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The Interrogators: Inside the Secret War Against al Qaeda | 
 enlarge | Authors: Chris Mackey, Greg Miller
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 471408
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.8
ISBN: 0316871125
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.1047
EAN: 9780316871129
ASIN: 0316871125
Publication Date: July 19, 2004
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Product Description
More than 3,000 prisoners in the war on terrorism have been captured, held, and interrogated in Afghanistan alone.But no one knows what transpired in those interactions between prisoner and interrogator-until now. In THE INTERROGATORS, Chris Hogan, the senior interrogator at Bagram Air Base and in Kandahar, where al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were first detained and questioned, lifts the curtain. Soldiers specially trained in the art of interrogation went face-to-face with the enemy. These mental and psychological battles were as grueling, dramatic, and important as any in the war on terrorism. We learn how, under Hogan's command, his small group of 'soldier spies' engineered a breakthrough in interrogation strategy, rewriting techniques and tactics grounded in the Cold War. Hogan reveals the tricks of the trade, and we see how his team-four men and one woman-responded to the pressure and the prisoners. By the time Hogan's group was finished, virtually no prisoner went unbroken. Riveting and illuminating, THE INTERROGATORS is a fascinating work of nonfiction that reads like the most exciting of spy novels. It is the first and only inside account into this world we have never been allowed into and is sure to be one of the most talked about books of 2004.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 True Unsung Heroes July 14, 2008
In addition to being an interesting read, this book is salutary in that it confirmed that the abuses of Abu Ghraib and the other archpelago of U.S run prisoner facilities, far from being useful to intelligence gathering and bringing more "heat" down on the likes of Al Qaeda terrorists, were damaging both to the long and short-term interests of the U.S. It also restored my faith in the professionalism of the average American soldier and intelligence operative, and confirmed that no right thinking operative would have been caught dead condoning such outlaw tactics.
As the author notes in the introduction:
"It may be impossible to grasp fully how destructive [these] actions were - to the reputation of the intelligence corps, to our country, and to the world hoping for better from those who wear the army's uniform."
Later in the book the author raises additional interesting points that make equal good sense: that the more prisoners hate America, the harder they are to break; and the more the populations where Al Qaeda hides out hate us, the less likely its citizens will be in helping to lead us to suspects. But almost equally as important, the book points out that the converse is also true: When the U.S. proves to be more civil than the terrorists indoctrination has led them to expect, the more quickly that indoctrination and their anti-U.S. worldviews break down. And of course once broken down -- whether through benign or hostile methods -- the more willing they will be to assist us.
This point was dramatically drilled home on page 426, when after being "broken," a prisoner responsible for helping to store and transport Ricin (an essential ingredient for chemical weapons) for possible use against the USA was asked why he decided to talk. His answer was that once he realized that hostile questioning was the worse the Americans were going to do, he decided it was time to reconsider which side he was on.
The author makes one other telling point in the book's summary: He disavows the commonly accepted notion that "monstering" does not work, because in fact it does work. As he notes in the epilogue to the book: It should not be used because, in addition to the reasons cited above, it is also wrong; violates international norms of civility; and undermines every value that America stands for.
One can gather from this, and from the subtext of the book that interrogating prisoners is as much a "seat-of-the-pants kind of art" as a science; and thus must of necessity evolve along with the nature of the conflict and the culture of the prisoners interrogated. Although trickery and deceit does often indeed work, the brutal and sadistic tricks popularized in the movies apparently do not, and often are never even tried by the professionals. In the end, the author likens the process to that of finding the correct pieces to put a big jigsaw puzzle together. The advantages almost always goes to the skilful interrogator, in that the prisoner, unlike his interrogator, has no way of knowing what slivers of information he might inadvertently "give up" will be valuable to putting the whole puzzle together.
It is equally true from the subtext of the book that in order for such information to be useful requires not only innovative tricks, developed on the fly, but seamless information processing up through a robust chain of the military and intelligence command. And while the 911 Commission Report demonstrated conclusively that what we have is far from ideal, this book shows in excruciating detail how incompetence at either end of that chain can hurt our efforts at catching and removing the terrorists threat. A litle too much description of scenery, but still a truly great read: Five stars
The Interrogators, a worth book to read and learn from the experiences of another Army. December 20, 2007
I think we should have read this book in the seventies in order to avoid the mistakes in our "dirty war". As we know, some Latin America's countries based the doctrine of counterinsurgency in French Doctrine used in Indochina and Argelia. This doctrine is described in some books, such us Modern Warfare written by Col (Fr) Roger Trinquier. He justified in some ways the use of torture in order to obtain information. When Latin America's armies adopted this doctrine, they didn't give the necessary time to see the effects of it. The interrogation under torture could have obtained information; however, the strategic effects in the long term of the torture were disastrous for the legitimacy of the struggle against communism. Moreover, the torture is immoral and is a crime. Thirty years after the war, torturers and the soldiers, who fought the enemy inside the law, were both equally accused for violation of Human Rights.
After this comments, I'd like to continue with the book, Part one is focused in the training of interrogators in the US Army and the British Army. The differences are, in my point of view very important. The main difference is, meanwhile the US Army is trained to fight against a conventional enemy, the British prepare their people to both conventional and unconventional enemies. This part finished with the terrorist attack of 11/ 9 and the built up of the force to fight in Afghanistan.
In Part II we can read about the first operations of TF 500 at Kandahar. Here is described how the interrogation is developed. This part shows us about the ICE (the interrogation control element), the duties of the interrogators and the reports. Three things I've found remarkable in this part. The first thing is how to break deception techniques. The second is about the screening, its purpose and its differences and relations with the interrogation process and its value to select prisoners by their will to collaborate and their information. And finally, the most interesting thing is about the body language and how to use it to know if the prisoner is telling the truth.
The Part III is about the TF 500 in Bagram. Here the authors explain us how to use the mobile interrogation team to support SF and how we can develop an interrogation plan. One of the best chapters is "How far to go". It suggest us the principle of "you must not handle a POW worst than you handle our own troops, however, you should not give POW advantages against our interrogators". Other useful tools to improve the interrogation process is the use of snitches and rumors or PSYOPS.
The Part IV is about the relief of the interrogators and the newcomers' lack of understanding of the techniques learnt by the TF 500.
The appendix is a very good brief of the approach techniques.
The book was written with humor and is very easy to read. It doesn't have too much acronyms. In my point of view, the most important lesson after I've read this book is that the interrogation is an intelligence duel more than a physical one. Moreover, any physical punishment in the interrogation is not only immoral, is a way to admit the lack of skills of the interrogator.
Good insight into interrogation planning and the limits placed on interrogation November 15, 2007
You should read this book. Provides a very good "day in the life" view into US military interrogations and provides a look at some of the techniques used by the US military to extract information from detainees. It also showcases the careful planning and preparation work that goes on behind the scenes in collecting human intelligence. One of the many other items touched on in this book that I found intriguing was the US military relationship with US "Other Government Agencies" (i.e. CIA) and how painfully disconnected "OGA"s efforts were with Military Intelligence early on in OEF. I recommend this book to anyone that wants a clearer understanding of US military interrogation techniques in the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom and the self imposed limits placed on interrogation techniques by Military Intelligence.
 This Is What It Is Like June 6, 2007
This is the story of military interrotagtors, how they are trained, and what they do in combat. To my knowledge it hasn't been told before. I see this as a pretty reasonable and accurate account -- Chris Mackey is obviously one of the most capable, cleve, and cunning linguists DLI has ever produced.
Dave Taggart (Arabic class 02-78)
The war up close April 4, 2007
A gritty view of the confrontion in Afganistan, eyeball to eyeball
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