Educing information

The Science Intelligence Board has just released a 372 page report, rather benignly titled Educing Information (available at http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/educing.pdf). As acknowledged in the foreward, this report seeks to move the ball forward in the ongoing interrogation/ intelligence gathering debate. In some sense, it responds to the 24 phenomena, in which the public's view about coercive interrogation is informed by the use of Jack Bauer's harsh (and often effective) strategies  in response to ticking time bomb scenarios.  The report "does not specifically address ethical, moral, religious, or legal questions, but instead focuses on 'what works.'"

Interestingly, the report suggests that the answer might be "not much," but stresses that more research needs to be done.  I'm still working my way through it, but it seems  clear that the authors contend that the current debate suffers from a  real dearth of quality evidence on both sides- those who oppose coercive interrogation might be  pleased to learn that little evidence shows that formal training in interrogation techniques will elicit the desired information, while coercive interrogation supporters might be bolstered by the lack of specific evidence that pain, coercion, and threats are counterproductive to eliciting desired information.