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The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, To Take Down The Deadliest Man In Iraq
Free Press
December 2008
On Sale: December 2, 2008
304 pages
ISBN: 1416573151
EAN: 9781416573159
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Finding Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in
Iraq, had long been the U.S. military's top priority --
trumping even the search for Osama bin Laden. No brutality
was spared in trying to squeeze intelligence from Zarqawi's
suspected associates. But these "force on force" techniques
yielded exactly nothing, and, in the wake of the Abu Ghraib
scandal, the military rushed a new breed of interrogator to
Iraq. Matthew Alexander, a former criminal investigator and
head of a handpicked interrogation team, gives us the first
inside look at the U.S. military's attempt at more civilized
interrogation techniques -- and their astounding success. The intelligence coup that enabled the June 7, 2006, air
strike on Zarqawi's rural safe house was the result of
several keenly strategized interrogations, none of which
involved torture or even "control" tactics. Matthew and his
team decided instead to get to know their opponents. Who
were these monsters? Who were they working for? What were
they trying to protect? Every day the "gators" matched wits
with a rogues' gallery of suspects brought in by Special
Forces ("door kickers"): egomaniacs, bloodthirsty
adolescents, opportunistic stereo repairmen, Sunni clerics
horrified by the sectarian bloodbath, Al Qaeda fanatics, and
good people in the wrong place at the wrong time. With most
prisoners, negotiation was possible and psychological
manipulation stunningly effective. But Matthew's commitment
to cracking the case with these methods sometimes isolated
his superiors and put his own career at risk. This account is
an unputdownable thriller -- more of a psychological
suspense story than a war memoir. And indeed, the story
reaches far past the current conflict in Iraq with a
reminder that we don't have to become our enemy to defeat
him. Matthew Alexander and his ilk, subtle enough and
flexible enough to adapt to the challenges of modern,
asymmetrical warfare, have proved to be our best weapons
against terrorists all over the world.
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