THE SPYMASTER OF BAGHDAD

A history of the defeat of the Islamic State group in Iraq, featuring an unexpected cast of heroes.

Many Americans believe that the invasion of Iraq was a multitrillion-dollar debacle that replaced a vicious dictator with a failed state. Having suppressed the insurgency and al-Qaida, the U.S. withdrew in 2011, whereupon al-Qaida’s even more vicious successor, IS, came roaring back before American forces returned to lead the fight against it. Journalist Coker, former New York Times Baghdad bureau chief, begs to differ, if only regarding recent events in which Iraqis played a central role. A leading figure is Abu Ali al-Basri, a dissident who returned in 2003 after nearly 20 years in exile. However, because he didn’t learn English during that time, “he wasn’t part of the exile cliques” chosen by Americans to introduce democratic government. By 2006, with terrorism running rampant, no one, including CIA officials, doubted that the billions spent on Iraq’s intelligence and security agency were wasted. At the time, Iraq’s prime minister, who didn’t trust his intelligence director, appointed the then-obscure al-Basri to lead his own team. Working quietly for years with a handful of trustworthy men and eschewing the usual strong-arm tactics, he gathered information and sent men undercover, ultimately convincing even the Americans that he knew his business. Coker adds vivid accounts of two major supporting characters: Harith Al-Sudani, a college dropout who joined al-Basri’s agency, infiltrated an IS cell, and foiled dozens of bombings before being caught, tortured, and beheaded; and Abrar al-Kubaisi, a chemist and “member of the city’s educated elite,” who was devastated by the chaos and loss of status that followed the invasion. Rejected by IS after offering her expertise in poison, she planned her own mass murder. Much of the text is novelistic, with the author providing perhaps too much insight into her characters’ emotions and movements, but the basic story, and many of its intriguing details, will be fresh for most American readers.

An eye-opening account revealing that Iraqi competence and heroism were essential to its victory over terrorism.