Spot the Lie

We can all picture the scene in our minds the sweaty man in a dark room hooked up to various wires and complex machinery with a man asking him questions and making marks when he flinches or a man strapped into a chair in a dank and musty room being force-fed truth serum in order to get him to spill his guts about the nuclear codes or something or other. These pop culture references are frequently used in movies and TV shows for a good reason humans have gone to great lengths over history to be able to determine when a person is lying and telling the truth, and spoiler alert, there is no piece of technology on the planet that can actually determine if a person is lying. It doesn't matter how many YouTube videos you watch or what training courses you go to, even the most accurate polygraph machines and deception detection processes that are used by counterintelligence agencies all over the world can't actually determine if a person is lying. Sure, they can measure other things and use different metrics to see if a person- person might be lying, but the quest for definitively finding a way to determine if a person is lying is far from over. As such, there are countless ways and millio e lying, but the quest for definitively finding a way to determine if a person is lying is far from over. As such, there are countless ways and millions of little tricks that one can use to help determine if a person is lying or if your information source is trustworthy. In fact, a lot of time, money, and resources has been spent over the past century by nations around the world in order to develop what we now know as HUMINT, or human intelligence, intelligence that is derived from humans. HUMINT is a very large sub- And it would take years to be able to teach this topic with any accuracy, and much less covered in a 5 min video. But there are some tips and tricks that you can use to determine if a person who you seek to get information from is a reliable source, or if they're lying to you. One of the very 1st things to consider when a person tells you a piece of information is why? Why is this person, company, or entity telling you this information? Is it because they expect you to take action? Or because they want you to think a certain way about something? Or because they're trying to Make decisions. Why is it that they're telling you this information? One of the most common blun ain way about something? Or because they're trying to Make decisions. Why is it that they're telling you this information? One of the most common blunders in the human world is when a military human analyst or caseworker would go and speak to a local farmer in, say, Iraq, and that farmer would tell the analyst that their neighbor is ISIS or Al Qaeda or whatever. Well, a lot of times the farmer would say this because he wanted the US to drop bombs on his neighbor's farm and kill him so he could corner the market. And this sentiment rings true even today. So the motivation behind telling a piece of information is very vital to consider. Another consideration that must be made is whether or not the person even had access to the information that they are telling you. A classic example of this is the former service member or retired general who gets on some TV show or news channel and says that this X Y Z event happened, whatever random event. Well, if that person no longer works for that entity and therefore no longer has access, how could they possibly know that information? A person who claims to have 1st - First hand knowledge of something but cannot possibly have been in a position d they possibly know that information? A person who claims to have 1st - First hand knowledge of something but cannot possibly have been in a position to know that information must always be viewed with skepticism. A person's personal life must also be weighed quite heavily as well when determining the trustworthiness or truthfulness of a person or piece of information. Is the person or source a stable person? Do they drink heavily or do they like to frequent unscrupulous establishments? Do they tend to take a lot of unnecessary risk, such as compulsively gambling? Are they in debt or beholden to anyone? Because of this debt, and therefore would have a motivation to lie, or is their family life a little bit rocky and vulnerable, such as going through a rough or bitter divorce? All of these questions are potential indicators for deception opportunities. It doesn't necessarily guarantee that there's a lie going on, but it is something to consider. Another set of indicators relies on a person's history. Have they been a reliable source of information before, or are they a known liar who just seeks to tell you information to get money or fulfill some other goal? Are they reliable, prov f information before, or are they a known liar who just seeks to tell you information to get money or fulfill some other goal? Are they reliable, providing intelligence in a timely? Family manner. One personal story on this topic that is extremely common in the intelligence world is the source who comes to you with information about a bad guy living in this particular building, but he would come in to share this information after the building had already been bombed, and he, who lived across town, could pretend that he didn't know anything about the airstrike, so he could still pass go and collect his $200 . Well, after a while, everyone else but the idiot human analyst started to notice that this particular source reported real and genuine intelligence on where the bad guy was. As were living, but only after the United States had bombed them, and he did this every time, so he had a nice little racket going on for a while. He would become aware of an airstrike on a particular morning, and that same day he would go in with valuable intel to sell to his handler, who obviously didn't track when or where air airstrikes were occurring, that wasn't his department, he was a human guy, rig el to sell to his handler, who obviously didn't track when or where air airstrikes were occurring, that wasn't his department, he was a human guy, right? So when he would go in to check and corroborate this guy's information, like trying to find if there's any other sources on this particular building, yeah, sure Reports about this same building and this same bad guy, the real reports that resulted in the target getting struck in the 1st place, so the case officer would then say, "Well, he's a reliable source. Look at all this other intel we got on the same target. Pay the man, right? " It was only after paying out about 50000 US dollars did somebody say, "Wait, hang on a minute, this guy hasn't actually told us anything@all.So all of these indicators go together in order to determine if a person is telling the truth. " But like I mentioned before, this topic Really complicated really quickly. Sometimes sources change over time. People get on the train of providing information for a profit or in the media world for notoriety and ad revenue, that they start out as good and reliable sources of information, but they become more unreliable over time. But then again, we have to be caref venue, that they start out as good and reliable sources of information, but they become more unreliable over time. But then again, we have to be careful of overhandling the information source. People are human, humans make mistakes and certainly aren't perfect. Sometimes you've got a good source that suddenly has a spot of trouble in, in his or her family life. That doesn't mean that you should immediately discount Not everything they say, not@all.Things happen. But if this source starts drinking heavily and gambling and starts getting a lot of speeding tickets and showing up late to work, well, this is a lot of little things that on their own wouldn't necessarily be a huge deal, but combined together, and this source loses a lot of credibility very quickly. And sometimes you have a single event that is the deal breaker when it comes to intelligence, such as family or marital status. It is quite hilarious that a media corporation can hire the brother of a sitting governor and actually expect people to- To believe them as a corporation. That alone is enough to burn a source before they can even tell you anything. You could also have a source that is a confirmed liar and is well know . That alone is enough to burn a source before they can even tell you anything. You could also have a source that is a confirmed liar and is well known for either lying to get money or maybe even being a double agent so to speak and working for the enemy. Well, you could still use this source to get information if you handle it carefully by listening to what he doesn't say. Like for instance, you could have an information source that is confirmed to be working for, let's say, the Taliban. So you bring him in and he willingly tells you where the Taliban are hiding Well, since he's working for them, and you know this, you know that this is a lie. So if he says, "Hey, the Taliban will be at this house on this day, " well, you know that they won't be there@all.But they'll also most likely have intelligence operatives of their own stationed nearby to see what the US soldiers are going to do, and to confirm that their double agent is telling the truth, that he in fact did tell the Americans about this particular building. So even if you have a confirmed liar, or even an informational source that is a complete adversary, Where to go next and use this information to get indicators for furt e a confirmed liar, or even an informational source that is a complete adversary, Where to go next and use this information to get indicators for further research, like for instance, the u s mainstream media. Nowadays, we get a lot of information from mainstream media based solely on what they refuse to report on. At this point in early 20 twenty-one, you can almost be certain that if the u s mainstream media reports on some event, it most certainly didn't go down the way that the media said it did. In fact, you could almost assume that the exact opposite of the event occurred and not be too far off from the truth. So using this handful of kindergarten- level human and counterintelligence tips, you can see why mainstream media is at this day and age guaranteed to not tell the truth. Actually, somewhat depressingly, if you use the criteria in this video as a yardstick for measuring any piece of information that you hear or see in today's world, it would be almost impossible to find any real or genuine information in the world that can be relied upon to make decisions. But that's a problem for another day. Today, we're just hoping to get the gears turning and the synapses firing to e be relied upon to make decisions. But that's a problem for another day. Today, we're just hoping to get the gears turning and the synapses firing to enable everyone to be just a little bit more careful. capable of spotting a lie and determining a good source of information, and right now at the height of an information war, we can certainly use all the help we can get.