Disinformation Book of Lists by Russ Kick Page B

for later coercive ruses used by the interrogator.
    22
    Inducing debility
    The CIA mentions ancient techniques of physically weakening people: “prolonged constraint; prolonged exertion; extremes of heat, cold, or moisture; and deprivation or drastic reduction of food or sleep.” It doesn't, however, recommend these approaches, since “experience” shows that they're pretty ineffective. In fact, the Agency says that you'll probably have better luck with threatening to do these things, rather than actually doing them.
    23
    Pain
    The manual's section on pain (i.e., physical torture) argues against it on many grounds:
    Interrogatees who are withholding but who feel qualms of guilt and a secret desire to yield are likely to become intractable if made to endure pain. The reason is that they can then interpret the pain as punishment and hence as expiation. There are also persons who enjoy pain and its anticipation and who will keep back information that they might otherwise divulge if they are given reason to expect that withholding will result in the punishment that they want. Persons of considerable moral or intellectual stature often find in pain inflicted by others a confirmation of the belief that they are in the hands of inferiors, and their resolve not to submit is strengthened.
    Intense pain is quite likely to produce false confessions, concocted as a means of escaping from distress.
    24
    Hypnosis
    The CIA heavily qualifies its recommendation of hypnosis, but at the right time and in the hands of a pro, it can be employed. “For example, a KUBARK [CIA] interrogator could tell a suspect double agent in trance that the KGB is conducting the questioning, and thus invert the whole frame of reference…. The value of hypnotic trance is not that it permits the interrogator to impose his will but rather that it can be used to convince the interrogatee that there is no valid reason not to be forthcoming.”
    25
    Drugs
    â€œThe effect of most drugs depends more upon the personality of the subject than upon the physical characteristics of the drugs themselves. If the approval of Headquarters has been obtained and if a doctor is at hand for administration, one of the most important of the interrogator's functions is providing the doctor with a full and accurate description of the psychological make-up of the interrogatee, to facilitate the best possible choice of a drug.”
    â€œThis discussion does not include a list of drugs that have been employed for interrogation purposes or a discussion of their properties because these are medical considerations within the province of a doctor rather than an interogator [ sic ].”

LIST 22
7 CIA Plots to Kill Castro
    In May 1967, the Central Intelligence Agency's Inspector General issued “Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro,” a detailed rundown of the CIA's attempts to kill Cuba's leader. Highly classified, it wasn't released to the public until 1993. All quotes below are taken directly from this official report.
    Â 
    1
    Dosing
    According to the report, there was “discussion of a scheme to contaminate the air of the radio station where Castro broadcasts his speeches with an aerosol spray of a chemical that produces reactions similar to those of lysergic acid (LSD).” The idea apparently was to get El Presidente to sound like a drug-addled flake on the air. “Nothing came of the idea. [redacted] said he had discouraged the scheme, because the chemical could not be relied upon to be effective.”
    2
    Tainted cigars
    A batch of cigars was cooked up with the intention of giving them to Castro. The effects that the cigars were supposed to have is hazy. Either they were treated with a chemical that would make him disoriented, thus causing him to act strangely in public, or they were treated with a depilatory to make his beard fall out, dealing a blow to the machismo of the now smooth-faced girlyman. The plot never got farther