The FBI interrogator who bluffed al Qaeda detainees into giving up significant intelligence began his career in an unusual way.
Ali Soufan’s fraternity brothers bet him that the agency would never hire a guy like him.
A Lebanese-born American studying international relations at a Pennsylvania college, Soufan had just returned to his frat house after talking with a school official about what he should do with his life. It was 1994. His buddies gave him some good-natured ribbing. They said the agency would mark his application, “return to sender.”
He laughs at the memory, joking that he thought the idea was crazy, too.
