The ACLU obtained through FOIA the fifth version of an FBI interrogation manual for conducting custodial interrogations in overseas environments, which was written by a supervisor in the FBI’s counterterrorism division in 2011 (the third version was copyrighted in 2010, it is unknown when the earlier versions were published).278 The manual is troubling for many reasons, but particularly because it recommends that FBI agents ask the foreign government or U.S. military officials holding the detainees to isolate them at capture “for several days before you begin interrogation” and throughout the “multi-session, multi-day” interrogation process.279
Isolation has long been recognized as a coercive technique that can cause serious psychological distress, and the manual advises FBI agents that in addition to security concerns, an important purpose for requesting isolation is to allow interrogators to take advantage of “the natural fear of the unknown that the detainee will be experiencing.”280 This advice directly conflicts with FBI policy. The FBI Legal Handbook for Special Agents, and the U.S. Supreme Court, explicitly recognizes isolation as a coercive technique that undermines the voluntariness of detainee’s statements.281 The manual also makes repeated, positive references to the CIA’s notorious KUBARK interrogation manual and “the Reid Technique,” both of which have been criticized for promoting coercive interrogation practices. The ACLU has asked the FBI to end this practice and provide remedial training to any agents who received this manual.282
If FBI agents request isolation of detainees prior to interviews—or participate in interviews in which detainees are being or have been mistreated, tortured, or threatened with torture— they are violating FBI policy and U.S. law.Congress must act to investigate the FBI’s conduct abroad and curb this troubling activity.
Isolation has long been recognized as a coercive technique that can cause serious psychological distress, and the manual advises FBI agents that in addition to security concerns, an important purpose for requesting isolation is to allow interrogators to take advantage of “the natural fear of the unknown that the detainee will be experiencing.”280 This advice directly conflicts with FBI policy. The FBI Legal Handbook for Special Agents, and the U.S. Supreme Court, explicitly recognizes isolation as a coercive technique that undermines the voluntariness of detainee’s statements.281 The manual also makes repeated, positive references to the CIA’s notorious KUBARK interrogation manual and “the Reid Technique,” both of which have been criticized for promoting coercive interrogation practices. The ACLU has asked the FBI to end this practice and provide remedial training to any agents who received this manual.282
If FBI agents request isolation of detainees prior to interviews—or participate in interviews in which detainees are being or have been mistreated, tortured, or threatened with torture— they are violating FBI policy and U.S. law.Congress must act to investigate the FBI’s conduct abroad and curb this troubling activity.
Unleashed And Unaccountable: The FBI’s Unchecked Abuse Of Authority
- Tension Between Domestic Intelligence and Constitutional Rights
- Recommendations for Congress
- Recommendations for the Attorney General
- Using the No Fly List to Pressure Americans Abroad to Become Informants
- FBI Overseas Interrogation Policy
- Proxy Detention (Abroad)
- Targeting Activists
- Targeting AMEMSA Communities
- Biased Training
- Circumventing External Controls
- Suppressing Government Whistleblowers
- Unaccountable: Evidence of Abuse, Need for Reform (Part I)
- Unleashed: The FBI’s Post-9/11 Powers (Part IV)
- Unleashed: The FBI’s Post-9/11 Powers (Part III)
- Expanding FBI Investigative Authorities
- Surveillance Powers Given and Taken
- Unleashed and Unaccountable: Introduction
- Statement on Withdrawal of Support for ENDA and Call for Equal Workplace Protections for LGBT People
- Statement on James Comey Nomination
- The War on Marijuana in Black and White (”Extreme Racial Disparities...”)
- Protests As Low Level Terrorism
- Reactions to Bradley Manning Sentence (Manning Supporters)
- Tension Between Domestic Intelligence and Constitutional Rights
- Surveillance Powers Given and Taken
- Expanding FBI Investigative Authorities
- Unleashed: The FBI’s Post-9/11 Powers (Part III)
- Unleashed: The FBI’s Post-9/11 Powers (Part IV)
- Unaccountable: Evidence of Abuse, Need for Reform (Part I)
- Suppressing Government Whistleblowers
- Circumventing External Controls
- Biased Training
- Targeting AMEMSA Communities
- Targeting Activists
- Proxy Detention (Abroad)
- FBI Overseas Interrogation Policy
- Using the No Fly List to Pressure Americans Abroad to Become Informants
- Recommendations for the Attorney General
- Recommendations for Congress
- Unleashed and Unaccountable: Introduction