okay, i had this theory lately while developing elicitation training materials that certain areas of primary research within the world of competitive intelligence may bear frightening resemblances to select areas of interrogation…since so much of both (the dark arts of intelligence, so to speak) borrow from areas like experimental psychology, it stands to reason that there’s gonna (read gotta) be some overlap…so for obvious tactics, like ‘flattery‘ and ‘the provocateur,’ we can see clearly how such approaches work within both environments (e.g. casually interviewing a competitor’s employee, or a cop interviewing a suspect and then graduating to interrogation tactics to elicit confessions)…but then i started to read up, ‘cause i don’t wanna talk out of my ass on this subject...and serendipity, my recent copy of new scientist had a huge article covering interrogation which centered around shin bet’s former chief interrogator, michael koubi …of course he was appropriately guarded and gave up nothing other than the old, “i can make anybody talk” shit one might expect to get from him (but dude, that’s cool, i wasn’t expecting a tutorial, just knowing that he’s a fellow member of the tribe is cool)

so step 2, i ordered my very own copy of the definitive law enforcement training manual for interrogation to bone up on the classroom standards and practices - again looking for common elements (yeah, again, trying to compare the dozen-plus standard practices used by competitive intelligence consultants to those standards employed by interrogator types)…this formidable text is by a guy named john reid (along with others, including fred inbau who passed away) - now in it’s fourth edition (still no pictures or pop-ups, damn) - it’s called, “criminal interrogation and confessions“…note that i’m still reading it, so reserving my final opinions on this whole subject..definitely a chasm between the two…but then i see a cia definition like, “Eliciting: obtaining information, without revealing intent or exceptional interest, through a verbal or written exchange with a person who may be willing or unwilling to provide what is sought and who may or may not be controlled” and i’m back where i started….

but what’s that? you can’t wait to get into that book and don’t wanna spend like 80 bucks for your own copy? that’s okay, thanks to the foia (freedom of info act), in 1997 the cia released two classified interrogation training manuals (to the baltimore sun, ’cause they were facing a lawsuit)…the biggie was written in 1963, called “KUBARK Interrogation Manual” (kubark is an old secret name for the cia) and wa-hoo, the entire thing is online fo’ free (until this guy’s site goes down…’cause parascope’s rife with paranoid quackery)

the second declassified cia training manual from 1983 (written a couple of years after run-dmc’s first album) is entitled, “human resource exploitation training manual” - and wouldn’t you know it, it’s also on the internet at my alma mater, gwu…in fact, you can also find the original photocopies of the kubark manual on the gwu site as well…to be honest, they both kinda spook me out, and serve as a harsh reminder of how far you gotta go to protect your own country (i suppose…don’t read into that just ’cause you’re bored)

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