The Use of Music to Soften Up Detainees

News reports about the conditions of confinement in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay have highlighted the use of music to break interrogation subjects. Some have argued that repetitive and loud music can disorient and shock a subject, break down his will and eventually induce cooperation.

Army Times reports, that a wide variety of music was used to break the will of detainees including the themes from Barney and Sesame Street. It is possible that using music to break an interrogation subject will lead to actionable intelligence from that subject but there is no scientific support for such an approach. Sixty years of research, both in a military and law enforcement context, suggests that disorienting a subject will lead to educing false information from that subject or information of little value. A disoriented subject makes for bad information.

Soliciting MIs...

I am looking for military interrogators willing to participate in a study about interrogation methods. Participation requires anonymously completing a 15 minute survey/questionnaire. If interested please e-mail me. If you are willing to support my work I would appreciate hearing from you.

Matthew Alexander on Fox News

Excellent new book

An recently published book, "How to Break a Terrorist," by Matthew Alexander, discusses the importance of effective interrogation methods in the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Alexander, a military interrogator, describes how a rapport building approach to interrogations secured the critical piece of intelligence that led to finding and killing the leader of Al Qaida in Mesopotamia. You can find the book here at Amazon!

Military Interrogations Study

I am conducting a study to determine what MIs believe are the best interrogation methods for gaining cooperation from a subject. My study is designed to address some of the gaps in knowledge about interrogations conducted by military interrogators and their counterparts in federal counterterrorism agencies in the United States and provide information about methods from their perspectives and based on their experiences.

I plan to post a survey on a secure web server and solicit MIs to complete the 15 minute survey anonymously. I will collect no personal information other than branch of service and gender. If you are a MI and are interested in participating in this study in any way please contact me.

Participants will be asked to estimate, rate and self-report on seven facets of their work: (1) their ability to detect truth or deception; (2) for military interrogators, their own opinions and practices with regard to 13 of the general approach techniques authorized by the U.S. Army Intelligence and Interrogation Handbook; (3) the importance of rapport building to extract information from a subject; (4) the applicability of law enforcement techniques to interrogations of terrorists; (5) the frequency, length and timing of interrogations; (6) training, and (7) their observations, if any, of others using unapproved techniques during interrogations and, if so, with what frequency. The goal here is to obtain common practices, observations, and beliefs about interrogations directly from military interrogators and counterterrorism agents.

Social science can help establish what are the most effective techniques and can be of great benefit to U.S. human intelligence gathering.

HUMINT & Science

Methods employed by the United States to procure intelligence from human subjects have undergone increasing attention since September 11, 2001. The process of obtaining intelligence from captured subjects is known in the military as human intelligence collection or HUMINT and the practice has undergone unprecedented attention and review. While there is self-reported, official, and anecdotal evidence of practices and procedures approved for use and allegations about techniques actually used, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. What is clear, however, is that there appears to be little empirical support for any of the interrogation practices officially approved by the United States military and other federal agencies for personnel who interrogate prisoners of war or suspected terrorists.