Enhanced Interrogation: Inside the Minds and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists Trying To Destroy America Hardcover – November 29, 2016

As a Navspecwar operator who as been waterboarded and trained in counter interrogation I say to who may read this will seriously ask themselves" Will we ever win the War on Terror." Men like Mitchell should be hailed as American patriots, and not scapegoats for the squeamish politicians who have not the will or knowledge to meet this twenty-first century threat. This book should be in the hands of anyone who wants to have a non-political correct history on the interrogation methods used in the early years of the WOT.

This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the current threat of radical Islamic terrorism. Dr. Mitchell designed the enhanced interrogation program that elicited critical information to help prevent follow-on attacks to the 9/11 mass murders and capture high value targets. The 2014 Feinstein Senate report was a calculated political document, and Dr. Mitchell finally provides, as the late Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story." The methods that Dr. Mitchell recommended for use on the high-value terrorists were used on me and thousands of my fellow resistance trainees throughout the years. If the terrorists were tortured, then so were we. Nope, there was no condoned torture of anyone. They got no worse than what many military members get in training.

More importantly, Dr. Mitchell provides valuable insights into the terrorists' mindset. The radical Islamists are incredibly scary, evil people who believe that they are specially chosen by Allah to slaughter you and your family if you don't believe like them. Don't take my word for it - Dr. Mitchell relates these mass-murderers' own words.

Having interfaced with the CIA during my career, I can personally vouch for Dr. Mitchell's characterization of the organization, including the high quality of the working-level analysts and the political timidity of the senior leadership. Dr. Mitchell does not exaggerate these accounts.

Learn the truth about radical Islamic terrorists and the methods that successfully elicited critical information from these fanatics. Read this book.

This book is a must read. Full disclosure I know James Mitchell. I interviewed him before his book came out. Even though I know him, I have been looking forward to this book for a long time. First of all, Mitchell was at the very very tip of the spear. He wasnt in the back halls in Washington making academic decisions, he was on the front lines. His book is rare insight into what it means to have to grapple with whats right with whats necessary. There is a tendency to vilify or praise Mitchell depending on what camp someone is in politically. But the truth is Mitchell is vastly more complex, erudite, and thoughtful, and patriotic then any partisan analysis of him. He reported other interrogators for going over the line. He also interrogated himself. He is brutally honest about what works and what doesnt. This book should be mandatory reading for any frontline combatant, law enforcement officer, and national security professional. And now, as Enhanced Interrogation is going to be debated in the public arena again, its probably important to hear from the guy who knows about it firsthand. The entire body of real world knowledge of the Enhanced Interrogation Program is in James Mitchell's head, and now on these pages. If we are going to have an informed debate about the topic, we ought to at least understand the man who knows more than anyone.

I purchased this book because I had seen the writer interviewed, and I wanted to know more about "enhanced interrogation"---particularly "waterboarding"--- as well as the other means by which Islamic terrorists were coerced to reveal actionable information to their American and native interrogators. I also wanted to understand the minds of the jihadists he and his team interrogated. This book more than met my expectations. The author, James Mitchell, is a former military clinical psychologist and government contractor who developed and trained U.S. Special Forces members to withstand interrogation if captured by an enemy. He himself went through the program he devised. He was in private practice when, after 9/11, he was asked by the CIA to lead the interrogation of high-value Islamic terrorists, members of Al Qa'ida involved in those and other acts of terror. Among them were Abu Zubaydah (contact for the shoe bomber), Kalid Sheik Mohammed (mastermind of the 9/11 attacks), Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Ali Abdul ,,,bin al-shibh (the financier for 9/11) and others whose information eventually led U.S. intelligence to bin Laden.

The techniques used to elicit information from hardened Islamic jihadists were built on decades of experience in clinical psychology and practice in this particular job. Sleep deprivation, music, serving the same meal everyday and similar techniques were mixed with a lot of benign interviews which sometimes produced information, often because the jihadist denied something that others had confirmed. But the practice that produced the information that saved the U.S. from a second round of attacks like 9/11 and led to bin Laden was waterboarding, which was nothing like I had imagined, and was carried out sometimes for seconds only and with a medical team and outside psychologist present in addition to members of FBI and CIA. The results were not immediate in any case. Rather it was the fear of follow-up sessions that led these men who gloried in the deaths of women and children on 9/11 to give up critical information. When waterboarding was forbidden, interrogation became almost pointless, for no significant information resulted.

Anyone who labors under the belief that the U.S. can avoid war with Islamic terrorists will be disabused by the conversations Mitchell reports with these men and their explications of Islam. Most explicit was KSM, who had a degree in mechanical engineering from a university in North Carolina, had worked as an engineer in a water-treatment plant in Qutar, and revealed a method for poisoning water supplies that did not involve dumping poison in reservoirs. His nephew was Ramsi Yousef, responsible for the first Word Trade Center bombing. KSM said no one in Al-Qa'ida expected the buildings to collapse. When the buildings fell, KSM thought of the thousands of infidels he was sacrificing for Allah and rejoiced, praising Allah and dancing with others in the street. The mujahideen, the women, and the children---all rejoiced and celebrated with meals of mutton and treats. Allah, he said, had knocked down those buildings to show how powerful he was and to call all Muslims to jihad and make the infidels cower. He already had a second wave of attacks in the early stages of preparation. Moreover, he had people on the ground throughout the U.S. with follow-up attacks to harass and distract law enforcement until the larger attack could be launched.

One thing stopped that second attack: President George Bush. KSM and Al-Qu'ida assumed the U.S. would treat the 9/11 attacks the way they had treated earlier embassy attacks and the "Cole" bombing---as a law enforcement matter. The FBI would investigate by focusing on past crimes. Then the government woud ask the Taliban government in Afghanistan to extradite al-Qu'ida members. The Taliban would refuse, and al Qu'ida would have time to launch the scheduled next wave of attacks on the U.S. homeland. "How was I supposed to know that cowboy George Bush would announce he wanted us 'DEAD or ALIVE' and then invade Afghanistan to hunt us down?" he demanded of Mitchell. The ferocity and swiftness of George Bush's response alone prevented the next wave, which among other things included poisoning or contaminating water supplies serving heavily populated areas.

KSM also told interrogators that while major acts of terror were good, the "practical" way to defeat America was through immigration and by outbreeding non-Muslims. He said jihadi-minded brothers would immigrate into the U.S., taking advantage of the welfare system to support themselves while they spread their message. "They will wrap themselves in America's rights and laws for protection, ratchet up acceptance of Sharia law, and when they were strong enough, rise up and violently impose Sharia from within."

KSM also told Mitchell that the press and weak-minded citizens would turn against the interrogation team and thus make getting information in the future impossible. He was right about the first part, anyway.

I knew, in theory, the implacable nature of Islam, but Mitchell's clear explication of it and his use of the words of its warriors made it clearer to me. Truce is not an option for the Islamist. The Islamist is a missionary warrior: he cannot rest until all infidels are killed or subdued. Peace occurs when the world is Islamic. And all Muslims can be jihadis (Mitchell explains the 4 kinds of jihad, one of them being immigration).

I came away from this book much better informed, with a more concrete understanding of the religion that drives Islamists. I also found the explanation of the interrogation process enlightening and interesting. The book is highly readable and I recommend it highly.