Covert interrogation can refer to several

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

techniques. An example is the

covert Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

questioning of a subject in a neutral public place where people innocuously gather, with the intention of the unsuspecting subject not comprehending that the interrogation is occurring. The covert interrogator may present themselves toward an interrogation subject in a friendly manner, while concealing the ulterior motive of subtly questioning them. In this manner,

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

and

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

agencies can collect

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

about various

suspect In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U ...

s, such as criminals and terrorists. Many additional types and techniques of covert interrogation and

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

exist, and covert interrogation can occur for other various reasons, and by other types of actors. The term covert interrogation also refers to interrogation techniques that may be overt in manner, but are hidden from public, media, governmental, and other types of third-party

oversight Oversight may refer to: Governance *Regulation – rulemaking *Separation of powers in state governance (checks and balances) - the concept of separate branches of government or agencies exercising authority over one another *Checks and control ...

, for various reasons.

Devices

When the subject is unaware of it, the

forensic examination Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimina ...

of a subject's mobile phone and records is a type of covert interrogation. This pertains to other devices, such as computers, and modes of communication, such as telephone records.

By country

United States

The United States government has engaged in the covert interrogation, surveillance and deportation of terrorism suspects.

Black site In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. According to the Associated Press, "Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with a ...

covert interrogation facilities created and maintained by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

have existed.

Devices

By country

United States

See also

References

Further reading