cover image The Interrogator: An Education

The Interrogator: An Education

Glenn L. Carle. Nation, $26.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-56858-673-1

Carle, who retired in 2007 after 23 years as a member of the CIA's Clandestine Service, recounts his toughest assignment: interrogating a top-level al-Qaeda detainee at two different overseas locations a year after 9/11. As deputy national intelligence officer for transnational threats, Carle was one of the three most senior officers for terrorism in the intelligence community focused on al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden before 9/11. The detainee, referred to as CAPTUS, was kidnapped off a street in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, and after interrogating him day after day, Carle begins to suspect that the CIA grabbed the wrong man. His colleagues remain unconvinced, and against Carle's recommendation, move CAPTUS to the "Hotel California," a notorious detention facility that holds the most dangerous, recalcitrant suspects. Following CAPTUS to the new location, Carle struggles to figure out how far he should push the interrogation and whether he is now an unwilling witness to torture. Carle captures the spirit of the CIA%E2%80%94its bureaucracy, dedication, machismo%E2%80%94in a voice that manages to be descriptive, analytical, reflective, and philosophical in turn. Despite the CIA's numerous redactions (the author notes that the CAPTUS story is even darker than he can say), the narrative raises pointed, timely, and important questions about the policies of the CIA and the U.S. government as they ramped up the global war on terror. (July)