Tony Lagouranis joined the army just prior to 9/11 and was tapped to be an interrogator at among other places Abu Ghraib, the notorious prison where the United States’ current unorthodox interrogation methods were first uncovered.

While at first he was enthusiastic about his duties, he soon came to realize that when it came to the extraction of potentially important information pushing the legal envelope was accepted, even encouraged. His recount of the experience is Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator’s Dark Journey Through Iraq. (The title, by the way, is the name of an official tactic designed to terrify prisoners into divulging information.)

Lagouranis talks to Diane Rehm about why he feels the moral and strategic aspects of U.S. interrogation methods have failed and what the ramifications of that might be. Listen to the interview.