Fear up harsh : an Army interrogator's dark journey through Iraq

Author / Creator

Lagouranis, Tony

Available as

Physical

Summary

""Something really bad happened here." So began army interrogator Tony Lagouranis's first briefing at Abu Ghraib. Lagouranis, who joined the army prior to September 11, 2001, had been looking for a...

""Something really bad happened here." So began army interrogator Tony Lagouranis's first briefing at Abu Ghraib. Lagouranis, who joined the army prior to September 11, 2001, had been looking for a chance to learn Arabic and do something meaningful with his life. When the U.S. went to war with Iraq, he was tapped to be an interrogator in places like Abu Ghraib, Mosul, North Babel, and Fallujah. But he never imagined his language skills would lead him down a path toward torture." "From the outset, Lagouranis's training stressed the rules of the Geneva Conventions. But once he arrived in Iraq, he discovered that pushing the legal limits of interrogation was encouraged. Under orders, he - along with countless other soldiers - abused and terrorized dozens of Iraqis by adding "enhancements" to "Fear Up Harsh," an official tactic designed to frighten prisoners into revealing information. Lagouranis used dogs, hypothermia, and other techniques; he saw others do far worse. Bombarded by mortar fire, pressured to extract information from disoriented and often innocent Iraqis, and stunned by his own routine brutality, Lagouranis was quickly forced to confront his own darkest impulses." "This is a firsthand account of how one man struggled with his own conscience and ultimately broke the silence surrounding interrogation practices. The first army interrogator to publicly step forward and denounce these tactics, Lagouranis portrays the inhumanity of what went on in Iraqi prisons - and their ineffectiveness in gathering any real intelligence - and raises crucial questions about American conduct abroad."--BOOK JACKET.

Show More