Glenn Carle is like myself a former officer in CIA's Directorate of Operations, the author of an informative and courageous book "The Interrogator" and has participated with me in panels dealing with the rationalization of torture by the CIA and sanctioned by the Bush Administration. Carle is an articulate critic of both the necessity and reliability of policies of so-called 'enhanced interrogation' employed against terrorist perpetrators or suspects by our common former CIA employer. In so doing, Carle embodies the permanent values of the Enlightenment as reflected in the Constitution of the United States and the United Nations Convention on Torture.
- Joseph Wippl, Director of Graduate Studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University
Glenn Carle narrated to a packed house at Simmons College last October how the United States had lost its way in the fight against international terrorism. Glenn’s message was both deeply personal, based on his experience as front-line CIA operations officer, and rich in its evaluation of our strategic confusion and ethical failings. It was a riveting talk, but also a profoundly unsettling one. It could not have been more timely given rising hysteria in the US over terrorist threats and bids by some political leaders to play upon and exploit these fears.
- Ambassador (ret) William M. Bellamy, Warburg Professor of International Relations, Simmons College Boston, MA
Glenn Carle provided a sweeping, tour de force presentation on post-9/11 US military and intelligence operations to my undergraduate seminar on the U.S and the Middle East. He drew on his decades of experience and expertise to provide my students with a critical assessment of US policy in the Middle East and how we can learn lessons from the few successes and the many failures of American efforts to “win hearts and minds” and to defeat those who clearly mean us harm. I have had numerous guest speakers in my classes over many years; Glenn’s talk with my students is the only one that ended with a standing ovation. My students loved his talk; they valued his insights; and they clamored for more. He will be back!
- Denis J. Sullivan Professor of Political Science & International Affairs Co-Director, Middle East Center Northeastern University & Director, Boston Consortium for Arab Region Studies (A Carnegie Corporation project)
I've invited Mr. Carle to speak to midshipmen at the US Naval Academy multiple times, both in large and small settings. His story about interrogating the supposed "number 4" in the al Qaeda hierarchy, a man Carle determined to be innocent, is fascinating and harrowing. This is a story I feel every American should hear. Mr. Carle has also spoken about the life of an intelligence officer, insightfully and honestly analyzing the practice of spycraft and freely sharing of his own experiences. Mr. Carle is a dynamic, engaging, and passionate speaker, who kept my students on the edge of their chairs for the 75 minutes class period. During the evening lecture, students packed the lecture hall, sitting in the aisles and standing in the back to hear Mr. Carle. It's an indication of Mr. Carle's magnetism that not a student budged after the standard 45 minutes for an evening lecture had lapsed and many ended up staying an extra two hours to ask questions.
- Michael Skerker, Associate Professor Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law U.S. Naval Academy
Glenn Carle writes with great verve and lyricism about a decidedly unlyrical moment in the history of the U.S. intelligence community; the decision after 9/11 to take the gloves off when it cane to the detention and interrogation of al Qaeda suspects. As Carle witnesses, e U.S. government’s assumptions about how important those suspects were was sometimes way off base, while their treatment at the hands of American officials often did not measure up to the high ethical standards the United States wishes to uphold as a country. Carle tells the story from inside the CIA’s war on terror and he does it with great honesty and realism; he has the eye of the novelist and the analytical skills of the senior CIA officer he was. That makes The Interrogator an engrossing read, and also an important book.
- Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and al-Qaeda
This fascinating insider narrative of GWOT is one of the best assessments I have ever read on the major discrepancy between the jihadi challenge and the US response.
- Gilles Kepel, Professor, Institute of Political Studies, Paris
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, columnist for The Washington Post and author of “Body of Lies”
Glenn Carle shares his personal experience and soul-searching reflection on rendition, detention, and interrogation in the Global War on Terrorism. It is a cathartic effort that recounts an intensely emotional journey. Carle weighs what he sees as the corrosive effect of this experience on him, his Agency, and his country. Ultimately the detainee interrogated may not have suffered most; perhaps it was the interrogator himself.
- John H. Hedley, former Chairman of CIA’s Publications Review Board
In The Interrogator, Glenn Carle has done more than simply lift a part of the curtain behind which are lurking despicable men such as John Yoo and Douglas Feith, he has turned the stage lights on those who stand out front and continue to receive rave reviews from the rabid right wing, men such as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. But most of all, Carle’s moving and emotional story—in spite of CIA redactions to the text—has exposed us all, from the CIA officers who turned a blind eye, to the cabinet members who should have known better, to the American people themselves because they allowed such people to corrupt our nation. I know; I was one of them.
- Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell
Glenn Carle’s book The Interrogator is a disturbing tale of the extremes to which the Bush administration was prepared to go in its Global War on Terror. Faceless bureaucrats sacrificed the core values that made the United States a great country, while ignoring the counsel of experts on the ground. This is a damning story and a nation of laws would demand an investigation into whether crimes were committed. We fear that we are no longer that nation…
- Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson
This haunted, powerful book may well be the best and most truthful firsthand account of life inside the CIA ever published.
- Charles McCarry