How to Break a Terrorist The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq

by Alexander, Matthew; Bruning, John R.; Bowden, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780312675110
• ISBN10: 0312675119
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-19
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Summary

Finding Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, had long been the U.S. military's top prioritytrumping 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 techniquesand their astounding success.Matthew and his team decided to get to know their opponents. Who were these monsters? Who were they working for? Every day the "'gators" matched wits with a rogues' gallery of suspects brought in by Special Forces: 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.This account is an unputdownable thrillermore of a psychological suspense story than a war memoirand a reminder that we don't have to become our enemy to defeat him.

Author Biography

Matthew Alexander has served for more than eighteen years in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves. He has personally conducted more than three hundred interrogations and supervised more than a thousand. He is the author of Kill or Capture. John R. Bruning is the author or coauthor of eight books, including Mouse to House by David Bellavia.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. xiii
Prologue The Golden Dome	p. 1
The 'Gator Pit	p. 17
The Skeleton	p. 29
The Jovial Imam	p. 40
Love of Family	p. 44
The Convenient Car Bomb	p. 50
The Burning House	p. 61
Coming Into Focus	p. 69
Fractures	p. 73
The Other Side of the House	p. 84
The Group of Five	p. 88
The Second Wife	p. 106
A Life for Redemption	p. 121
Preacher of Hate	p. 140
The Blue BMW	p. 149
The Devil's Choice	p. 160
Going in Circles	p. 169
Cat and Mouse	p. 173
The Leader	p. 178
Fault Lines	p. 183
The Eyes of Fatima	p. 192
The Return to the Other Side of the House	p. 201
Terrorist Follies	p. 203
The Media Man	p. 212
A Visit from the Boss	p. 219
A Slip	p. 222
Dice Boll	p. 229
A Single, Empty Hand	p. 223
Six Hours	p. 241
The Duel	p. 248
A Chance for Unity	p. 258
Treason	p. 262
The Secret Deal	p. 266
Stasis	p. 271
The Unknown Imam	p. 275
The Seventh of June	p. 277
Epilogue: Killing the Hydra	p. 280
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.