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Creepy: FBI wants to "advance the science of interrogation"

FBI group looking to develop better ways to interrogate high-profile bad guys

By Layer 8 on Thu, 04/12/12 - 1:21pm.

From deep in the Department of Creepy today I give this item: The FBI this week put out a call for new research "to advance the science and practice of intelligence interviewing and interrogation."

The part of the FBI that is requesting the new research isn't out in the public light very often: the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which according to the FBI was chartered in 2009 by the National Security Council and includes members of the CIA and Department of Defense, to "deploy the nation's best available interrogation resources against detainees identified as having information regarding terrorist attacks against the United States and its allies."

In other news: All hail: Inside the museum of nonsense

The purpose of research requested by the controversial HIG is to advance the science and practice of intelligence interviewing and interrogation, the FBI stated. The group defined several areas for long-range study that include:

Field observations of military and strategic interrogators, intelligence interviewers in order to document strategies, methods and outcomes;
Surveys and structured interviews of interrogators, intelligence interviewers and debriefers specified by the Government in order to document what these operational personnel think works and does not work and the development of operationally-based best practices which may be later investigated via laboratory or field studies;
Development, testing and evaluation of metrics for assessing the efficacies of interrogations, intelligence interviews and debriefs and of the use of particular interrogation, intelligence interview and debrief strategies and methods;
Field quasi-experimental studies to evaluate the efficacy of new evidence-based interrogation, intelligence interview and debrief strategies and methods;
Laboratory studies to test and/or discover new interrogation, intelligence interview and debrief methods;
Laboratory or field studies to assess the validity of evidence-based interviewing, deception detection, and other relevant principles and/or methods across non-U.S. populations both with and without the use of interpreters;
Laboratory or field studies on fundamental psychological processes (to include but not be limited to decision-making, emotion, motivation, memory, persuasion, social identities and social development) as these are relevant to interrogations, intelligence interviews and debriefs;
Laboratory or field studies of interpersonal processes (e.g., social influence, persuasion, negotiation, conflict resolution and management), with particular attention to cultural and intercultural issues.

I now return you to our regular programming.

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