The U.S. is studying the technique of a master Nazi interrogator in the hopes it can be used to pry information from terror suspects, the
Los Angeles Times reports.
For years, government officials have been looking at how master manipulator Hanns Scharff gained secret details from U.S. soldiers, according to the newspaper, which added it was not through cold-blooded Gestapo-like tactics.
"He told meandering stories, took detainees on long strolls in the countryside and left them alone in his office to read the U.S. military newspaper, Stars and Stripes," the Times reported. "He provided hard-to-find cigarettes and even let one captured U.S. pilot take a short flight in a German fighter plane.
"But all the while, without them even knowing, he was swiping their secrets."
U.S. government officials have come under fire for torturing suspects to gain information, the newspaper notes.
Now the focus has shifted to see if Scharff's techniques would be better.
Scharff, who died in 1992, claimed he interrogated more than 500 U.S. and allied pilots and came away with valuable information from all but 20 of them.
According to Newsweek, Scharff's ability to gain information was very effective.
"Scharff subtly convinced prisoners that he knew everything about them; the prisoners, in turn, would feel there was no point in hiding information," Newsweek reports.
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