Synopses & Reviews
An unprecedented look at the front line of the war against terror: the inside story of five American interrogators, thousands of prisoners, and the race for the truth. 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 Mackey, 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 Mackey's command, his small group of "soldier spies" engineered a breakthrough in interrogation strategy, rewriting techniques and tactics grounded in the Cold War. Mackey 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 Mackey's group was finished, virtually no prisoner went unbroken.
Synopsis
- An eye-opening book that makes an important contribution to the debate over America's treatment of international prisoners and suspected terrorists.- A "Foreign Affairs bestseller.- Chris Mackey supervised all military interrogations conducted at the theater-wide detention facility at Bagram Airbase in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Greg Miller was the only American reporter granted access to US interrogators and document exploitation teams.- Film rights to THE INTERROGATORS have been bought by Warner Brothers.
Synopsis
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 Mackey, 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 Mackey's command, his small group of soldier spies engineered a breakthrough in interrogation strategy, rewriting techniques and tactics grounded in the Cold War.
Mackey 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 Mackey's group was finished, virtually no prisoner went unbroken.
Synopsis
In a narrative that reads like a spy thriller, Chris Mackey takes us inside a small team of American military interrogators confronting an enemy unlike any other they had ever seen--in a war not of missiles and tanks, but of sleeper cells and suicide bombers. Mackey reveals how his team managed to crack some of the hardest cases they encountered, creating highly sophisticated ruses and elaborate trickery to bluff, worry, and confuse their opponents into yielding up precious information. He tells as well of mistakes made: blown interrogations, abuses against prisoners, and failures of American intelligence. THE INTERROGATORS is a riveting memoir that lifts the curtain for the first time on the hidden backstage of Americaís war against terrorism.
About the Author
Chris Mackey joined the army and was assigned to the intelligence corps as an interrogator.