The CIA interrogation tactics every couple can use at home
Former spook Philip Houston has written a book about how to use spy agency techniques to get your nearest and dearest to come clean about stuff - though he's not suggesting you treat them as national security threats.
Former CIA interrogator Philip Houston tells the story of a colleague who arrived at the airport for a much-needed holiday, only to discover that check-in wanted paper tickets.
The man turned to his wife, who had handled the flight arrangements: "Do you know anything about paper tickets?"
"You know, I'm really not sure," she said.
Rather than challenging that statement directly, the man deployed several of Houston's favourite techniques for coaxing confessions out of spies and miscreants: rationalising the suspect's actions, minimising the consequences and deflecting blame. "This is my fault. I know I was rushing you - and this whole week has been crazy," the man told his wife. "But if you think there might have been paper tickets, let me know that and we'll work it out."
"I think I left them on the bedside table," his wife said.
Houston, author of the new book, Get the Truth: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Persuade Anyone to Tell All (St. Martin's Press), isn't suggesting that you treat your nearest and dearest like threats to national security. But he suggests that a modified version of the approach he honed at the CIA can be highly effective.