NOTE ON SCREENING – A VERY IMPORTANT PREREQUISITE DURING LOW LEVEL SOURCE OPERATIONS:

Screening

The HUMINT assets deployed to conduct source operations are always exceeded by the number of available prospective sources and documents. Hence screening is of utmost importance and an absolute necessity to determine the right sources who will offer the right information and in another scenario are not enemy agents themselves. Efficient usage of limited HUMINT resources thus becomes feasible.

HUMAN SOURCE SCREENING

Screening is of two types. Human source screening and document screening. In Human source screening it is determined whether the source truly has prioritized information needed by the Commander, meaning whether he does have the required placement and access to the information. A predetermined source-profile is often laid down after ascertaining the intelligence requirements. Screening attempts to locate sources who match this source-profile. Screening also determines whether he has any information useful to any other agency , such as the CI unit and hence is referred to the unit by the HUMINT operative (this is the case in tactical HUMINT units and mobile interrogation teams , which besides being composed of HUMINT assets have a 2-3 CI member team included).It should be remembered that already HUMINT resources are insufficient , and hence a balance should be maintained between employing them for screening and those that conduct interrogation, debriefing and other HUMINT operations. Screening is an integral part to all HUMINT collection operations. While questioning an individual source, a HUMINT collector may switch between screening (finding out general source areas of knowledge) to interrogation, debriefing, or elicitation (finding out

detailed information about a specific topic). Screening is not an information collection technique, it is the evaluation of prospective HUMINT sources but it is very necessary for the collection operations to succeed as it targets those sources that can be exploited best by the HUMNINT agents to extract the prioritized information requirements as per the HUMINT mission or higher headquarters needs. Hence screening should be conducted by personnel who are totally knowledgeable of all HUMINT collection operations , the intelligence requirements as laid down by the collection manager and who are sufficiently matured and experienced to study the source and make well reasoned judgment based on limited information.Yes,to optimize HUMINT assets deployment collection (interrogation,debriefing,elicitation) can be integrated with the screening process but then this slows down the overall tempo of the HUMINT mission.

The purpose of screening is to

•Identify those select individuals among the target audience who have information of potential value and who are willing or can be persuaded to cooperate.

Identify individuals who match certain criteria that indicate them as being potential subjects for source operations or matching the profile for collection by special interest groups such as TECHINT or CI.

During screening certain preliminary criteria are kept into consideration which is indicators of a source possessing potential information of use to the Commander. These criteria include rank, position , gender , appearance and location. Criteria such as occupation may require questioning. Others may be determined simply by observation.

Screening is of prime importance, in fact the most difficult HUMINT task. Only if screening is done properly can HUMINT assets deployed be put to the most efficient use, otherwise time, effort and HUMINT expertise wasted and tactical or mission objectives not attained.HUMINT assets are frequently very few in number compared to the enormous quantity of detainees during an ongoing operation. There can be no room for wastage of these assets or working on wrong/useless information extracted from a poorly screened source. Screening places in the hands of the HUMINT operatives the right sources with the right placement and access to information required. If screening is done incorrectly or without focus , say without the exact collection requirements in mind then what results is a mix of sources with little or absolutely no information. As such screening is of prime importance and requires very trained personnel. They should have long experience, should be aware of local cultures and norms, should be able to understand the psyche of the source, have good assimilation, analytical and questioning skills language capability, and the ability to understand perfectly collection requirements, break them down into all possible indicators and look for source-profiles who can give information relating

to these indicators. The screener should also be able to examine the source carefully and determine if he has any information of use to other intelligence disciplines.

One very important point to be noted here is that screening may have to be executed in a very short span of time, say at the front or near the front during combat operations and where the detained personnel need to be examined very fast for actionable intelligence. Before the HUMINT/CI operatives do that the screener should rapidly segregate and process the detainees. Thus he should be highly skilled in screening. Yes screening and other HUMINT operations like interrogation can be switched to and fro on the same detained personnel group to save time.

SCREENING REQUIREMENTS

As mentioned before screening should be driven by collection requirements. Just like any other HUMINT operation is driven by intelligence requirements. The collection requirements should be very clearly understood by the screener. They should not be vague, but explicitly clear. If not then the screener must extend his faculties and imagination to create indicators from these vague requirements (IR, SIR).Screening is relating the knowledgibility brief of the source with the information requirements and ascertaining how close does it match the latter.

Usually the intelligence officer breaks down the PIRs into SIRs and looks for indicators. If not done yet the screener should be adept in determining the indicators corresponding to the SIRs and these indicators must reflect the anticipated source-profile to identify EPWs and detainees who might possess information pertinent to these indicators. The source must be presented with an enquiry which should be more elaborate or else good selection of sources isn’t possible as the HUMINT operative cannot gauge the knowledge of the source with regard to the intelligence requirement at hand. For example asking the source ‘’Are you aware of any camps of the insurgents in your area’’ won’t be of much help—its vague. The source might not know anything at all of the existence of insurgent camps in his area. But he might very well know that certain elements of dubious nature carrying arms frequently go south towards the remote jungle area, strangers visit his village occasionally and rent homes for few days etc.Hence the HUMINT operative must frame his questions (SIRs).These indicators must relate to source personality, characteristics and types. For example, a refugee probably will not know if the threat intends to defend a particular ridgeline. However, he might know whether or not there are threat forces on the ridge, if an improvised explosive device (lED) is being employed on a route, if they are digging in, or if engineer type equipment is in the area.