Kill or Capture: How a Special Operations Task Force Took Down a Notorious al Qaeda Terrorist [Hardcover]

Matthew Alexander (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 1, 2011

The electrifying true story of the pursuit for the man behind al Qaeda’s suicide bombing campaign in Iraq

Kill or Capture is a true-life thriller that tells the story of senior military interrogator Matthew Alexander’s adrenalinefilled, “outside the wire” pursuit of a notorious Syrian mass murderer named Zafar—the leader of al Qaeda in northern Iraq—a killer with the blood of thousands of innocents on his hands.

In a breathless thirty-day period, Alexander and a small Special Operations task force brave the hazards of the Iraqi insurgency to conduct dangerous kill-or-capture missions and hunt down a murderer. Kill or Capture immerses readers in the dangerous world of battlefield interrogations as the author and his team climb the ladder of al Qaeda leadership in a series of raids, braving roadside bombs, near death by electrocution and circles within circles of lies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A military interrogator recounts his work hunting terrorists in Iraq.

Air Force veteran Alexander ( How to Break a Terrorist , 2008) chronicles how his interrogation task force helped the U.S. Army track down a Syrian terrorist known as Zafar. Believed to be responsible for thousands of deaths, Zafar was the leader of al-Qaeda in northern Iraq. The author, using his interrogative skills and knowledge of the Iraqi culture, was tasked to find him. The search followed an invariable routine: Alexander, his teammate Mike, their two interpreters and a contingent of soldiers would ride in an armed personnel carrier through Kirkuk, where Zafar was known to operate. Arriving at a house, the interrogators would wait while the soldiers secured the premises and inhabitants. Then they would enter and begin asking questions. Usually, the author and Mike would work separately, giving them a chance to test their information. The person they were most interested in might not bend, but a wife, a brother or other family member might. Many of their techniques drew on lessons learned from police work in the United States, using observation and street-smart psychology to get past the surface of the subject's answers. Alexander is especially proud that he and his team never resorted to torture ("I strongly oppose the use of torture or abuse as interrogation methods for both pragmatic and moral reasons"). During the course of his many investigations, readers will get a sense of life on an Army base in hostile territory, a situation that alternates between boredom and frantic action. Readers will also come to respect Alexander and his colleagues, who lived by their wits in a treacherous environment while refusing to bend the rules to gain a momentary edge on their adversaries, and for the Iraqi people, who are doing their best to survive and make a new life after the war.

A gripping story that provides insight into a much-misunderstood but crucial job." --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

MATTHEW ALEXANDER is an eighteen-year veteran of the Air Force and Air Force Reserves. A four-time combat veteran of Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his achievements in Iraq. He is the author of How to Break a Terrorist.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (February 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312656874
• ISBN-13: 978-0312656874
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #596,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew Alexander (a pseudonym) has spent over eighteen years in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves. He personally conducted more than 300 interrogations in Iraq and supervised more than 1,000. Alexander was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his achievements in Iraq, including leading the team of interrogators that located Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who was subsequently killed in an airstrike. Alexander has conducted missions in over thirty countries, has two advanced degrees, and speaks three languages. He has published Op-Eds in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. His article, Martyrdom, Interrupted, was on the cover of the Mar/Apr 2010 issue of The National Interest. He has appeared over fifty times on television including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The CBS Evening News, ABC's Nightline, Fox News, and MSNBC News.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Narrative of the Overlooked Heroes, the Interrogators February 13, 2011

By Kangman1

Format:Hardcover

"Kill or Capture" is a wonderful follow up to the author's first book, "How to Break a Terrorist". Both are extremely compelling and shed much needed light onto an otherwise overlooked facet of war...interrogation. I personally feel that the media and entertainment industry, when dealing with the subject of war tend to focus almost solely on the battle, the gun fights, the physicality, but neglect to address one of the military's best weapons...the interrogators. This is a great narrative of real life missions and interrogations conducted by the author, Matthew Alexander, who has the ability to put the reader into the passenger seat of the armored vehicle that is cruising down a dirt road, avoiding IED's and insurgents, to drop the team off to conduct a raid of a possible terrorist's safe house. You get a great sense of the author's compassion for the native people of Iraq, and how he has operated by treating fellow U.S. soldiers and detainees alike, with respect.

I definitely recommend this book to all! You will most likely be exposed to a completely different side of the wars that we are currently fighting and how important interrogators are to the success of our military and country.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good News in the Great Game February 9, 2011

By Piano Student

Format:Hardcover

Here's a book with good news about our ten year battle against terrorists. And good news about some of our men and women fighting that battle. The author writes a simple first person account of his interrogations in Iraq that lead to the capture of an Al Qaeda leader. The book reads like an entire season of Law and Order only far, far more compelling. But unlike Law and Order, not one shot is fired in the book's 275 pages. Instead you read how the author gets into the heads of his detainees moments after they are captured. Brains, not bullets. Trust, not torture.

The good news is that we can fight jihadists and still be true to American values, and that there are American men and women doing just that, and winning.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Misleading Title ... August 22, 2011

By Tom's Reviews

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is interesting from the perspective of the military interrogators in Iraq. This is not, however, a book about kill/capture operations in the sense that it discusses those specific types of operations. Rather, it covers the "after" of those stories - the interrogations of those "snatched" by military special ops units (possibly JSOC's teams, though these are not identified in the book). In sum, this is the lengthy story of an interrogator's search for one wanted terrorist, and the many interrogations that led up to it. The author has another book by a different title; however, these are essentially the same story. If you are interested in the inner workings of targeting killing or capture operations and the teams that conduct those ops, this book and the other one probably won't be of much interest. If, however, you are interested in how military interrogators do their jobs in the field, this is a good read. The author is not a door-kicker, as you may assume from the title, but rather an interrogator, and it is limited to this scope.