Editing KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation Review: Observations of an Interrogator (section)

== Anticipating Resistance: The Importance of Being Shrewd ==
It is useful to recognize in advance whether the information desired would be threatening or damaging in any way to the interests of the interrogatee.60

Resistance to questioning is the primary barrier to entry in the context of interrogation. The challenge to the interrogator is to manage resistance effectively while systematically working to overcome it.

As an interrogator explores a given source’s range of knowledgeability, he or she must be judicious in framing questions while concomitantly concealing the true focus of intelligence interest. One productive approach is to concentrate initially on areas that do not appear to provoke concern, and therefore resistance, on the part of the source. This requires shrewd questioning by the interrogator. In essence, shrewd questioning demands that the interrogator carefully consider the possible range of answers and responses (emotional and/or psychological) a question may elicit before it is asked, and selectively postpone asking the most provocative questions until later in the process.

Posing potentially provocative questions in the course of developing rapport/ accord with a source (or doing so too quickly after such an operational relationship has been established) can seriously — and at times irreversibly — undermine that cooperative relationship. In addition, drawing upon Cialdini’s concept of the consistency principle,61 it is important to avoid creating a situation where the source has the opportunity to formally assume a resistance posture either by word or deed. If allowed to do so, Cialdini’s research would suggest that the source might be under additional self-induced pressure to remain consistent in his or her defiance.62