35. What disposition of the interrogatee is to be made after
questioning ends? If the subject is suspected of being a hostile
agent and if interrogation has not produced confession, what measures
will be taken to ensure that he is not left to operate as before,
unhindered and unchecked?

36. Are any promises made to the interrogatee unfulfilled when
questioning ends? Is the subject vengeful? Likely to try to strike
back? How?

37. If one or more of the non-coercive techniques discussed on pp. 52-
81 have been selected for use, how do they match the subject's
personality?

38. Are coercive techniques to be employed? If so, have all field
personnel in the interrogator's direct chain of command

108 [page break]



been notified? Have they approved?

39. Has prior Headquarters permission been obtained?

40. [approx. 4 lines deleted]

41. As above, for confinement. If the interrogates is to be confined,
can KUBARK control his environment fully? Can the normal routines be
disrupted for interrogation purposes?

42. Is solitary confinement to be used? Why? Does the place of
confinement permit the practical elimination of sensory stimuli?

43. Are threats to be employed? As part of a plan? Has the nature of
the threat been matched to that of the interrogatee?

44. If hypnosis or drugs are thought necessary, has Headquarters been
given enough advance notice? Has adequate allowance been made for
travel time and other preliminaries?

45. Is the interrogatee suspected of malingering? If the interrogator
is uncertain, are the services of an expert available?

46. At the conclusion of the interrogation, has a comprehensive
summary report been prepared?

47. [approx. 4 lines deleted]

48. [approx. 4 lines deleted]

49. Was the interrogation a success? Why?

50. A failure? Why?

109 [page break]

XI. Descriptive Bibliography

This bibliography is selective; most of the books and articles
consulted during the preparation of this study have not been included
here. Those that have no real bearing on the counterintelligence
interrogation of resistant sources have been left out. Also omitted
are some sources considered elementary, inferior, or unsound. It is
not claimed that what remains is comprehensive as well as selective,
for the number of published works having some relevance even to the
restricted subject is over a thousand. But it is believed that all
the items listed here merit reading by KUBARK personnel concerned
with interrogation.

1. Anonymous [approx. 1/3 line deleted], Interrogation , undated.
This paper is a one-hour lecture on the subject. It is thoughtful,
forthright, and based on extensive experience. It deals only with
interrogation following arrest and detention. Because the scope is
nevertheless broad, the discussion is brisk but necessarily less than
profound.

2. Barioux, Max, "A Method for the Selection, Training, and
Evaluation of Interviewers," Public Opinion Quarterly , Spring 1952,
Vol. 16, No. 1. This article deals with the problems of interviewers
conducting public opinion polls. It is of only slight value for
interrogators, although it does suggest pitfalls produced by asking
questions that suggest their own answers.

3. Biderman, Albert D., A Study for Development of Improved
Interrogation Techniques : Study SR 177-D (U), Secret, final report
of Contract AS 18 (600) 1797, Bureau of Social Science Research Inc.,
Washington, D. C., March 1959. Although this book (207 pages of text)
is principally concerned with lessons derived from the interrogation
of American POW's by Communist services and with the problem of
resisting interrogation, it also deals with the interrogation of
resistant subjects. It has the added advantage of incorporating the
findings and

110 [page break]



views of a number of scholars and specialists in subjects closely
related to interrogation. As the frequency of citation indicates,
this book was one of the most useful works consulted; few KUBARK
interrogators would fail to profit from reading it. It also contains
a descriminating but undescribed bibliography of 343 items.

4. Biderman, Albert D., "Communist Attempts to Elicit False
Confession from Air Force Prisoners of War", Bulletin of the New York
Academy of Medicine , September 1957, Vol. 33. An excellent analysis
of the psychological pressures applied by Chinese Communists to
American POW's to extract "confessions" for propaganda purposes.

5. Biderman, Albert D., "Communist Techniques of Coercive
Interrogation", Air Intelligence , July 1955, Vol. 8, No. 7. This
short article does not discuss details. Its subject is closely
related to that of item 4 above; but the focus is on interrogation
rather than the elicitation of "confessions".

6. Biderman, Albert D., "Social Psychological Needs and 'Involuntary'
Behavior as Illustrated by Compliance in Interrogation", Sociometry ,
June 1960, Vol. 23. This interesting article is directly relevant. It
provides a useful insight into the interaction between interrogator
and interrogatee. It should be compared with Melton W.
Horowitz's "Psychology of Confession" (see below).

7. Biderman, Albert D. and Herbert Zimmer, The Manipulation of Human
Behavior , John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York and London, 1961. This
book of 304 pages consists of an introduction by the editors and
seven chapters by the following specialists: Dr. Lawrence E. Hinkle
Jr., "The Physiological State of the Interrogation Subject as it
Affects Brain Function"; Dr. Philip E. Kubzansky, "The Effects of
Reduced Environmental Stimulation on Human Behavior: A Review"; Dr.
Louis A. Gottschalk, "The Use of Drugs in Interrogation"; Dr. R. C.
Davis, "Physiological Responses as a Means of Evaluating Information"
(this chapter deals with the polygraph); Dr. Martin T. Orne, "The
Potential Uses of Hypnosis In Interrogation"; Drs. Robert R. Blake
and Jane S. Mouton, "The Experimental Investigation of Interpersonal
Influence"; and Dr. Malcolm L. Meltzer, "Countermanipulation through
Malingering." Despite the editors preliminary announcement that the
book has "a particular frame of reference; the interrogation of an
unwilling subject", the stress is on the listed psychological
specialties;

111 [page break]



and interrogation gets comparitively short shrift. Nevertheless, the
KUBARK interrogator should read this book, especially the chapters by
Drs. Orne and Meltzer. He will find that the book is by scientists
for scientists and that the contributions consistently demonstrate
too theoretical an understanding of interrogation per se. He will
also find that practically no valid experimentation the results of
which were unclassified and available to the authors has been
conducted under interrogation conditions. Conclusions are suggested,
almost invariably, on a basis of extrapolation. But the book does
contain much useful information, as frequent references in this study
show. The combined bibliographies contain a total of 771 items.

8. [approx. 14 lines deleted]

10. [approx. 9 lines deleted]

11. [approx. 3 lines deleted]
112 [page break]



[approx. 3 lines deleted]

12. [approx. 9 lines deleted]

13. Gill, Merton, Inc., and Margaret Brenman, Hypnosis and Related
States: Psychoanalytic Studies in Regression , International
Universities Press Inc., New York, 1959. This book is a scholarly and
comprehensive examination of hypnosis. The approach is basically
Freudian but the authors are neither narrow nor doctrinaire. The book
discusses the induction of hypnosis, the hypnotic state, theories of
induction and of the hypnotic condition, the concept of regression as
a basic element in hypnosis, relationships between hypnosis and
drugs, sleep, fugue, etc., and the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy.
Interrogators may find the comparison between hypnosis
and "brainwashing" in chapter 9 more relevant than other parts. The
book is recommended, however, not because it contains any discussion
of the employment of hypnosis in interrogation (it does not) but
because it provides the interrogator with sound information about
what hypnosis can and cannot do.

14. Hinkle, Lawrence E. Jr. and Harold G. Wolff, "Communist
Interrogation and Indoctrination of Enemies of the State", AMA
Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry , August 1956, Vol. 76, No. 2.
This article summarizes the physiological and psychological reactions
of American prisoners to Communist detention and interrogation. It
merits reading but not study, chiefly because of the vast differences
between Communist interrogation of American POW's and KUBARK
interrogation of known or suspected personnel of Communist services
or parties.

113 [page break]



15. Horowitz, Milton W., "Psychology of Confession." Journal of
Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science , July-August 1956,
Vol. 47. The author lists the following principles of confession: (1)
the subject feels accused; (2) he is confronted by authority wielding
power greater than his own; (3) he believes that evidence damaging to
him is available to or possessed by the authority; (4) the accused is
cut off from friendly support; (5) self-hostility is generated; and
(6) confession to authority promises relief. Although the article is
essentially a speculation rather than a report of verified facts, it
merits close reading.

16. Inbau, Fred E. and John E. Reid, Lie Detection and Criminal
Investigation , Williams and Wilkin Co., 1953. The first part of this
book consists of a discussion of the polygraph. It will be more
useful to the KUBARK interrogator than the second, which deals with
the elements of criminal interrogation.

17. KHOKHLOV, Nicolai, In the Name of Conscience , David McKay Co.,
New York, 1959. This entry is included chiefly because of the cited
quotation. It does provide, however, some interesting insights into
the attitudes of an interrogatee.

18. KUBARK, Communist Control Methods , Appendix 1: "The Use of
Scientific Design and Guidance Drugs and Hypnosis in Communist
Interrogation and Indoctrination Procedures." Secret, no date. The
appendix reports a study of whether Communist interrogation methods
included such aids as hypnosis and drugs. Although experimentation in
these areas is, of course, conducted in Communist countries, the
study found no evidence that such methods are used in Communist
interrogations -- or that they would be necessary.

19. KUBARK (KUSODA), Communist Control Techniques , Secret, 2 April
1956. This study is an analysis of the methods used by Communist
State police in the arrest, interrogation, and indoctrination of
persons regarded as enemies of the state. This paper, like others
which deal with Communist interrogation techniques, may be useful to
any KUBARK interrogator charged with questioning a former member of
an Orbit intelligence or security service but does not deal with
interrogation conducted without police powers.

114 [page break]



20. KUBARK, Hostile Control and Interrogation Techniques , Secret,
undated. This paper consists of 28 pages and two annexes. It provides
counsel to KUBARK personnel on how to resist interrogation conducted
by a hostile service. Although it includes advice on resistance, it
does not present any new information about the theories or practices
of interrogation.

21. [approx. 15 lines deleted]

23. Laycock, Keith, "Handwriting Analysis as an Assessment Aid,"
Studies in Intelligence , Summer 1959, Vol. 3, No. 3. A defense of
graphology by an "educated amateur." Although the article is
interesting, it does not present tested evidence that the analysis of
a subject's handwriting would be a useful aid to an interrogator.
Recommended, nevertheless, for interrogators unfamiliar with the
subject.

24. Lefton, Robert Jay, "Chinese Communist 'Thought Reform.':
Confession and Reeducation of Western Civilians," Bulletin of the New
York Academy of Medicine , September 1957, Vol. 33. A sound article
about Chicom brainwashing techniques. The information was compiled
from first-hand interviews with prisoners who had been subjected to
the process. Recommended as background reading.

115 [page break]



25. Levenson, Bernard and Lee Wiggins, A Guide for Intelligence
Interviewing of Voluntary Foreign Sources , Official Use Only,
Officer Education Research Laboratory, ARDC, Maxwell Air Force Base
(Technical Memorandum OERL-TM-54-4.) A good, though generalized,
treatise on interviewing techniques. As the title shows, the subject
is different from that of the present study.

26. Lilly, John C., "Mental Effects of Reduction of Ordinary Levels
of Physical Stimuli on Intact Healthy Persons." Psychological
Research Report #5 , American Psychiatric Association, 1956. After
presenting a short summary of a few autobiographical accounts written
about relative isolation at sea (in small boats) or polar regions,
the author describes two experiments designed to mask or drastically
reduce most sensory stimulation. The effect was to speed up the
results of the more usual sort of isolation (for example, solitary
confinement). Delusions and hallucinations, preceded by other
symptoms, appeared after short periods. The author does not discuss
the possible relevance of his findings to interrogation.

27. Meerlo, Joost A.M., The Rape of the Mind , World Publishing Co.,
Cleveland, 1956. This book's primary value for the interrogator is
that it will make him aware of a number of elements in the responses
of an interrogatee which are not directly related to the questions
asked or the interrogation setting but are instead the product of (or
are at least influenced by) all questioning that the subject has
undergone earlier, especially as a child. For many interrogatees the
interrogator becomes, for better or worse, the parent or authority
symbol. Whether the subject is submissive or belligerent may be
determined in part by his childhood relationships with his parents.
Because the same forces are at work in the interrogator, the
interrogation may be chiefly a cover for a deeper layer of exchange
or conflict between the two. For the interrogator a primary value of
this book (and of much related psychological and psychoanalytic work)
is that it may give him a deeper insight into himself.

28. Moloney, James Clark, "Psychic Self-Abandon and Extortion of
Confessions," International Journal of Psychoanalysis ,
January/February 1955, Vol. 36. This short article relates the
psychological release obtained through confession (i. e., the sense
of well-being following surrender as a solution to an otherwise
unsolvable

116 [page breaks]



conflict) with religious experience generally and some ten Buddhistic
practices particularly. The interrogator will find little here that
is not more helpfully discussed in other sources, including Gill and
Brenman's Hypnosis and Related States . Marginal.

29. Oatis, William N. "Why I Confessed," Life , 21 September 1953,
Vol. 35. Of some marginal value because it combines the writer's
profession of innocence ("I am not a spy and never was") with an
account of how he was brought to "confess" to espionage within three
days of his arrest. Although Oatis was periodically deprived of sleep
(once for 42 hours) and forced to stand until weary, the Czechs
obtained the "confessions" without torture or starvation and without
sophisticated techniques.

30. Rundquist, E.A., "The Assessment of Graphology, " Studies in
Intelligence , Secret, Summer 1959, Vol. 3, No. 3. The author
concludes that scientific testing of graphology is needed to permit
an objective assessment of the claims made in its behalf. This
article should be read in conjunction with No. 23, above.

31. Schachter, Stanley, The Psychology of Affiliation: Experimental
Studies of the Sources of Gregariousness , Stanford University Press,
Stanford, California, 1959. A report of 133 pages, chiefly concerned
with experiments and statistical analyses performed at the University
of Minnesota by Dr. Schachter and colleagues. The principal findings
concern relationships among anxiety, strength of affiliative
tendencies, and the ordinal position (i.e., rank in birth sequence
among siblings). Some tentative conclusions of significance for
interrogators are reached, the following among them:

a. "One of the consequences of isolation appears to be a
psychological state which in its extreme form resembles a full-blown
anxiety attack." (p. 12.)

b. Anxiety increases the desire to be with others who share the same
fear.

c. Persons who are first-born or only children are typically more
nervous or afraid than those born later. Firstborns and onlies are
also "considerably less willing or able to withstand pain than are
later-born children." (p. 49.)

117 [page break]



In brief, this book presents hypotheses of interest to interrogators
but much further research is needed to test validity and
applicability.

32. Sheehan, Robert, Police Interview and Interrogations and the
Preparation and Signing of Statements . A 23-page pamphlet,
unclassified and undated, that discusses some techniques and tricks
that can be used in counterintelligence interrogation. The style is
sprightly, but most of the material is only slightly related to
KUBARK's interrogation problems. Recommended as background reading.

33. Singer, Margaret Thaler and Edgar H. Schein, "Projective Test
Responses of Prisoners of War Following Repatriation." Psychiatry ,
1958, Vol. 21. Tests conducted on American ex-POW's returned during
the Big and Little Switches in Korea showed differences in
characteristics between non-collaborators and corroborators. The
latter showed more typical and humanly responsive reactions to
psychological testing than the former, who tended to be more
apathetic and emotionally barren or withdrawn. Active resisters,
however, often showed a pattern of reaction or responsiveness like
that of collaborators. Rorschach tests provided clues, with a good
statistical incidence of reliability, for differentiation between
collaborators and non-collaborators. The tests and results described
are worth noting in conjunction with the screening procedures
recommended in this paper.

34. Sullivan, Harry Stack, The Psychiatric Interview , W. W. Norton
and Co., New York, 1954. Any interrogator reading this book will be
struck by parallels between the psychiatric interview and the
interrogation. The book is also valuable because the author, a
psychiatrist of considerable repute, obviously had a deep
understanding of the nature of the inter-personal relationship and of
resistance.

35. U.S. Army, Office of the Chief of Military History, Russian
Methods of Interrogating Captured Personnel in World War II , Secret,
Washington, 1951. A comprehensive treatise on Russian intelligence
and police systems and on the history of Russian treatment of
captives, military and civilian, during and following World War II.
The appendix contains some specific case summaries of physical
torture by the secret police. Only a small part of the book deals
with interrogation. Background reading.

118 [page break]



36. U.S. Army, 7707 European Command Intelligence Center, Guide for
Intelligence Interrogators of Eastern Cases , Secret, April 1958.
This specialized study is of some marginal value for KUBARK
interrogators dealing with Russians and other Slavs.

37. U. S. Army, The Army Intelligence School, Fort Holabird,
Techniques of Interrogation , Instructors Folder I-6437/A, January
1956. This folder consists largely of an article, "Without Torture,"
by a German ex-interrogator, Hans Joachim Scharff. Both the
preliminary discussion and the Scharff article (first published in
Argosy , May 1950) are exclusively concerned with the interrogation
of POW's. Although Scharff claims that the methods used by German
Military Intelligence against captured U.S. Air Force personnel "...
were almost irresistible," the basic technique consisted of
impressing upon the prisoner the false conviction that his
information was already known to the Germans in full detail. The
success of this method depends upon circumstances that are usually
lacking in the peacetime interrogation of a staff or agent member of
a hostile intelligence service. The article merits reading,
nevertheless, because it shows vividly the advantages that result
from good planning and organization.

38. U. S. Army, Counterintelligence Corps, Fort Holabird,
Interrogations, Restricted, 5 September 1952. Basic coverage of
military interrogation. Among the subjects discussed are the
interrogation of witnesses, suspects, POW's, and refugees, and the
employment of interpreters and of the polygraph. Although this text
does not concentrate upon the basic problems confronting KUBARK
interrogators, it will repay reading.

39. U.S. Army, Counterintelligence Corps, Fort Holabird,
Investigative Subjects Department, Interrogations, Restricted, 1 May
1950. This 70-gage booklet on counterintelligence interrogation is
basic, succinct, practical, and sound. Recommended for close reading.

40. [approx. 5 lines deleted]

119 [page break]



41. Wellman, Francis L., The Art of Cross-Examination , Garden City
Publishing Co. (now Doubleday), New York, originally 1903, 4th
edition, 1948. Most of this book is but indirectly related to the
subject of this study; it is primarily concerned with tripping up
witnesses and impressing juries. Chapter VIII, "Fallacies of
Testimony," is worth reading, however, because some of its warnings
are applicable.

42. Wexler, Donald, Jack Mendelson, Herbert Leiderman, and Philip
Solomon, "Sensory Deprivation," A.M.A. Archives of Neurology and
Psychiatry , 1958, 79, pp. 225-233. This article reports an
experiment designed to test the results of eliminating most sensory
stimuli and masking others. Paid volunteers spent periods from 1 hour
and 38 minutes to 36 hours in a tank-respirator. The results included
inability to concentrate effectively, daydreaming and fantasy,
illusions, delusions, and hallucinations. The suitability of this
procedure as a means of speeding up the effects of solitary
confinement upon recalcitrant subjects has not been considered.

120 [page break]



OTHER BIBLIOGRAPHIES

The following bibliographies on interrogation were noted during the
preparation of this study.

1. Brainwashing, A Guide to the Literature , prepared by the Society
for the Investigation of Human Ecology, Inc., Forest Hills, New York,
December 1960. A wide variety of materials is represented: scholarly
and scientific reports, governmental and organizational reports,
legal discussions, biographical accounts, fiction, journalism, and
miscellaneous. The number of items in each category is, respectively,
139, 28, 7, 75, 10, 14, and 19, a total of 418. One or two sentence
descriptions follow the titles. These are restricted to an indication
of content and do not express value judgements. The first section
contains a number of especially useful references.

2. Comprehensive Bibliography of Interrogation Techniques,
Procedures, and Experiences , Air Intelligence Information Report,
Unclassified, 10 June 1959. This bibliography of 158 items dating
between 1915 and 1957 comprises "the monographs on this subject
available in the Library of Congress and arranged in alphabetical
order by author, or in the absence of an author, by title." No
descriptions are included, except for explanatory sub-titles. The
monographs, in several languages, are not categorized. This
collection is extremely heterogeneous. Most of the items are of scant
or peripheral value to the interrogator.

3. Interrogation Methods and Techniques , KUPALM, L-3, 024, 941, July
1959, Secret/NOFORN. This bibliography of 114 items includes
references to four categories: books and pamphlets, articles from
periodicals, classified documents, and materials from classified
periodicals. No descriptions

121 [page break]



(except sub-titles) are included. The range is broad, so that a
number of nearly-irrelevant titles are included (e.g., Employment
psychology : the Interview , Interviewing in social research ,
and "Phrasing questions; the question of bias in interviewing", from
Journal of Marketing ).

4. Survey of the Literature on Interrogation Techniques , KUSODA, 1
March 1957, Confidential. Although now somewhat dated because of the
significant work done since its publication, this bibliography
remains the best of those listed. It groups its 114 items in four
categories: Basic Recommended Reading, Recommended Reading, Reading
of Limited or Marginal Value, and Reading of No Value. A brief
description of each item is included. Although some element of
subjectivity inevitably tinges these brief, critical appraisals, they
are judicious; and they are also real time-savers for interrogators
too busy to plough through the acres of print on the specialty.

122 [page break]

XII. Index

A

Abnormalities, spotting of 32
Agents 17
Alice in Wonderland technique 76
All-Seeing Eye technique 67

Anxious, self-centered character 24-25
Arrests 35, 85-86
Assessment, definition of 4


B

Bi-level functioning of interrogator 48
Biographic data 62
Bona fides, definition of 4


C

Character wrecked by success, the 26
Coercive interrogation 82-104
Conclusion of interrogation see
Termination
Confession 38-41, 67, 84
Confinement (see also Deprivation of Sensory Stimuli) 86-87
Confrontation of suspects 47
Control, definition of 4
Conversion 51
Coordination of interrogations 7
Counterintelligence interrogation, definition of 4-5
Cross-examination 58-59

123 [page break]



D

Debility 83, 92-93
Debriefing, definition of 5
Defectors 16, 29, 43, 51, 63
Deprivation of sensory stimuli 87-90
Detailed questioning 60-64
Detention of interrogatees 6-8, 49, 86-87
Directives governing interrogation 7
Documents of defectors 36
Double agent 17-18
Drugs (see Narcosis)
Duress (see also Coercive Interrogation)


E

Eliciting, definition of 5
Environment, manipulation of 45-46, 52-53
Escapees 16
Espionage Act 8
Exception, the, as psychological type 27-28


F

Fabricators 18-19
False confessions 94
First children 29


G

Galvanic skin response and the polygraph 80
Going Next Door technique 66
Graphology 81
Greedy-demanding character 23-24

124 [page break]



Guilt, feelings of 39, 66, 83
Guilt-ridden character 25-26


H

Heightened suggestibility and hypnosis 95-98


I

Indicators of emotion, physical 54-56
Indirect Assessment Program 30
Informer techniques 67-68
Intelligence interview, definition of 5
Interpreters 74
Interrogatees, emotional needs of
Interrogation, definition of 5
Interrogation, planning of 42-44
Interrogation setting 45-47
Interrogator, desirable characteristics of 10
Interrogator's check list 105-109
Isolation 29
Ivan Is A Dope technique 72


J

Joint Interrogations 4, 43
Joint interrogators, techniques suitable for 47-48, 72-73
Joint suspects 47, 70-72
Judging human nature, fallacies about 12-13


K

Khokhlov, Nikolai 9


L

Language considerations 74

125 [page break]



LCFLUTTER 43
Legal considerations affecting KUBARK CI interrogations 6-9
Listening post for interrogations 47
Local laws, importance of 6


M

Magic room technique 77-78
Malingering, detection of 101-102
Matching of interrogation method to source 66
Mindszenty, Cardinal, interrogation of 31
Mutt and Jeff technique 72-73


N

Narcosis 98-100
News from Home technique 68
Nobody Loves You technique 67
Non-coercive interrogation 52-81


O

ODENBY, coordination with 8
Only children 29
Opening the interrogation 53-59
Optimistic character 22-23
Orderly-obstinate character 21-22
Ordinal position 29
Organization of handbook, explanation of 3
Outer and inner office technique 71


P

Pain 90, 93-95
Pauses, significance of 56
PBPRIME citizens, interrogation of 7-8

126 [page break]



Penetration agents 11, 18
Personality, categories of 19-28
Personalizing, avoidance of 12
Placebos 77-78
Planning the counterintelligence interrogation 7, 38-44
Police powers, KUBARK's lack of 6-7, 43-44
Policy considerations affecting KUBARK CI interrogations 6-9
Polygraph 79-81
Post-hypnotic suggestion 98
Probing 59-60
Provocateur 11, 17
Purpose of handbook 1-2


R

Rapport, establishment of 10-11, 56
Rationalization 41, 78, 85
Reconnaissance 59-60
Recording of interrogations 46-47
Refugees 16
Regression 40-41, 76-78, 96
Relationship, interrogator-interrogatee 40
Repatriates 15, 42-43
Reports of interrogation 61
Resistance of interrogatees 56-58
Resistance to interrogation 44-45
Respiration rate and the polygraph 80


S

Schizoid character 26-27
Screening 13, 30-33
Separation of interrogatees 47
Silent drugs 97-99
Spinoza and Mortimer Snerd technique 75

127 [page break]



Structure of the interrogation 53-65
Swindlers 18-19
Systolic blood pressure and the polygraph 80


T

Techniques of non-coercive interrogation 65-81
Termination of interrogation 50, 63-65
Theory of coercive interrogation 82-84
Threats and fear 90-92
Timing 49-50
Transfer of interrogates to host service 50
Transferred sources 16-17
Trauma 66
Travelers 15


W

Walk-ins 34-36
Witness techniques 68-70
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing technique 75

128 [document ends]

The CIA and Torture,
On the Record

The release of a Central Intelligence Agency guidebook on
interrogation would be an important and publicized event in any
context, but as it happens, this manual arrives in the public domain
at an especially crucial juncture in the long-standing debate over
the agency's role and mission. The CIA turns 50 in September of this
year, and the circumstances surrounding the January 1997
declassification of this document suggest that the anniversary will
be marked by a determined effort by historians, activists, and public
officials to reevaluate the conduct of this secretive agency.

This June 1963 document, titled "KUBARK Counterintelligence
Interrogation" (KUBARK is a code-word referring to CIA), should be a
key piece of evidence in such attempts to assess the agency's
operations. The manual, which explores methods of extracting
information from resistant sources and advises torture techniques
that were not officially renounced until the mid-1980s, provides a
fitting departure point from which to launch an investigation of the
CIA's role in advancing the scientific basis for brutal questioning
methods and promoting their use throughout the world.

These methods have recently come back to haunt the CIA, as a stream
of media and official reports has exposed extensive agency assistance
to foreign killers. In several countries where U.S. intelligence
maintained working relationships with repressive security forces,
victims and victimizers have gone on record with accounts of how the
United States, though the CIA, has promoted grave human rights
abuses. In two of the more prominent recent cases -- the CIA's
involvement in Guatemala and Honduras -- pressure from human rights
groups and some members of Congress has risen to the point where the
agency has been compelled to conduct internal reviews, submit its
conduct to the scrutiny of outside investigators, and shed some
notorious criminals from its payroll.

In Guatemala, a country that endured decades of dictatorship
following the CIA's 1954 operation to overthrow the government of
elected president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, the agency employed until
very recently military officers who were responsible for "serious
human rights violations such as assassination, extrajudicial
execution, torture, or kidnapping while they were [CIA] assets,"
according to a 1996 report by President Clinton's Intelligence
Oversight Board. (1) A March 1997 report by the Republican-controlled
House Intelligence Committee confirmed the IOB's findings. (2)

Increased attention was brought to these matters in March 1995 when
it was revealed that CIA Guatemalan assets were involved in the
murders of American citizen Michael Devine, who ran a back-country
inn, and Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, a guerrilla leader married to an
American woman, Jennifer Harbury. (3) Fasts and vigils by Harbury and
Sister Diana Ortiz, an American nun who was kidnapped, raped and
tortured by Guatemalan security forces in 1989, built interest in the
issue and prompted White House assurances that the CIA's involvement
in Guatemala would be closely examined and that all relevant
government documents on the subject would be made public. None of the
materials released to date have identified "Alejandro," an American
who, according to Ortiz, advised the Guatemalan military team who
brutalized her. (4)



The ordeal of Sister Ortiz, whose body bears the scars of 111
cigarette burns inflicted during her detention, was experienced by
thousands of Guatemalans during the 1980s, when a massive program of
political torture and murder gripped the country. The military and
police agencies responsible received continual assistance from the
CIA. In April 1995, investigative journalist Allan Nairn reported
that the CIA "has systematic links to Guatemalan Army death squad
operations that go far beyond the disclosures" of the previous month.
According to current and former officials from the United States and
Guatemala interviewed by Nairn, "CIA operatives work inside a
Guatemalan Army unit [the G-2] that maintains a network of torture
centers and has killed thousands of Guatemalan civilians," and "at
least three of the recent G-2 chiefs have been paid by the CIA." A
former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) official in Guatemala
told Nairn the involvement was so extensive that "it would be an
embarrassing situation if you ever had a roll call of everybody in
the Guatemalan Army who ever collected a CIA paycheck." (5)

At least one government official has gone to bat against the CIA's
conduct in Guatemala, despite the risks of doing so. In March of 1995
Richard Nuccio, then a White House aide, shared information with
Congress about CIA ties to Guatemalan military officers implicated in
the murders of Devine and Bamaca. In retaliation, the CIA
successfully lobbied to have Nuccio's security clearance revoked,
effectively destroying his eligibility for high government office. As
the conflict came to a head, Nuccio said he was "being hounded out of
government service by the CIA for telling Congress what it had a
right to know." (6)

In late February 1997 Nuccio, who had been moved to a low-level
position at the State Department, resigned to return to work as a
congressional aide. In a letter to President Clinton announcing his
decision to quit, Nuccio wrote that the CIA has employed agents
guilty of "systematic human rights violations," and warned that "if
you do not take decisive steps to bring the agency under control, far
graver damage will result to our democracy than the denial of a
clearance to one individual." (7)



Nuccio was not the only job casualty of the CIA's Guatemala
controversy. In early March of 1997, the Washington Post reported
that as a result of the outcry over the CIA's involvement with
Guatemalan rights abusers, the agency conducted an "agent scrub" -- a
purge of foreign informants on the CIA payroll with criminal
backgrounds -- beginning in 1994. Since then, about 100 informants
have been dropped for human rights problems. A disproportionately
high number -- about 50 -- were involved in the CIA's operations in
Latin America. (8)

Though the Post report did not identify the countries where the CIA
reformed its ranks, the agency's Honduras station was almost
certainly the locus of many of the firings. In the early 1980s, the
CIA played an instrumental role in setting up a Honduran military
intelligence unit, Battalion 316, that wreaked havoc on the human
rights front. In a June 1995 investigative series, Baltimore Sun
reporters Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson described in detail how the
CIA, in concert with Argentine military experts fresh from a decade
of "dirty war" against dissidents in their country, instructed
Battalion 316 in intelligence matters including surveillance and
interrogation. Cohn and Thompson uncovered close CIA ties to the
Honduran officers who maintained secret prisons, directed torture
sessions, and commanded death squads that killed hundreds of
suspected "subversives," including many union and student leaders. (9)

The Sun series is heavily documented, drawing on scores of interviews
with former U.S. officials and members and surviving victims of
Battalion 316. Cohn and Thompson also tracked the U.S. government
paper trail on assistance to the unit, and discovered that secret CIA
manuals were consulted in training the Hondurans advanced methods of
interrogation. In May of 1994, the Sun filed a Freedom of Information
Act request with the CIA seeking release of the documents.

Cohn says the CIA responded to the request with "an awful lot of
delay," even though the Sun had provided the names and dates of the
manuals. Not until more than two years later, when the Sun threatened
legal action, did the CIA release the manuals. (10) One of the
documents, titled "Human Resources Exploitation Manual - 1983,"
summarized the CIA interrogation training given to military personnel
from several Latin American countries and repeated many of the
psychological torture strategies outlined in the 1963 manual. (In the
mid-1980s these tactics were scribbled out in the manual in the
aftermath of the scandal over another CIA manual, a primer on
psychological operations prepared for the Nicaraguan contras).

Reading the disturbing methods detailed in the manuals, its easy to
see why the CIA preferred that the documents remain classified.
Documentary disclosures about such agency abuses are all too rare,
and the Sun's success with the FOIA is a significant reminder of how
persistent investigators can take advantage of the law to shed light
on hidden government improprieties.

At the same time, the case illustrates the shortcomings of the FOIA
when it comes to potentially scandalous documents like the
interrogation manuals. The CIA relinquished the materials because the
Sun committed to a legal challenge -- an option not readily available
to the average FOIA requester. Only when the agency was confronted
with the specter of an embarrassing court battle did the FOIA yield
results "as it should for any citizen," observes Cohn.

In evaluating this victory for disclosure, another caveat deserves
mention: while most of the 1963 manual is now available to the
public, significant portions were censored by the CIA prior to
release. For example, 8 of the 42 bibliographical entries are
completely deleted, as are 4 of the 50 items on the "Interrogator's
Check List." On several pages, discussion of the CIA's policy on the
use of forcible detention (which the agency has no legal authority
for) are deleted (see pp. 6-8, 43-45, 86). The CIA's public affairs
staff also refused this author's request to provide translations of
the numerous code-words used in the document, making it difficult to
discern the full meaning of passages where these words are used.

Despite these omissions, "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation"
contains valuable information on several secret CIA endeavors,
including the agency's mind control research. Like the recent media
reports on the CIA's ties to murderous security forces, the manual
fills significant gaps in the history of U.S. foreign policy. As no
previously released document has done, this manual places the CIA's
hostile interrogation strategies on the record. The manual was
designed to root out the secrets of interogatees, but now that its
contents can be widely read, it is the CIA who has many questions to
answer

The Mind Control Connection

Though certainly this is a remarkable document, its science-based
approach to interrogation demonstrates a perspective common among
national security officials when the manual was written. The manual
was one of thousands of government efforts to apply behavioral
science expertise to military and intelligence objectives deemed
crucial in the early years of the Cold War.

In her survey of "the career of Cold War psychology," Ellen Herman
reports that "between 1945 and the mid-1960s, the U.S. military was
by far the country's major institutional sponsor of psychological
research," spending at least $15.7 million on psychological studies
in fiscal year 1961 alone. (13) The research explored topics ranging
from the psychological traits of insurgents to the mental defenses
against interrogation. The government made a similarly massive effort
to enlist the field of communication studies to perfect U.S.
propaganda and counterinsurgency programs. (14)

By 1963, when the manual was authored, the CIA counterintelligence
staff had a sizable foundation of government-funded psychological
research on which to base their guidebook. The manual's introduction
states that "a principal source of aid [to interrogators] today is
scientific findings. The intelligence service which is able to bring
pertinent, modern knowledge to bear upon its problems enjoys huge
advantages over a service which conducts its clandestine business in
eighteenth century fashion." In fact, the manual argued, this
knowledge "is of sufficient importance and relevance that it is no
longer possible to discuss interrogation significantly without
reference to the psychological research conducted in the past decade"
(p. 2).

Accordingly, the manual explains, "a major purpose of this document
is to focus relevant scientific findings upon CI
[counterintelligence] interrogation." The manual does not explain
that many of the "relevant scientific findings" that had become so
useful for interrogators were the product of covert funding from the
CIA. The bibliography of source materials for the manual is laced
with the names of scientists involved with Project MKULTRA, the
agency's secretive, multi-million dollar program of experiments in
mind and behavior control. At this time it is impossible to state
definitively how many of the authors in this bibliography were
recipients of MKULTRA funds, as the CIA has destroyed and withheld
many of their records on the program. (15) Other specialists listed
in the bibliography received Pentagon grants for similar mind control
research.

The published works of some of the CIA's most experienced and relied
upon scientific contacts were put to use in the interrogation manual.
Among this group were two noted Cornell University medical
researchers, Harold Wolff and Lawrence Hinkle, who authored the CIA's
first major study on the indoctrination of prisoners of war. During
the 1950s, "the team of Wolff and Hinkle became the chief
brainwashing studiers for the U.S. government," according to John
Marks, author of the definitive account of the CIA's mind control
program. (16) Two of the most enthusiastic academic participants in
MKULTRA, Wolff and Hinkle were the president and vice-president,
respectively, of the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology,
a CIA front organization.

Posing as a non-governmental scientific foundation, between 1955 and
1965 Human Ecology channeled CIA funds into dozens of MKULTRA
studies. One researcher financed by Human Ecology, Harvard's Martin
Orne, examined potential applications of hypnosis in interrogation.
(17) A chapter summarizing his research forms the basis of the CIA
manual's discussion of the uses of hypnosis (see pp. 96-98). Another
Human Ecology grant went to Air Force researcher Albert Biderman to
fund his study of "Social Psychological Needs and 'Involuntary'
Behavior as Illustrated by Compliance in Interrogation" -- another
article referred to in the manual. (18)

In another effort to improve its interrogation methods, the CIA
sought help from John Lilly, a prominent researcher of the effects of
sensory deprivation. (19) Lilly declined the offer of an MKULTRA
contract, but one of his studies is cited in the interrogation manual
nonetheless (see pp. 87-88).

Further evidence of the CIA's leading role in applying modern
psychological research to interrogation is found in the manual's list
of "other bibliographies" (p. 121). A 1960 report used to prepare the
manual, "Brainwashing: A Guide to the Literature," was published by
none other than the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology.

A prized product of the CIA's mind control research was the agency's
Personality Assessment System (PAS), a means of measuring and
classifying the mental makeup of individuals of interest to U.S.
intelligence. Developed by CIA psychologist John Gittinger, the PAS
was used to assess the intentions of foreign leaders and in selecting
personnel for U.S.-backed security forces in countries including
South Korea, Vietnam and Uruguay. (20)

An oblique reference in the interrogation manual suggests that the
PAS, or a variant of the system, also had a role in the CIA's efforts
to match interrogation methods with the particular psychological
traits of interrogatees. The index of the manual lists a reference to
an "Independent Assessment Program" on p. 30, but on that page all
references to the program are deleted. The paragraph following the
deleted portion begins with the words "Other psychological testing
aids" -- suggesting that a PAS-like system is discussed in the text
directly above. Given the manual's repeated instructions to probe and
exploit the individual mindframe of the subject -- to place "a tap on
the psychological jugular" -- it would not be surprising to find that
yet another MKULTRA project, the PAS, was incorporated into CIA
interrogation strategies.

Next: The Terror Trade

The Terror Trade

The CIA was loath to release its manuals to the American public, but
the agency has readily shared its expert opinions on interrogation
with military and intelligence forces around the world. In numerous
cases both the CIA and the Defense Department have been implicated in
the international dissemination of torture and other political terror
tactics. The tricks of the trade were often exported to governments
who turned the brutal methods against their own civilians. There are
too many cases on record to recount them all here, but a review of
some frequently cited examples suggests that U.S. involvement in this
terror trade has been so widespread that its effects can accurately
be described as global in scope.

Most recently the CIA has come under scrutiny for its training of
abusive officers in Guatemala and Honduras. These cases are but a
sampling of the agency's experience in promoting the use of political
terror in Central America. During the 1980s one of the agency's major
covert operations, the contra war against Nicaragua, was repeatedly
plunged into scandal due to its reliance on tactics that blatantly
contradicted President Reagan's public praise of the contra
guerrillas, whom he described as a force of "freedom fighters." A CIA-
produced manual, Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare,
schooled the contras on the use of "implicit terror," kidnapping and
assassinations. (21)

U.S. Army instruction programs that spread similar methods in the
region are also attracting criticism. According to declassified
documents and recently issued Defense Department reports, the
Army's "Project X," a set of intelligence courses taught since the
1960s in countries throughout Central and South America, included
instruction on how to surveil, infiltrate, and undermine dissident
groups. The training covered the use of kidnapping, blackmail, and
executions. The materials were later consulted in the preparation of
manuals used at the Army's School of the Americas (SOA), a Ft.
Benning, Georgia, facility that trains Latin American military
officers. Among the objectionable tactics later found in the SOA
manuals were instructions on the use of hypnotism and "truth serum"
drugs in interrogation. (22)

Representative Joseph Kennedy, a longtime congressional critic of the
SOA, remarked that the manuals "taught tactics that come right out of
a Soviet gulag and have no place in civilized society -- they
certainly have no place in any course taught with taxpayer dollars on
U.S. soil by the members of our own military." (23) Amnesty
International issued a statement calling for full disclosure of the
history of Project X and commenting that "it seems highly unlikely
that it is merely a coincidence that some of the most widespread and
systematic human rights violations have taken place in precisely
those countries, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico,
and Peru, where these materials were most widely used." (24)

By virtue of their proximity to the United States, these countries
bore the brunt of the abuses that accompanied U.S. counterinsurgency
aid -- but the manuals and lesson plans that shared such tactics were
extensively distributed outside this hemisphere as well. In March
1997 the Washington Post reported that according to Army documents
and former Pentagon officials, the Project X materials "were used
much more widely, by U.S. personnel working in a variety of
countries," including Vietnam, Japan and Iran. (25)

CIA ties to torturers have likewise reached to every corner of the
globe. The agency created and guided oppressive security programs in
several Southeast Asian countries, most notably Vietnam, where the
United States ran its most intensive counterinsurgency campaign.
During the late 1960s, in South Vietnam the CIA set up the infamous
Phoenix Program, an effort to eradicate the Viet Cong infrastructure.
Phoenix is largely remembered as an assassination program (at least
20,000 suspects were murdered), but the operation also established a
network of "Provincial Interrogation Centers" that often served as
torture chambers. (26)

In the years that followed, the advanced counterinsurgency tactics of
Phoenix were shared with thousands of foreign police officers trained
by CIA instructors in various programs run by the State Department's
Agency for International Development, including the Office of Public
Safety and the International Police Academy. (27)

The CIA has also been directly linked to torture training in the
Middle East, where the agency for two and a half decades reinforced
the repressive state of Shah Mohammed Pahlevi, the dictator of Iran.
Shortly before the Shah's overthrow in 1979, New York Times
journalist Seymour Hersh reported that "a senior CIA official was
involved in instructing officials in the Savak [the Iranian secret
police] on torture techniques." Jesse J. Leaf, a former head Iran
analyst for the CIA, told Hersh, "I do remember seeing and being told
of [CIA personnel] who were there seeing the rooms and being told of
torture. And I know that the torture rooms were toured and it was all
paid for by the U.S.A." (28)

The human rights abuses promoted by the Pentagon and CIA are
compounded by the abuses of government secrecy that continue to
conceal many important records on these operations from public
scrutiny. In the case of the Project X program, the Defense
Department says it has destroyed almost all of the original
documentation, purportedly to prevent further dissemination of such
unacceptable tactics.

When such crucial records are wiped out of existence, our ability to
document the history of U.S. military assistance and training
programs is seriously impaired. Fragmentary media reports based on
the recollections of former Pentagon officials are no substitute for
a complete accounting of Project X. Likewise, neither the CIA's
declassification of a couple incriminating manuals nor its "scrub" of
its motley band of foreign assets is a substitute for a comprehensive
congressional investigation of CIA cooperation with regimes that
regularly employed terror tactics.

Currently there is little determination on Capitol Hill to unearth
this disturbing history. For the time being, if the facts on the U.S.
role in developing and exporting these tactics are to be established,
they will be extracted from documents such as this interrogation
manual. The document joins the steadily growing stack of declassified
records that offer clues on the nature and extent of the CIA's
complicity with state terror in other countries. Though much of the
documentary evidence on the terror trade remains shielded by official
secrecy, a close reading of this manual reveals the value of the
pieces of the paper trail that we can currently examine.

Sources

www.sinamiorhan.up.to