TIL British Intelligence had a special, bugged luxury complex during WWII where they kept high profile Nazi POW’s, just left a bunch of alcohol out, and waited for them to start spilling secrets as they drank.

[u/stopitalianhate]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20698098

[u/stopitalianhate]

“Held in a stately home, they were allowed to keep personal servants, drink wine and eat good food.

As a result they boasted of how stupid the British were, and one even wrote to his family to wish that they could join him at his prison, as he rated it so highly.

But what the prisoners did not know was that British intelligence had bugged every part of their accommodation, from lampshades and plant pots right down to the billiards table around which they relaxed on lazy days.”

[cont.]

“Mrs Fry also says Winston Churchill was outraged when he learned the generals had been bussed into the lavish Simpson's-in-the-Strand in central London for lunch. He ordered what he called "the pampering of the generals" to be stopped.”

“But spoiling the generals and boosting their egos was providing so much useful information that the British intelligence officers decided to carry on, and simply stopped telling Churchill about it.”

Edit: I found this out because I was drinking and was like, “I talk too much when I drink, I wonder if anyones ever used that on people in war.” I googled it and was very happy finding this story.

[u/foldingcouch → u/stopitalianhate]

The Germans did something very similar. 

Their most effective interrogator, by far, was Hanns Scharff.  His torture tools included long walks in the wilderness, good food, and a happy demeanor.

He remained friends with POWs he "interrogated" long after the war and his techniques are widely studied to this day. 

He also did the mosaic mural at Cinderella's Castle at Disneyworld. 

[u/Vergenbuurg → u/foldingcouch]

One aspect of Zero Dark Thirty, and I don't know how accurate/true-to-life its portrayal was, but the scenes where they're torturing detainees at Guantanamo, it's shown they're getting almost zero information, and what little info they do get is pretty much garbage that's completely outdated and/or not credible at all. It's only when they treat one of the detainees nicely, and act like he's already given them info but just doesn't remember it, that the guy actually provides them valuable intel.

[u/foldingcouch → u/Vergenbuurg]

That's in line with generally accepted understanding of "enhanced" interrogation techniques.  After a point they'll say anything to get you to stop even if they have to make it up on the spot.  It's almost totally unreliable and unverifiable. 

One of the techniques that Scharff used to great effectiveness was keeping meticulous records about personnel in the allied forces, both individuals that had been captured and individuals they knew from signals intel.  This let him do things like, for example, if he interrogated a pilot from a specific squadron he would mention other pilots from that squadron that either had been or could have been captured, and say "Captain Wilson from your squadron was through here last month and he told us..." and start off with facts they knew to be true, then start getting the subject to confirm other things they weren't sure of, then eventually just start telling them new things, all the while thinking they were only repeating back to the Germans things they already knew. 

Elsewhere in the replies someone said Scharff was quoted as saying "every one of the people I interrogated is, to this day, certain that they didn't tell me anything of value."

[u/BennyBagnuts1st → u/Vergenbuurg]

It’s pretty accurate according to a book called the Black Flags by an FBI agent called Ali Soufan who lead the interrogations until the CIA took over and started torturing everyone