The CIA War in Kurdistan

The Untold Story of the Northern Front in the Iraq War

By: Sam Faddis

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

In 2002, Sam Faddis was named to head a CIA team that would enter Iraq to facilitate the deployment of follow-on conventional military forces numbering more than 40,000 American soldiers. This force, built around the 4th Infantry Division, would, in partnership with Kurdish forces and with the assistance of Turkey, engage Saddam's army in the North as part of a coming invasion. Faddis expected to be on the ground in Iraq within weeks, the entire campaign likely to be over by summer.

The 4th Infantry Division never arrived, nor did any other conventional forces in substantial number. The Turks not only refused to provide support, they worked overtime to prevent the United States from achieving success. And an Arab army that was to assist US forces fell apart before it ever made it to the field.

Alone, hopelessly outnumbered, short on supplies, and threatened by Iraqi assassination teams and Islamic extremists, Faddis' team, working with Kurdish Peshmerga, miraculously paved the way for a brilliant and largely bloodless victory in the North and the fall of Saddam's Iraq. That victory, handed over to Washington and the Department of Defense on a silver platter, was then squandered. The decisions that followed would lead to catastrophic consequences that continue to this day.

©2020 Sam Faddis (P)2020 Tantor

Influencing the Iraq war

This guy was in charge of collecting intelligence for invading Iraq from the north. His team was based in Kurdistan. This is his play by play account of what happened.

Highly Recommended Read

Been there...didn't do what Sam and his team did. Straightforward and very accurate. Sam tells you how it was and pulls no punches. If you read one book this year...read this one!

I Wish I Could Return This Title

This book was a big disappointment.

For starters, the narration by Paul Boehmer is awful, particularly for this kind of book - Boehmer makes Faddis' narrative seem even more arrogant and angry than it already is. After abandoning my first attempt to listen, I managed to finish a second attempt through sheer force of will.

The content of the book itself is of moderate interest, but Faddis' narrative leaves it clear that he's a legend in his own mind. He had all the right answers, never made any mistakes, did everything by the book, and consistently proved himself to be smarter than his seniors. Oddly, though, whenever he actually cites the reasons why his calls were overruled, they all make sense to anyone who knows anything about the bigger picture of what was going on in 2002/'03. In particular, Faddis' criticism of "enhanced interrogation" omits any serious discussion of the very real debates that preceded the use of those methods. By contrast, Marc Thiessen's book Courting Disaster discusses how and why officials ultimately decided to employ these controversial methods. Faddis could have added to that conversation, but didn't.

There's little left to the narrative once you strip Faddis' self-aggrandizement away. The audience learns nothing of substance about Iraq or Kurdistan, or about intelligence methodology, or even about the history of the War on Terror. Faddis' author profile on Amazon says that he dabbles in politics, and I can't help but conclude that the purpose of this memoir was to jump start a political career that has yet to materialize.