In our civil affairs series, we’ve pointed out that HUMINT collection skills, including elicitation, can be assisted by the use of video. As described in a new Leech City post, during a casual conversation with a guest speaker before a city council meeting, we accidentally caught some city official “tells” on video. Only later, after reviewing the video for a different matter, did we notice these signals. An accidental elicitation is as good as a deliberate one. The topic: potentially handing over administration of the cash cow water system to a third party. Because of these tells, we’ll be following this transition very closely.

You can read more about HUMINT and elicitation here, and civil affairs techniques here.