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

== Question Design: Tools of the Trade ==
Debriefing questions should usually be couched to provoke a positive answer and should be specific. The questioner should not accept a blanket negative without probing. For example, the question “Do you know anything about Plant X?”is likelier to draw a negative answer than, “Do you have any friends who work at Plant X?”or “Can you describe its interior?”73

Planning, preparation, approaches, rapport-building, detection of deception, and subject matter expertise are all key elements of the overall interrogation process. In a real sense, however, each of these is but a supporting player to the art of effective questioning. Going back to the fundamental definition of interrogation set forth previously (“it consists of no more than obtaining needed information through responses to questions”), it becomes readily apparent that the entire effort hinges upon the ability of the interrogator to methodically ask meaningful questions of the source.

Of all the skills required of the accomplished interrogator, none is more important than mastery of interrogatives. Rudyard Kipling went straight to the heart of the matter when he observed, “I kept six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); their names are what and why and when and how and where and who.”74 These six questions provide the basic tools of the trade that can enable the skilled interrogator to expertly probe a source’s knowledge with laser-like precision while adroitly disguising intent.

Research in the social sciences, communication theory, and linguistics has uncovered a number of useful understandings about the potential power of well- designed questions that could have immediate application in interrogation. Subtle changes in syntax, for example, have shown to greatly enhance the persuasive power of a given question (Davis and Knowles, 1999). Additional study is required to assess the effect of such questioning techniques through the cross- cultural filter.

73 KUBARK, 62.
74 From Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories.

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