Sarah Carlson is the author of a new book, In the Dark of War: A CIA Officer’s Inside Account of the U.S. Evacuation from Libya based in part, on her time working as a Targeting Analyst in CIA's Counterterrorism Center. Carlson specialized in threats and attack plans directed against the U.S. and Europe and completed multiple rotations with CIA's Directorate of Operations. Follow her on Twitter @smcarls1
The Cipher Brief caught up with Carlson recently to talk about her book and the reason why she wrote it. Our conversation has been edited for length.
The Cipher Brief: Your book centers on your time working as an analyst in Libya. You were there six years ago, when the U.S. mission was evacuated. How long had you been thinking about writing a book about that experience, and what made you decide to do it?
Carlson: I started writing about what happened very soon after we evacuated, and that was actually done at the advice of a former CIA chief. Their recommendation was just to write down some of the key points that happened in case I was ever called to testify, so I wrote down just very general details, but the more I wrote, the more I wanted to write and really tell the story properly.
The Cipher Brief: Let’s set the scene. Your story begins a few months after the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith and two GRS officers, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. That doesn’t seem like a good time to be landing on the ground as a new CIA analyst in the country.
Carlson: I got there a few months later, in July 2013, and the country continued to devolve. We watched as it happened, with these deepening divisions between some of the militias that ended up forming two sides. That's when the civil war started, and we were caught in the middle. It's really about how that evolution happened and how we ultimately had to make our escape.
The Cipher Brief: An emergency destruction of a CIA facility is not something that happens every day. What was it like to go through that? There must have been an incredible feeling of imminent danger. Walk us through that on both an emotional and professional level.
Carlson: On an emotional level, it was very scary. I feel like it was a little bit different for me. I didn't have time to feel scared in the moment, so I was just doing it. You just go into automatic mode, but it was quite scary. The bombing campaign was still going on and in the background you could hear the constant rocket impacts and then small arms fire and heavy arms fire. The actual destruction was very much like you might see in the movies. We shredded every piece of paper in the place. We pulled hard drives. We started these two huge fire pits and everything went into the fire.
The Cipher Brief: How long had you been an analyst when this happened?
Carlson: In total, I served about 12 and a half years. At that point, I was 10 or 11 years in.
The Cipher Brief: And you had spent time overseas before, right?
Carlson: Yes, I actually served in Iraq. I deployed there with the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2003. So, I sort of started my career in a war zone and then ended with Libya.
The Cipher Brief: How did you find your passion for this? Is it something you'd always wanted, or did you stumble into it?
Carlson: 9/11 happened during my senior year in college. I was interning for emergency management at the time, and I knew in that moment I wanted to do something bigger and I wanted to do counterterrorism. I was raised by my mother, who had a passion for service. She wanted us to serve in some capacity. I have three brothers; they all joined the military. I come from a very strong military family background, so service has always been really important. After 9/11, I knew I needed to do something bigger to serve, to protect, and I applied to DIA and was able to get that position. I did that for about five years before I went to CIA.
The Cipher Brief: And when you look at what's happening now in Libya, what do you think?
Carlson: It's very disheartening to see that the fighting is still going on. A lot of times it's still the same names in the news. It's still Haftar, and it's discouraging, especially when, as reported in the news, we know that there were slave markets and slave trading going on, sex trafficking was increasing. It's just tragic. And to know that continued to devolve after we left… that's been hard to read about.
The Cipher Brief: How did you cope with all of those things when you were there?
Carlson: I focused on my job. From the time I woke up in the morning until the time I went to bed, I was reading about Libya. Researching. Thinking about it. I say in the book that I lived and breathed Libya. That was my entire focus. I still engaged with the other people and tried to have fun, because it was still my life, but I didn't really have time to feel anything or process anything. That ended up coming later.
Libya was also different than other war zones because we didn't have a large U.S. military presence. We had a similar concern after the Benghazi attacks, which was how long it would take somebody to come in to help us if we needed it. While we were there, it very much felt like we were on our own. We didn't have enough security. It was quite an isolating feeling, and we also knew we couldn't rely on the Libyan government, which didn't really have a functioning security force. We, actually very similarly to in Benghazi, relied on the militia for our outer security. I actually wrote notes on what they encountered in the lead up to the Benghazi attacks and used them as signposts or benchmarks to monitor for in Tripoli the next year, so that I could identify if we might be headed in that same direction or if we might encounter something similar. We did every single one of those things in the lead up to it, within the first few months of being there. We were quite worried that there could be another attack like that, and we were preparing for it and ready for it as much as you can be every minute of every day.
The Cipher Brief: How much time did you have between your time there as an analyst and knowing everything about Libya to being under the gun and in the middle of the tactical operations to help get people out? What was that like?
Carlson: It was incredibly unexpected, and it was quite scary. We were stuck there for about two weeks as the civil war broke out. There were hundreds of rockets coming in every day. Some people did not handle it well and fell apart. Those of us who didn't were asked to go above and beyond what we'd ever been asked to do before. I wasn't unprepared for it. I knew I could do it, but it was not expected in any way.
There's another moment I describe in the book when there weren't any Arabic linguists in the room, and I was at the embassy, and we were getting hit with indirect fire. And so, they called a militia commander, and I had to talk to him in Arabic and ask them to stop bombing the embassy. How can you really prepare for that? But then also, how can you not do it when you're asked and called upon to do something like that? I could feel the gravity of the situation even in the moment.
The Cipher Brief: What do you hope that people will walk away with when they read your book?
Carlson: I'm hoping that people will realize that there are still officers risking their lives and doing this incredible work overseas. And even though we're not hearing about it as much anymore because we don't hear as much about Afghanistan or Iraq or other countries where there are people risking their lives, but it's incredibly important and the mission is important, and I want their lives to matter. I want their work to matter and for them to know it.
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