to what I was saying. But the bottom line was the same: Saddam was missing. And no one in that room seemed willing to follow the clues that I was laying out.
But it turned out that there was one person who had been paying very close attention. After I had finished the briefing and the analysts had asked a few halfhearted questions, Colonel Walker took me aside. “That was impressive,” he said and I felt a flicker of hope. Maybe I’d gotten through after all, and to someone whose opinion counted. “Tomorrow you’re going to give the same briefing to Admiral McCraven. Do you know the admiral, Sergeant Maddox?”
“I know he is currently the task force commander, sir,” I replied, not quite believing what I was hearing.
“That’s right,” Colonel Walker said.
I had never spoken to anyone before with a star on his epaulet. Now suddenly I was being asked to meet with the man who oversaw the most elite military unit in the world. My last days in Iraq had taken an unexpected turn. It wasn’t over, I reminded myself, until it was over.
“In the meantime,” the colonel continued, “I want you to sit down with an analyst and go over your link diagram in complete detail. I don’t want to lose this information when you go home. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.” Not only was it understood. It was deeply appreciated.
Chapter 17
THE ZONE
I was looking forward to briefing the head of the task force. If I could convince him that my theory of the insurgency leadership was right, maybe the work we had done in Tikrit would continue.
Colonel Walker’s response had been encouraging. But I had my doubts that anyone else could really step into my role in the mission. It wasn’t that I thought I was indispensable. What was indispensable was the information I had put together over the last five months. It didn’t matter how many briefings I gave to analysts. There was no way I could effectively pass on that information on. Not in the time I had left.
I was still hoping to hear from Walt about the raid on Muhammad Khudayr’s uncle’s house in Baghdad. It seemed like this was the last best chance we would have of rolling up the two Muhammads. But by the morning of December 12, two days before I was scheduled to fly home, I had received no word from him. I knew that he understood the importance of capturing Muhammad Ibrahim. I just wasn’t sure how committed he was to pushing for a hit that seemed like such a long shot.
The situation had changed radically since I left Tikrit. There the decision to go on a raid was made only by Bam Bam. It was based on his belief in the intelligence I provided. We had a great working relationship. There was no formal reprimand if a hit turned up a dry hole. But there was always the potential for other, more serious, consequences. If I sent the team out on too many bad hits, it would reflect on my reputation and credibility with the whole team. Maintaining their confidence had been one of my prime objectives.
It was different in Baghdad. Walt’s request for a raid would have been one of many considered by his commander. Approval would be based on hard data, not the sort of instincts I had developed in Tikrit. It was out of my hands.
I arrived at the admiral’s office a little before 1200 and a few minutes later Colonel Walker showed up. He had several copies of the link diagram with him and seemed nervous. I could understand why. As the chief intelligence officer for the task force, he was about to turn over the reins to a mere staff sergeant. If I didn’t make a convincing case, it would be his ass on the line. I wasn’t worried. I knew what I was talking about. I knew it better than anyone. And, despite all our setbacks, I still believed in my theory.
Admiral McCraven was a tall, thin man with a powerful presence. After he and Colonel Walker greeted each other, I was introduced. “Staff Sergeant Maddox is here to give you a briefing on the situation in Tikrit, sir,” the colonel explained.
“Very good,” said Admiral McCraven. “Staff Sergeant Maddox, you are an interrogator, is that correct?”
I was about to answer when Colonel Walker jumped in. “Sir, Staff Sergeant Maddox has spent the better part of the last six months in Tikrit, living with the team up there. He and their analyst Kelly have built a link diagram based on the information he has gathered from detainees and sources. I believe you’ll be very interested in what he has to say.”
“Excellent,” replied the admiral, turning to me. “Are you ready to proceed, Sergeant Maddox?”
“Yes, sir,” I said. I could see Colonel Walker out of the corner of my eye. He was still unsure about handing the ball off to me. But I was calm. It didn’t matter who was there. I could brief this link diagram to anyone at any time. I knew it like the back of my hand.
For the next fifty minutes I went into detail, emphasizing the points that I especially wanted the admiral to retain. I reminded him of the $1.9 million we had found. I explained that the money was intended to fund the insurgency not just in Tikrit, but across the whole country. If there was one thing I wanted the admiral to come away with, it was the name Muhammad Ibrahim. I summarized as much of the search for Muhammad Ibrahim as I thought the admiral could absorb in one briefing. By the time I was finished with the former bodyguard, he was worse than the Antichrist. “If we can catch him, he could lead us to Saddam,” I said confidently.
I finished by telling him about my interrogation of the fisherman. “As the cousin of Muhammad Khudayr,” I said, “I believe that this man can lead us to where Muhammad Ibrahim is hiding.” If Walt couldn’t sell the raid on this last target to his commander, maybe I could sell it directly to Admiral McCraven. It was worth a try.
My concluding words were met with a long silence. I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d overstepped my bounds. The admiral stared at me as if he were trying to figure out whether I was completely full of shit. Colonel Walker held his breath. I think we were both wondering which option the admiral would choose next: throw us out of his office or thank us for our time and forget about the whole thing.
Neither of us was prepared for what happened next. The admiral looked at his watch and turned to the colonel. “I’m scheduled to fly to Dohar, Qatar, tomorrow, colonel,” he said. “Staff Sergeant Maddox will be accompanying me on that flight.” Then he looked at me. “Sergeant Maddox, I will be briefing General Custard, the J-2 for General Abizaid at CENTCOM, on the status of the situation. I don’t have time to learn everything about this thing.” He gestured to the link diagram on the table. “You will be briefing him on it. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
Colonel Walker cleared his throat. “Sir, Sergeant Maddox is scheduled to redeploy on Sunday the fourteenth. I assume that will be no problem.”
“None whatsoever,” the admiral replied. “He can catch a civilian flight to the U.S. from Doha. I need CENTCOM to hear what he has to say.” The meeting seemed to be coming to an end. But before it did, I had a request to make.
“Sir,” I said, “I have a partner who arrived in the country with me. He’s also scheduled to redeploy back to the States on Sunday. Would it be all right if he came to Doha with me so that we could return home together?”
“I don’t think that’s a problem,” the admiral replied. I wondered how Lee would feel when he heard that the head of the task force had approved his travel plans. “Colonel Walker,” the admiral continued, “I want to thank you for bringing this to my attention.”
He shook my hand. “Staff Sergeant Maddox,” he said sincerely, “I want to thank you for your hard work. It’s sergeants like you who win wars and make officers like Colonel Walker and me look good.”
From the moment we left the admiral’s office, the colonel treated me as if we were best buddies. He even started calling me by my first name. It didn’t matter that he got my first name wrong. What mattered was that Colonel Walker was on my side.
My first thought was to ask him to push for the raid on the target that Muhammad Khudayr’s cousin had identified. But there was no way I could directly interfere with the decision-making process. Walt was the only one who could sell the raid. He had a connection with the team in Baghdad and they trusted him. Colonel Walker would not have been willing to pull rank and interfere with that relationship. And I wasn’t about to ask. All I could do was hope that Walt was making a good case for the hit.
Meanwhile I hunted down Lee to give him the news. We were going to Doha and were flying there on Admiral
