Anonymous asked for further insight on use of elicitation as a tool.

Unfortunately, I have never read any books on elicitation nor have I heard of any. I have had some training in both the military and with the Company on interrogations and, of course, on agent debriefings, but no training was ever given on elicitations. By far, the tool I used most as a NOC was elicitation. So I am sure I would have benefited from some training in this area.

It is always helpful in elicitations to have some prior knowledge of the target before going for the contact, but usually this is not the case So you must make some basic assumptions based on the age, sex, occupation, ethnicity, social customs, etc. and start from ground zero. By far, the cold contact offers to the NOC the most challenge in terms of elicitation. For example as a NOC in a technical fiend of expertise, I used to frequent technical conferences, symposia, educational forums, etc to “troll” for targets of interest. It is good initially just to listen to groups in conversation to pick out your initial target, then develop an occasion to isolate him/her one-on-one at which time you may have only two or three minutes to impress on the target that you are someone of interest to them as well. Here use some basis tried and true “assumptions” based on the above or some other criteria combined with the views you may have heard the target express while listening to the group conversation. I found it useful to introduce a bit of humor to help keep the interaction relaxed. After some interaction at the technical level, which is the reason we are at the technical conference, I then would turn to eliciting personal information about the target to develop a personal basis for future contact.

Double-teaming is also a useful approach to targeting a cold target. In such cases two NOCs not known to be associated by the target isolate the target on two-on-one conversation. One NOC takes the lead while the other acts as reinforcement on the goals of the first NOC. Remember, elicitation only has value so long as the target does not realize what the true goals of the NOC are. The NOC must take care not to raise any suspicion in the target. So questioning must proceed in an order perceived by the target as a natural progression of the conversation.

Assets who have been under development for a period of time are easier elicitation targets than cold contacts. You already have good rapport with the developmental contact and he/she has become accustomed to your interest in them though they are not aware of the real goals of your contact. You can be more aggressive in your elicitation questions in such cases. I once had a target with whom I maintained an elicitation rapport for five years who never had any idea of my intelligence affiliation. He was a prolific producer of intelligence information in his field. He and I had a genuine fondness and respect for each other throughout our association. The Company never felt a need to “recruit” him since he was providing information freely and his motivations and vulnerabilities did not appear to be sufficiently deep to make him want to accept recruitment as an agent. So rather than trying to recruit him and possibly having him turn down the attempt and refuse further contact, we just continued the elicitation contact.

On another occasion another CIA “inside” Case Officer who worked at the US mission in the host country and I, a NOC not associated with the US government, double-teamed a target we both had met separately at the same symposium. We both developed a decent rapport with the target that resulted in several follow on “social” meetings. Comparing our “take” from the elicitations it was clear that the target was holding back information from the inside officer, known as a US government official, while he was more forthcoming with me. A decision was made at the Station for me to take the lead in the development of the target while allowing the inside officer to maintain the contact on a less frequent basis as a back-up to possibly make a recruitment pitch if our development of the case warranted recruitment.

I could go on with hundreds of such elicitation cases and probably find something new and unique to each case. But you are probably interested in commonalities that are transferable to your unique situation. First, keep the target in the dark on your real intentions. Be careful your questioning does not raise suspicion. Find a basis for rapport based on your knowledge of the target, of lacking such knowledge based on assumptions you can safely make about him/her. If possible, watch the target in a group setting first, then isolate in one-on-one contact. Establish the basis for a follow-on meeting based on shared objectives and interests.