Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey Through Iraq (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Allen Mikaelian (Author) "We'd been at our jumping-off point in Kuwait for three weeks, waiting and stewing in unbearable anticipation while the desert rain poured into our tents,..." (more)
Key Phrases: interrogation booth, hard site, stress positions, Abu Ghraib, Abu Chraib, North Babel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Written with bestselling military writer Allen Mikaelian, this is a developed version of a story widely available in the media and on the Internet. Lagouranis became a central figure to Iraq war opponents by describing his role as an army interrogator at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Official policy may have stressed observing the Geneva Conventions, but in the field and out of sight, he says, the policy rapidly became "anything goes." "Fear up harsh" in principle meant verbally intimidating a prisoner, but came to include sleep deprivation, induced hypothermia and binding, with all levels of command complicit. Convinced such methods did not work and disturbed by his own behavior, Lagouranis felt "the feeble voice of my deeply suppressed morality trying to be heard." Increasingly identifying with prisoners, he began interpreting the war as corrupting and brutalizing of the institutions and individuals involved. On returning to the U.S., Lagouranis had intensifying stress reactions that prompted him to go public about the way the war had led him to "discover and indulge my own evil." To date, his moving account has been accepted rather than investigated [...] (June)
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Review

"A brave, forthright and much needed account of the often-ignored tragedies beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib."
-Rory Kennedy, Director/Producer, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

"A must read...Compelling, profound, important and terrifying."
-John D. Huston, RADM, JAGC, USN (ret.)
Judge Advocate General of the Navy (1997-2000) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: NAL Hardcover; 1 edition (June 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451221125
• ISBN-13: 978-0451221124
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #833,489 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Interrogator Looks Back, June 6, 2007

By	S. Annand (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was lucky enough to have seen Tony when he spoke on June 6th. I had also heard him on the Diane Rehm show the day before.

I know plenty of people will disagree with Tony's perception of what constitutes "torture." But don't be fooled by the usual rhetoric of 'I saw worse fraternity initiations" or "they cut off heads and that is REAL torture." Regarding the Geneva Conventions, there is a difference between "violation" and "grave breach." As an example I saw when I went to see Dr. Gary Solis (a Viet vet and retired colonel), if you slap somebody that is assault; if you punch them in the mouth that is assault too. The difference is severity, which would be reflected in the punishment.

Tony details how he went to the Defense Language Institute in order to learn Arabic, which was all pre-9/11. He was sent to AIT for training as an interrogator. As he stated today, he could not be signals intercept due to the fact he had outstanding student loans and would not qualify for the necessary Top Secret clearance.

His training as an interrogator stressed the Geneva Conventions and what they could and could not do. When he got to Iraq, however, all that went out the window. There were different new rules written for interrogators in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo. Putting prisoners in stress positions and inducing hypothermia were deemed illegal during his training, but now they were informed that that did not now consitute "torture," and anything up to organ failure was okay.

Tony details how soldiers acted differently in his different assignments. He stated that at Mosul interrogators got ideas from watching movies, which was all nonsense. When he got to Abu Ghraib, the scandal had already hit and things were changed. His most ghoulish experience was when he was sent to Fallujah, during the battle, in order to evaluate the personal items with the insurgents who were killed. He examined the effects on over 500 bodies, a process that gave him nightmares.

Tony makes the point that all studies, even by the CIA, noted that torture does not provide real and reliable "actional intelligence." They will say anything to make it stop, essentially lie, and may even clam up. Building a "relationship" takes time and a good interrogator--a real pro so to say.

Tony stated at the lecture he would either like to go to law school in order to study human rights, or even just to work with human rights organizations. I think the most important lesson to come away with from this book is that some people know the difference between right and wrong, and some people obviously do not.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Torture exposed to a national audience., June 8, 2007

By	Preston C. Enright (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I heard Tony Lagouranis on the Alan Colmes Show last night. He's an incredibly courageous and well-spoken person. I was so impressed, I immediately ordered his book, as did many others judging from the way it shot up on the Amazon ranking overnight.
Obviously, I haven't yet read the book, but from what I gathered during the Colmes interview (which was challenging, yet respectful), this book is a must read. Surprisingly, all the people who called in to speak with Lagouranis thanked him for his effort. Usually, Colmes has an army of those who have been "Hannitized" ready to call in and harangue Alan or other people who dare to question elite corporatism and militarism. They had nothing to say to Tony. Alan himself was so struck by what Tony said, that he was talking about the issue long after his guest had left the studio.
People can also find Lagouranis in the excellent docementary on US torture Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

"Every government explains its existence and justifies all its violence on the ground that if it were not there, things would be worse. Having convinced the people that they are in danger, the governments dominate them. And when peoples are dominated by governments, the latter compel them to attack each other. And in this way, a belief in the governments' assurance of the danger of attacks by other nations is confirmed among the peoples.
Divide and conquer." -Leo Tolstoy, "Christianity and Patriotism"

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book should be mandatory reading for any American, June 9, 2007

By	carey (new orleans) - See all my reviews

This is a searing memoir, the story of one man's struggle to retain his humanity and sanity in the midst of the often irrational circumstances of the US/Iraq War.
Lagouranis, an educated enlistee turned Army interrogator, has a unique take on the US failure to understand the Iraqi population. Lagouranis is no cut-and-run liberal - he's a thoughtful narrator and an informed gide through the quagmire that is Iraq.