We will start off with listing several basic aspects of doctrinal theory, that you, the reader, or aspiring interrogator, is willing to expect. There is a US military fascination with using abbreviations and shortenings for every branded word or phrase that has with it meaning attached to some system designed for a specific purpose. Some might argue that the time you save in total is valuable. Even if a second is saved every time an acronym is used instead of the complete terminology.
You do have to give props to the US military, although while it might not be the most studied worldwide (One should put emphasis on Russia being more about theory and China having more brains to think about military stuff overall, even though the US military has the most combat experience, the US mainland has never been invaded like Russia has, and China seldom goes to war, so much of it’s doctrine has never truly been tested and is very mathematical in it’s approach and therefore often fails against craftier, more experienced opponents), the US military probably retains the most widely available collection of publicly available information such as manuals that is actually taught to soldiers and used in practice, that contains tons of useful information that can turn the most amateur individual or group into a military professional, given the information is properly put to use. The fact that the US military in itself is an enormous industrial complex, employing millions of people in both public and private service, on top of the several branches of the armed forces, means that there is an enormous amount of data and information flowing around regarding various experiences, theories and so fourth, that need to be dumbed down to their most efficient and relevant points. This is why information is often compacted into manuals, that during their most useful stage are often classified but later declassified in order to meet this “freedom of information” clause, to serve as a sort of broad base for millions of soldiers to learn from, because every 25 years or so millions of soldiers do end up serving in the US military. It would be hard to keep track of divulging such typically classified information unless they said oh hell with it and just released everything they knew for public viewing. But the fact of the matter is the information contained and researched to compile these articles is currently around 26 years old, therefore might as well be obsolete information.
Still relevant, nevertheless, if you look at the wider picture, because some techniques here are timeless, or will be useful, for decades to come, before technology outpaces this doctrine and strategy. And any non-governmental civilian group, be it corporate security, drug cartel, terrorist or militia organization or the mafia, takes use of this information, will become a formidable force, let alone if it was the actual military itself. A good note to keep in mind that the best criminals on the planet often tend to be ex military, special forces, intelligence operatives and law enforcement officers. Knowing how not to get caught because you know things like the investigative process, forensic science, critical thinking, logical deduction and legal procedures, basic stuff that most cops know, is half the battle. The other half is knowing the 5 W’s of committing crimes. So, in that regard, this makes a valid point in itself.
There is structure and a system to how these techniques and information is written. Sometimes techniques in themselves are not enough, but putting them inside a proper system is what makes them useful. Confinement by police is not useful as one that gets confined in addition to going through the justice system, which could last for months or years, before the sentence has already begun. In common law systems much of the sentence is outside of the actual justice system, be it the police, courts or prison, but after the prisoner is released, such as through higher insurance rates, limitations through probation or prohibition orders on otherwise normal activities like driving or being around certain places or people or possessing certain instruments such as weapons or electronics or alcohol, barring from good employment opportunities, travel opportunities and fields of study. So one could say that while overall the system is more punitive than rehabilitative, it is also a more psychological, indirect pressure than an actual verbal lashing through insults, or physical lashing through brute torture methods. The torture itself is designed to be systematic instead of direct. The childish taunt of “Stop hitting yourself” comes to mind in how checkmate mechanisms are designed for those with criminal records in common law, Five Eyes countries.
The first part of this system begins with the warfighting doctrine, which is essentially a formed pretext for why the interrogation methods and system will be the way they are/is. These methods must be in collusion with the doctrine in order to be effective. Otherwise they would not be able to make each other meet objectives, or would have been incompatible or difficult to work with as a system. This way there are more parallels between both systems and there is interoperability between them.
From the introductory onset of this theory, we can gather that the warfighting doctrine will be based around controlling the whole game from the beginning to the end. This doctrine is referred to as “Full spectrum dominance” and is a proactive peacetime doctrine for the most part, since it’s literally impossible to achieve guaranteed wartime full spectrum dominance against a nation of more or less equal size, level of development, technology, knowledge, education, economics, military capabilities, population, land area and resources, like China and Russia, and to a lesser extent, India, Indonesia and Brazil are to the US, or a combined EU force say under the leadership of an uninhibited Germany, unless you came in possession or knowledge of technologies much more advanced than your enemies, that something only God himself or an extraterrestrial civilization can give you. Similarly to how an interrogator is supposed to control the conversation with the person being interrogated, and only talk about what he wants to talk about and to not let his subject stray far from the conversation or control it himself, because then we’d be wasting time and getting distracted and extracting useless information out of our subject.
If you are a step ahead, then the enemy will have to catch up to you and therefore will have to adjust his strategy around you. Once you control that, you can control things like information. You can extract information from them that’s useful for your objective, but can then feed them disinformation in return.
In detail are a few broad steps a commander must do to be in the “controlling” position, in this case the phrase to keep in mind that summarizes this approach is “gaining the initiative”:
STEP 1: “Identify the opposition early on and determine their abilities as well as their stance, purpose and goals.”
Basically, reconnaissance serves a good purpose for this in order to establish a visual, auditory or some other type of representation of the enemy’s capabilities and intentions. Personally, I tend to play the nice guy card with everyone. This way the people who have foul intentions tend to reveal themselves most of the time, because they mistake your kindness for weakness and decide to attack first. By attacking, I kill three stones with one bird:
A) I see that their intentions are hostile.
B) I get an early assessment of their clarity of judgement.
C) I get a preview of their operational capabilities.
From this I can form a modus operandi of the person or group, and attempt to design a strategy around them. Now, typically, this would put me in the defensive. No, this is fallacious, and does not correlate in any way with the warfighting doctrine(they are not in control). I do, however, give in a few times so they think they are in control, so they let their guard down, and then move in for the attack. I’ve done this with everyone from colleagues at Walmart to mid level management and high ranking business executives to gangsters, politicians, police, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and intelligence operatives. It works every time. Sometimes the short term cost is great but the long term cost is always worth it. This is because I align things so that I am always at the advantage, at the cost of my opponent.
Be it social, political, financial or brute force influence, I am always the victor. Patience is a big virtue to have, and so is biting your pride sometimes in exchange for a constant stream of idiots succumbing to the same old overused strategies and tactics over and over again. I’ve gotten to the point where even extorting a head of state is a funny game to me, an easy game, similar to what you’d see how Vladimir Putin sees international politics. It’s funny to him, like child’s play.
There is an advantage to approaching your enemy like this, as if you are often facing a superior enemy, that is stronger, faster, better, wealthier and smarter, patience is the only way to win. You need to sit and wait until an opportunity reveals itself that you can exploit. What victory is in the end is in the eyes of the beholder. Real costs can be observed and measured, but you need data. In order to avoid destruction, you need to be unidentifiable. Much of US military doctrine revolves around being able to identify targets, in order to bomb them with air power and destabilize the enemy’s operational capability. Insurgents exploit this by blending in with the shadows. What results is an over the top attempt by occupation forces to conduct counter-insurgency operations and identify targets. A long, pointless warfighting strategy that might as well last thousands of years, in a state of occupation that is not meant to be a complete police state. By staying unidentifiable I can fight much stronger enemies, as they cannot come to see me as a threat that needs to be managed and suppressed. I gain longevity while still fulfilling my operational goals and means.
In military means, this would mean seeing the size of the enemy’s forces, their technological advancement, operational capabilities, morale, organization, unpredictability, etc. Same with civilian life, whether you are a normal person, an academic, a criminal, police officer, politician or so fourth. There are always practical applications to this endeavor.
STEP 2: “Find and track enemy follow-on echelons.”
In military lingo, which can in particular be found here:
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/101-5-1/f545-f.htm
The term “follow-on echelon” is basically a contingent of support units that comes after the initial air, infantry, amphibious or naval combat force. So this basically means medical, supply, logistic, headquarters, maintenance, all the roles that are not typically combat roles but crucial to sustaining the combat units to continue with their operations.
In this case, it would be useful to cut them off from the rest. So knowing their location, their capabilities, their communication with our combat units, is crucial to establishing a series of attacks designed to disorganize and disorient the enemy. It’s like cutting off the patient with his doctor, or the president with his adviser, or the don with his consigliere.
This in turn is inter-changable with:
STEP 3: “Identify which high value targets amongst enemy forces, if they are attacked successfully, will lead towards the impairment of vital enemy functions on the battlefield.”
Basically, we want them to stop functioning or become disorganized. Once they are in a mode of retreat or on the defense, we can corner them to a certain degree. Not always the degree we might want, but the fact that we have begun to corner them is a good sign.
and
STEP 4: “Identify, locate, and develop the required targeting data for the attack of high-payoff targets (HPTs), that will tip the scale in the favor of allied schemes if successfully attacked.”
While the more important thing is disabling enemy capability first and foremost, it is also important to do it in such a way that makes it easier for oneself’s plans to be executed more efficiently, and with less resistance.
and
STEP 5: “Detect enemy weaknesses and develop the necessary data to support the exploitation of these weaknesses.”
Obviously, the weakest link in the chain is what we’re trying to exploit. Every enemy has his weakness. There is nobody that is ideal. Even when it comes to the idea of manufacturing and mass production, the general rules are either build it fast, build it good or built it cheap. You can only pick two.
You, as an industrial or business competitor, can exploit these weaknesses. If it’s fast and good, it will be expensive. Therefore you can build something of slightly lesser quality that people will buy because it’s almost as good(the difference between no name brand hotdog buns and brand name buns where the difference is only 20 cents, from $2.30 to $2.50). But that might not always be the case.
STEP 6: “Effectively use electronic warfare(EW) assets to support battlefield operations while protecting friendly use of the electromagnetic spectrum.”
With this what the purpose is to also aim to use every technological edge to our advantage, especially when it comes to signals intelligence and communication, as well as EMP attacks on things such as enemy formations and the power grid of an urban area, for example, which can be utilized by enemy forces for their own purposes. Or even lasers. But first and foremost, we want to be able do disrupt their power grid and their communications network so they can’t take orders and intelligence from each other, as well as intercept enemy communications and see if they are congruent with what our informants are telling us, this way we can establish some form of validity, so as to realize we are not being led into a trap, ambush or something similar, a ploy, a decoy, etc. designed to give false or misleading information. At the same time we need to secure our own lines of communication, so nothing gets spilled out that shouldn’t be heard by our enemy. Nor does our lines of communication can afford to get disrupted or sabotaged or fed false information, because it could steer us in the wrong direction.
It’s easier to ascertain what comes through your own channels of communications as more valid and trustworthy than what comes through the enemy channels. We automatically assume that we should trust our assets, and that they are not compromised. We automatically also assume that our enemy will obviously try to lie to us and deceive us, and therefore any intercepted enemy communications should be taken with a grain of salt, especially if they are on a channel that can easily be intercepted, such as radio. It would be less of an assumption that our enemy is purposefully trying to deceive us, if it was a face to face encounter, such as a bunch of black ops soldiers hidden in some bushes on a cliff overlooking an enemy camp, where the enemy soldiers are oblivious and openly talking about what the situation is in person, and we might have our trusty bionic spy ear listening device, which is kind of a miniature satellite antenna with a handle hooked up to some headphones. Old technology, but useful nevertheless.
STEP 7: “Determine the enemy’s capability and guard against that capability.”
This seems like common sense, but it’s not just simple. It’s one thing to have this obvious thought, but a completely other ballgame to actually know how to determine the capability(because some people don’t even know how to do that) let alone defend against it. We have in theory, but when it comes to practice, when push comes to shove, many people just tend to freeze up because their mind has not been conditioned enough to deal with the situation at hand, even though we might’ve practiced it a million times prior in a hypothetical scenario training environment, like a movie, book, in our minds or word of mouth.
Not leaving any loopholes is crucial here. Whenever there is the possibility of a leak or an open space for attack, it will be utilized. Think of a medieval knight in his armor, and where the armor connects is where the swordsman should aim his blows.
STEP 8: “Protect friendly forces and operations from enemy intelligence collection operations.”
Many times, we can assume that the enemy is similar to us. We are all human, of course. We have a similar level of development across the board. We tend to learn from each other, both in positive and negative ways. So how we try to screw people, they will try to screw us the same way. As we try to collect information on our enemies, they will try to do the same with us and our people. Our job as part of the intelligence structure is to not only gather intel on enemy forces, but also to protect our allies from enemies with similar skills. Not all of our allies will possess the skills we have. So the onus will fall on us to try to protect them because we know the trickery being used, since we use the same trickery. This also involves setting up a system where the flow of information channels in such a way that leaves no weaknesses, even if it means not letting your own operatives and allies know what is actually going on, or disguising their own orders in a way that is not immediately clear but eventually becomes all but too apparent.
STEP 9: “Ensure the enemy is defeated.”
Sometimes when the enemy seems to be defeated, they come out stronger than ever. You never know the extent to which you are battling somebody and how victorious you are. Good intel can make this assessment more accurate. You might think somebody is a bum on the street, because they dress like a bum, stink like a bum and are sitting down asking for money. Then you follow them home and see they live inside a mansion and drive several luxury cars. Appearances are not always what they seem. Never underestimate your opponent, especially his willingness to persevere. Say for example you are waging war against an opponent. Say you want to hurt them financially. You never know how big his slush fund is, even if you take away his house, car, business, freeze his bank accounts, etc. He might be a millionaire on paper but a billionaire in cash, diamonds and gold. So you will need to yet again adjust your approach once finding out you’ve been bamboozled.
STEP 10: “Use the weather and terrain to friendly advantage.”
When it’s raining, it’s a good chance to go do something that would otherwise naturally leave marks in the ground, like tire tracks, DNA, fingerprints, etc. When it’s foggy, it’s good to cover your license plates from security cameras. When it’s snowing, being chased by the police will be much easier, or much harder, depending on how you utilize the situation. Similarly, using the weather in the military can be used to your advantage. We saw the Soviets use it during WW2, when winter hit and froze countless German soldiers to death. A flat, open terrain can mean high visibility, and will be easier for you to hit stuff. But it will also be the same for your opponent. If it is a mountainous area, a defender on high ground can make it very difficult for an infantry or cavalry attacker to climb up to a fortified position. Unless you have planes and helicopters.
After this, the commander should use offensive and defensive capabilities to hit the primary strike force, and deep attack tactics to attack the follow up force. That’s basically a straight attack against the bulk, and then to cut off the rest, we’ll need things like special forces, airborne troops or black ops, similar to what was used during Operation Market Garden or the morning prior to the D-Day invasion.
It’s true what they say. As long as you are able to be flexible, creative, adaptable and know how to utilize your surroundings, you can defeat a superior enemy. I’ve done it many times over before. I’ve defeated people who had more money, manpower, weapons, vehicles, property, social and political influence and allies to use in their fight against me, simply because I knew how to fight in a way that identifies vulnerabilities in a target, and can dish out maximum efficiency using a minimal amount of resources. Necessity is the mother of all innovation, as they say.