Secret History of the Iraq War [Hardcover]

Yossef Bodansky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2004

In the months leading up to March 2003, fresh from its swift and heady victory in Afghanistan, the Bush administration mobilized the United States armed forces to overthrow the government of Iraq. Eight months after the president declared an end to major combat operations, Saddam Hussein was captured in a farmhouse in Al-Dawr. And yet neither peace nor democracy has taken hold in Iraq; instead the country has plunged into terrorist insurgency and guerrilla warfare, with no end in sight. What went wrong?

In The Secret History of the Iraq War, bestselling author Yossef Bodansky offers an astonishing new account of the war and its aftermath -- a war that was doomed from the start, he argues, by the massive and systemic failures of the American intelligence community. Drawing back the curtain of politicized debate, Bodansky -- a longtime expert and director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare -- reveals that nearly every aspect of America's conflict with Iraq has been misunderstood, in both the court of public opinion and the White House itself. Among his revelations:

• The most authoritative account of Saddam Hussein's support for Islamic terrorist organizations -- including extensive new reporting on his active cooperation with al-Qaeda in Iraq long after the fall of Baghdad
• Extensive new information on Iraq's major chemical and biological weapons programs -- including North Korea's role in building still-undetected secret storage facilities and Iraq's transfer of banned materials to Syria, Iran, and Libya
• The first account of Saddam's plan for Iraq, Syria, and Iran to join Yasser Arafat's Palestinian forces to attack Israel, throw the region into turmoil, and upend the American campaign
• The untold story of Russia's attempt to launch a coup against Saddam before the war -- and how the CIA thwarted it by ensuring that Iraq was forewarned
• Dramatic details about Saddam's final days on the run, including the untold story of a near miss with U.S. troops and the stunning revelation that Saddam was already in custody at the time of his capture -- and was probably betrayed by members of his own Tikriti clan
• The definitive account of the anti-U.S. resistance and uprising in Iraq, as the American invasion ignited an Islamic jihad and Iran-inspired intifada, threatening to plunge the region into irreversible chaos fueled by hatred and revenge
• Revelations about the direct involvement of Osama bin Laden in the terrorism campaigns in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Middle East -- including the major role played by Iran and HizbAllah in al-Qaeda's operations

Drawing upon an extraordinary wealth of previously untapped intelligence and regional sources, The Secret History of the Iraq War presents the most detailed, fascinating, and convincing account of the most controversial war of our times -- and offers a sobering indictment of an intelligence system that failed the White House, the American military, and the people of the Middle East.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bodansky, ex-director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare and author of Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America, offers many bold and contentious claims in this sprawling history of the Iraqi conflict up to Saddam’s capture. Saddam, he asserts, was deeply involved with al-Qaeda, and indeed dispatched a (never "activated") 500-man terrorist battalion to North America in 2002. Iraqi forces were awash in WMDs, which they planned to (but never did) launch at American soldiers, and which were finally spirited away to Syria or buried in the sand. And Syria and especially Iran, which now allegedly hosts al-Qaeda’s headquarters, have been busily fomenting turmoil in Iraq and terror throughout the region. Bodansky affirms the Bush Administration’s case for regime change and its larger "axis-of-evil" worldview. But he deplores the invasion itself-Saddam could have been toppled by a coup instigated by Russia or the Arab states, he says-and despairs of the American nation-building project in Iraq, which he feels faces an unstoppable jihad by a coalition of Islamists, Baathists, Sunnis, Shiites, al-Qaeda and even many Kurds, supported by an increasingly anti-American populace. Bodansky offers a microscopically detailed portrait of the byzantine politics of the various Iraqi factions and their regional sponsors, along with a vigorous critique of the chaos, intelligence failures, political ignorance and military overkill that characterize the American occupation. Unfortunately, the book’s jumbled narrative, reliance on unnamable insiders and unverifiable intelligence reports make it difficult to assess its more controversial claims-especially those about Iraqi WMDs, which are typically made off-handedly with few evidentiary citations. The result is an intriguing, but less than compelling, analysis of the Iraqi quagmire.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Yossef Bodansky has been the director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare for more than a decade. He is the longtime director of research at the International Strategic Studies Association and senior editor for the Defense and Foreign Affairs group of publications. Bodansky has been a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, as well as a former senior consultant for the U.S. departments of Defense and State. The author of the number one New York Times bestseller Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America, he makes his primary home in Washington, D.C., and travels extensively to the Middle East and around the world.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Harper; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (June 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060736798
• ISBN-13: 978-0060736798
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,722,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Single Best Narrative/Analysis of Iraq, the War on Terror, June 26, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Secret History of the Iraq War (Hardcover)

If you've read Yossef Bodansky before than you probably know what to expect. Mr. Bodansky wrote about Islamists training to use hijacked airliners in suicide operations against American and Western targets in 1992 when barely anyone was talking about Islamist terrorism in general, much less specifically forecasting "spectacular" attacks using the techniques the world witnessed on Sept. 11th. Mr. Bodansky is easy to ignore because the subject material is so difficult to understand. This book, like his previous ones, is not a primer on the subject of the Middle East and Islamist terror--what is is deeply incisive, unique in its analysis and conclusions, and, thanks to the author's wide range of sources (often unnamed by necessity) it produces a number of genuine "exclusives" that you won't read anywhere else. As one reviewer critiqued, major claims, though sourced, are not necessarily footnoted. If this is an excuse to ignore his work, go ahead, but do so at your own peril--not enough people took note, after all, from Bodansky's 1993 clarion call about suicide plane hijackings or the burgeoning Islamist terror threat to the West. As opinionated as the tome may be, it is also strikingly apolitical--it bears out key rationales of the Bush Adm. for going to war, but aggressively shreds high-level decision-making by Washington and the intelligence community, at the same time.

Did you know that US Marines turned up unnaturally high levels of cyanide and mustard agent in the Euphrates? Have you read Russian military intelligence (GRU) analysis of the American experience in Iraq? Do you know what captured Arab Liberation Front (ALF) operatives revealed to Israeli interrogators about Iraqi-al Qaida cooperation, subsequently confirmed by Turkish and British intelligence?

Read the book.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dizzying array of factual information, June 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Secret History of the Iraq War (Hardcover)

This book is a must read for anyone that is trying to comprehend the complex dynamic of Middle Eastern affairs. Mr. Bodansky writes as someone with an intimate knowledge of the Middle East, terrorism and the political games played by participants around the world.

If you are not one for detailed analysis, then don't read this book. If you are someone who wants to get the big picture PLUS countless pieces of specific information, then this is the book for you.

In order to begin to understand the complexity of the current situation (including US involvement) in the Middle East, all you have to do is read the first few pages of Chapter 1 - dealing with the assassination of Abu Nidal. An event that appeared so straightforward is - in fact - much more complex than you would expect!

A great, captivating, and detailed analysis.

46 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for any one seeking the truth., August 9, 2004

By 

Rachel Ehrenfeld "American Center for Democracy" (NYC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secret History of the Iraq War (Hardcover)

Bodansky did it again. And since he foresaw the rise o bin Laden and the attacks on America so accurately in the past, his revelations of the US intelligence failures before and during the Iraqi war and his conclusions should signal a wake- up call to us all. He closes not only the wide gap left by the 9/11 Commission's report regarding the Saddam- al Qaeda's connection, but also helps us understand why and how the US ended unnecessarily in a weaker position after the war in Iraq.

In The Secret History of the Iraq War, Bodansky lays out in a meticulously researched and frightening page-turner, the details of the US intelligence failure in providing accurate information and analysis to the White House, the US defense forces and Congress. Every American should read this convincing book to fully understand the danger the US is facing today because of the failure of our intelligence services. Their dreadful performance put not only Americans in danger but also the people of the Middle East and beyond. His clear message, similar to the 9/11 Committee's conclusion is that unless we manage to revamp our intelligence services the US' future is rather bleak. The Secret History of the Iraqi War is a must read for anyone concern with US national security.

Rachel Ehrennfeld, author of Funding Evil, How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It. Bonus Books, 2003.