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

== The Effects of Isolation ==
“The symptoms most commonly produced by isolation are superstition, intense love of any other living thing, perceiving inanimate objects as alive, hallucinations, and delusions.” 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....103
The stated objective of using isolation in the context of an interrogation is not to inflict punishment, but to leverage the source into compliance, a state in which the source is willing to answer pertinent questions on areas within the scope of the source’s knowledgeability and direct access. Given the following description of interrogation, drawn from U.S. Army Field Manual 34-52, Intelligence Interrogation, obtaining source compliance would appear to be a critical step in the overall process.
Interrogation is the process of questioning a source to obtain the maximum amount of usable information. The goal of any interrogation is to obtain reliable information in a lawful manner, in a minimum of time, and to satisfy intelligence requirements of any echelon of command.104 (Emphasis added) 

Since holding detainees under specific conditions of isolation for a sufficient period of time appears to produce compliance — the willingness to respond to questioning — and since compliance is a key step in the interrogation process, logic would therefore suggest that isolation would be an effective interrogation technique. The problem arises when one introduces an additional, indispensable element to the concept of compliance. Given that the objective of an interrogation, as set forth in FM 34-52, is to obtain usable and reliable information (and in a lawful manner), compliance means not just the willingness to answer questions, but also the ability.

Hinkle, whose medical studies serve as a major reference cited in the [[KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation|KUBARK manual]], raises fundamental questions about the ability of a source subjected to extended isolation to provide meaningful, coherent answers in response to an interrogator’s questions. He observed that “Any attempt to produce compliant behavior by procedures which produce...disturbances of homeostasis, fatigue, sleep deprivation, isolation, discomfort, or disturbing emotional states carries with it the hazard of producing inaccuracy and unreliability.”105 (Emphasis added.)

Much of the Cold War-era research on Communist methods of interrogation sanctioned by the U.S. Government was conducted to obtain a better understanding of, and therefore an enhanced ability to withstand, coercive interrogation methods. Therefore, emphasis on the subject’s vulnerability to compliance-inducing techniques overshadowed the concept of the source’s ability to report information reliably.106 Perusing the literature on long-term isolation, one quickly draws the conclusion that the subject experiences profound emotional, psychological, and physical discomfort, and that such abuse would therefore fail to measure up to the standards for the treatment of prisoners as set forth in international accords and U.S. Federal statutes. In this alone, it fails one criterion of interrogation noted in FM 34-52: lawfulness.


103 KUBARK, 88.
104 Department of the Army, U.S. Army Intelligence And Interrogation Handbook (Guilford, CT:
The Lyons Press, 2005), 8.
105 Lawrence E. Hinkle, Jr., “The Physiological State of the Interrogation Subject as it Affects Brain Function,” in The Manipulation of Human Behavior, 43.

From a purely operational perspective, the effects of isolation can truly be a double-edged sword. Isolation, especially in the initial stages of an interrogation, is a fundamental strategy designed to prevent a source from collaborating with other detainees (e.g., coordinating an overarching “story”) as well as from drawing emotional and psychological strength from time spent in the company of associates. This notwithstanding, the literature also suggests that effects of isolation can significantly and negatively impact the ability of the source to recall information accurately. Given that source veracity and the reliability of HUMINT source reporting have long been viewed as problematic within the Intelligence Community, long-term isolation of sources appears unlikely to produce useful data.