Doc 0000184409

·' -- -- .. - .. _.. ... __._ -------- __ ........ July 1, 1953 .• ... !COMl.lliNTS ON THE FINAL REPORT OF ON RESEARCH ON SIDE TONE DELAY AS AN INTERROGATION DEVICE The comments given here cover some of the background and several aspects of the results of the research which appear to merit further consideration. TI1e possible use of side tone delay in interrogation procedures was C:~onoeived by the undersigned while employed in the during the early months of 1951. Preliminary contacts were fJ made with two . _ . laboratories to explore the possibility of e c:- coordinated investigation of the matter. - 'expressed interest and demonstrated in the discussion his understanding of scientific methods, techniques, We thereupon performed pre et~. liminary experiments and subsequently obtained support for the investigation. · Because of the uncertain status of the undersigned arising from his C-employment in the , and, furthermore, the 1 imminence of a leave of absence to enter into another research contract, • ~the prime contract was undertaken by with the work of the undersigned carried out by means of a su~contract. The objectives of the program as laid out·;'in a meeting of the support ing agency with the investigators covered the following: 1. Research to determine the conditions, if any, under which side tone delay could be ut.ilized to advantage in interrogation. 2. An investigation of the possibility of concurrent use of side tone delay with the polygraph in a feed-back arrangement. 3. The development of a side tone delay method not requiring attachments to the subject. c=;~ final report contains one objective conclusion that the side tone will not produce false confessions. Otherwise, the report con sists of several opinions which cannot be considered substantiated in a satisfactory manner. The report does not demonstrate an understanding of the fundamental difference between a research and development project on the one hand and a project for field testing a developed instrument on the other hand. · The conclusions reached in en analysis of the ten cases described from page 19 to page 27 fall into one of two categories depending upon whether a confession was or was not obtained; "the STD did not help ·' -2- to the polygraph records, nor did it help to gain a con i~prove fession" when the subject did not confess, or "the interror;ator believed that · would have confessed without the The image displays a stylized graphic of a bank vault door on the left, with the title "THE BLACK VAULT" in a bold, white, graffiti-style font across the top. Below the title, in white text, is a description stating the document was obtained from The Black Vault, an online database of declassified government documents, specifically from the MKULTRA/Mind Control Collection provided by the CIA. The text further mentions the collection contains over 20,000 declassified pages and provides a URL for downloading. No photographs, stamps, forms, tables, redactions, or other visual elements indicative of specific experimental procedures or content are present. two categories depending upon whether a confession was or was not obtained; "the STD did not help ·' -2- to the polygraph records, nor did it help to gain a con i~prove fession" when the subject did not confess, or "the interror;ator believed that · would have confessed without the STD1 when the subject did confe_ss. These conclusions are not objective. With respect to the apparatus requiring no subject attachment, had no experimental basis for the statement on page 33 that "it is believed that this arrangement will not help to obtain confessions." The most serious_defect in the experimental work was that investi t~e gators did not clearly recognize what is perhaps the outstanding single observation of their work -- that they were gaining an effect in those cases where no stuttering existed. Recognition of this fact should have led to an investigation of delay times in every case below those necessary to produce stuttering. It is presumably not necessary to block compl·3tely the subject' speech in order to 3 subject him to mental difficul·ty. Clearly, the optimum amount of delay is that required to produce a more or less unformulated thought within the mind of the subject that he is betraying the fact that he is lying. Vfuen a subject remarks "Stop trying to fool me with this," the desired threshold obviously has been overstepped seriously. It is the belief of the undersigned that much remains to be dorie on subject and that no conclusive statement on the degree of utility t~e of side tone delay can be made at this time. .. ·~ ,~ .. . : . The page contains a typewritten document with handwritten annotations in the top right corner. The text discusses comments on a final report about research on side tone delay as an interrogation device. There are several handwritten "C" symbols in the margins, likely indicating points of emphasis or notes. A handwritten "B" appears near the top left, possibly a signature or initial. No photographs, stamps, forms, diagrams, tables, redactions, or visual evidence of experimental procedures are present. This document page is primarily text-based, with no photographs, diagrams, official stamps, or forms with filled-in fields. There are a few handwritten annotations, including a circled "D" near the start of the text and a series of horizontal lines and curves in the bottom margin, possibly markings or visual cues. Some content is obscured, indicated by black lines covering certain words, particularly towards the top of the page. These redactions suggest sensitive information that has been deliberately removed. The page appears to be a typed report or memo, with numbered pages indicated by "-2-".