High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group

The HIG, established in 2009, brings together personnel from the U.S. Intelligence Community to conduct interrogations that strengthen national security and that are consistent with the rule of law. In addition to its operational role in eliciting accurate and actionable intelligence from high-value terrorism subjects, the HIG serves as the government’s focal point for interrogation best practices, training, and scientific research. All HIG-sponsored research is unclassified; researchers who work with the HIG are free to publish their findings, and most do.

The director of the HIG is an FBI representative and is assisted by two deputies—one from the Department of Defense and the other from the Central Intelligence Agency. Full-time HIG members are augmented part-time by HIG-trained professionals from FBI field offices and other U.S. Intelligence Community agencies.

HIG responsibilities fall under three primary areas, all of which feed into each other:

Interrogations: The HIG deploys expert Mobile Interrogation Teams (MITs) to collect intelligence that will prevent terrorist attacks and protect national security. Since the HIG’s creation, MITs have been deployed both within the United States and abroad. Deployment teams generally consist of a team leader, interrogators, analysts, subject matter experts, linguists, and other personnel as needed. HIG interrogators are chosen for—among other attributes—their extensive interviewing and interrogation experience and their willingness to adapt to evolving interrogation techniques based on the latest scientific research. The HIG uses only rapport-based techniques, as science has shown that non-coercive, non-threatening, rapport-based techniques elicit more credible information more quickly than any of the harsher techniques.

Research: The goal of the HIG’s research program is to study the effectiveness of interrogation approaches and techniques by identifying and validating existing techniques that work, and by developing new lawful techniques that may work even better. The HIG identifies research gaps in the interrogations field and commissions research products to fill in these gaps. To carry out the research, the HIG contracts with Ph.D.-level scientists from all over the world known for their expertise in interrogations and other related fields. Since its founding, the HIG has funded more than 75 interrogation research projects, some of which have covered interviews with expert interrogators, social influence tactics, the impact of interpreters, the cognitive interview, the strategic use of evidence, and science-based methods of detecting deception. All HIG research is conducted in complete compliance with international laws and U.S. laws concerning the protection of human research subjects.

Training: The HIG works to develop and disseminate best practices for training purposes for its own interrogators and part-time personnel and for other U.S. Intelligence Community and law enforcement partners and allies abroad. Some of the HIG’s interrogation techniques have been added to the curricula of the Department of Defense’s human intelligence training facility in Arizona and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Georgia, among others. HIG interrogations are primarily terrorism-related, but the lawful interrogation techniques can also be used when questioning criminal suspects, which is why the HIG shares best practices with and conducts training sessions for select state and local law enforcement partners.

The HIG does not use torture. HIG personnel do not engage in any unlawful interrogation practices. They use authorized, lawful, non-coercive techniques that are designed to elicit voluntary statements and do not involve the use of force, threats, or promises.

The HIG does not select its own intelligence targets. With U.S. intelligence requirements in mind, targets are nominated by a U.S. intelligence agency and must be approved by appropriate partner agency leadership.

Lastly, the HIG is not the FBI. Even though the HIG is administratively housed within the FBI, it is a multi-agency organization whose principal function is intelligence gathering—not law enforcement, and it is subject to oversight through the National Security Council, the Department of Justice, and Congress. However, the actions of HIG teams are carefully documented, evidence is preserved in the event of a criminal prosecution, and its members are prepared to testify in court if necessary.