The Interrogator

An Education

By: Glenn L. Carle

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

Here are the confessions of a senior CIA operative who ran the interrogation of one of the highest profile al-Qaeda captives. Carle’s journey is a tale of international intrigue, deceit, and betrayal—and an extraordinary and intimate portrait of our war on terror.

To his friends and neighbors, Glenn L. Carle was a wholesome, stereotypical New England Yankee, a former athlete struggling against incipient middle age, someone always with his nose in an abstruse book. But for two decades, Carle broke laws, stole, and lied on a daily basis about nearly everything. He was a CIA spy. He thrived in an environment of duplicity and ambiguity, flourishing in the gray areas of policy.

The Interrogator is the story of Carle’s most serious assignment, when he was “surged” into the global war on terror to interrogate a top level detainee at one of the CIA’s notorious black sites overseas. It tells of his encounter with one of the most senior al-Qaeda detainees the United States captured after 9/11, a “ghost detainee” who, the CIA believed, might hold the key to finding Osama bin Laden.

But as Carle’s interrogation sessions progressed, he began to seriously doubt the operation. Was this man, kidnapped in the Middle East, really the senior al-Qaeda official the CIA believed he was? Headquarters viewed Carle’s misgivings as naïve troublemaking. Carle found himself isolated, progressively at odds with his institution and his orders. He struggled over how far to push the interrogation, wrestling with whether his actions constituted torture and with what defined his real duty to his country. Then, in a dramatic twist, headquarters spirited the detainee and Carle to the CIA’s harshest interrogation facility, a place of darkness and fear, which even CIA officers dared mention only in whispers.

A haunting tale of sadness, confusion, and determination, The Interrogator is a shocking and intimate look at the world of espionage.

©2011 Glenn L. Carle (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“Glenn Carle’s The Interrogator is a remarkable memoir—for its searing personal honesty, for its portrait of the amoral secret bureaucracy of the CIA, and most of all for its revelation of how a decent American became part of a process that we can only call torture.” (David Ignatius, New York Times best-selling author and columnist for the Washington Post)

Good narration of a boring story

I think the author wrote this book for himself to let you know how smart he finds himself (as a Haavaad man) with his idea of relevant quotes before EVERY chapter and righteous he finds himself over the deeds he was apart of committing. His credentials as a former CIA case officer adds no insight to the story as it is only about only one data point— his single case and nothing else

We the author ever stop?

I listened to the entire book. The poor misunderstood author who views himself as a hero of heroes and the savior of the CIA. My god, if he quoted one more obscure quote for I was going to stop reading. This author couldn’t have patted himself any harder or any longer. Ridiculous.

the title of this book should be "Redacted"

After 28 of 40 chapters I gave up on all hope that this book would engage my attention, and force me to finish it. The redactions distracted me from the broader story, and what the interrogator actually achieved, while questioning a high priority detainee.

[Redacted] Too Much!!

The author attempts to convey his story of a CIA officer and his interrogation of a highly placed member of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization and his coming around to the opinion that CIA has actually captured someone of much less importance than they think and the unsuccessful attempts to make headquarters see the error.

This might have made a very interesting book on interrogation and the relationship that evolves as well as giving insight to the Al-Qaeda mindset and modern interrogation techniques in general. However there is an enormous number of redaction's required of the author feels like about a hundred of them. They come fast and furious at the points in the story of most interest to the reader. At times the redactions seem to be done capriciously rather than to truly keep sensitive facts out of the public domain, a point that the author makes himself in several of the comments he makes on redacted passages.

The constant redactions leave the book nearly incoherent and are a constant jarring irritation that leaves the reader with a better understanding of the author's trip through the foreign lands he travels in than of the interrogation itself. I have sympathy for the author and his frustrations with CIA censorship, I feel he has done the best he can and the book he wanted to write would have been a good one, but I can not recommend this book to anyone in it's present form and regret having bought it.

slightly disappointed

I thought there would be more talk about the interrogation but there was entirely to much fluff. not only that I feel like the "redacted" thing was an overkill. to the point where they could have just left it out and the story would have been fine. overall disappointed in the book.

Don’t waste your time

As many have said, the book droned on. I cannot believe how many security incidents this dude had. If I’d had even a fraction of those, the military would have thrown me in jail. This guy can’t even life, let alone spy. No wonder people think the CIA are a bunch of idiots. I highly doubt that all the material that was “redacted” was truly redacted by the CIA itself. I’m willing to bet the author “redacted” his own story in an attempt to make it more interesting. He failed.

Just wanted to bash the CIA

Great Narrator. Horrible Author.

The Author obviously wanted you to know he was always the smartest man in any room he walked into. All you need to know is that he bashes the CIA and all the heroic men and woman who fight for this country in the shadows.

He wants you to believe his moral standards set him above everyone else. A man who's entire career is highlighted by one Interrogation. Unlike the amazing book BLACK OPS by Ric Prado, in which Prado speaks of the Stars engraved in the entry way of the CIA headquarters, paying tribute to the operatives who gave their lives for us, this author speaks down on the agency, its officers and the work that has be done, whether it is pretty or not means nothing.

Please dont waste time or money on this hypocritical and self serving author. Though not perfect, the men and woman of our nations intelligence services are the reason we are able to enjoy the freedoms we have and at a moments notice will lay down their life for ours.

My honest opinion.

This book is interesting in many ways, in many ways it is not, below is my review.

Redacted!

didn't expect this.

great listen.
intriguing,comedic,down to earth and educational
will recommend this to anyone who likes the genre.

Excellent well stated

I am happy I listened to this book. He presents a good case from his experience for living up to the responsibility of the power we have. I learned a lot from this book. I have been listening to a lot of books written by those who lived through our most recent wars, I am glad some one like author wrote from his personal experience.
I also like the narrator. I have heard him read other books. He has a good voice for this kind of book.