ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Any book that describes the inner workings of government while that government is still in power must rely on confidential resources. While this certainly is not a journalist’s first choice, it is necessary if one wants to peer beneath the happy face the administration displays to the public and to its supporters.

Most of the information in these pages has not been reported previously and will come as a surprise to readers who have become accustomed to the conventional wisdom versions purveyed by the press. When I have relied on public documents, such as the reports from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence or from the Scooter Libby trial, it is because these documents were ignored by the elite media in their efforts to paint a uniformly uncomplimentary picture of the Bush administration.

While all the sources whose information is included in this book knew the project to which they were contributing, in almost every single case they insisted that I not tie their names to specific comments or information. I interviewed many of these sources repeatedly, some more than two dozen times. I have used direct quotation marks for speech that has been reported publicly, or when quoting directly from a source. As a general rule, I have used indirect speech to relay conversations described to me by one or several direct participants. Similarly, the thoughts or reflections ascribed to participants in these events were conveyed to me directly or by eyewitnesses. Because all of this material is original to this book, it does not appear in the notes.

I have shared the most controversial passages of this book with these sources, to ensure that the details and the quotes printed here are rigorously accurate.

This book couldn’t have been written without Richard Perle, one of that rare Washington species who will speak his mind honestly and on the record. Dr. Ahmad Chalabi, whom I have known for nearly two decades, also collaborated freely and unconditionally and in many cases provided documents to back up his version of events. Zaab Sethna, Intifad Qanbar, Francis Brooke, Tamara Chalabi, Peg Bartell, Linda Flahr, Aras Karim Habib, Frank Ricciardone, Qobad Talabani, Sherry Kraham, Barham Salih, Hoshyar Zebari, Jalal Talabani, Warren Marik, R. James Woolsey, Hamad Bayati, Bakhtiar Amin, Claude Hankes-Drielsma, Bill Luti, David Kay, Sherif Ali bin Hussein al Hashimi, Michael Rubin, and John Markham also helped at various points.

Thanks to Bill Tierney, Robert Reilly, Jack Shaw, Gary Berntsen, Stephen Grey, Ken deGraffenreid, Adam Ciralski, General Georges Sada, and the head of Company X for sharing their stories. Thanks to JINSA, Finmeccanica, Paul Wolfowitz, Hal Koster, and Stephen Bryen for all you have done to help handicapped veterans from the Iraq War, and shame on the Hilton hotel chain for closing down the dinners in their honor.

Thanks to Margaret “Ducky” Hemenway, Michael Stransky, Bob Thompson, and Ed Corrigan for opening doors. Representative Pete Hoekstra, and former congressmen Curt Weldon and Christopher Cox also deserve special thanks for their service to the truth. And thanks to the more than two dozen congressional staffers, and several dozen executive branch employees at State, DoD, Treasury, and the White House, who provided insight and information: you know who you are.

J. Michael Waller, Wayne Simmons, Victoria Toensing, Peter Huessy, Michael Scheuer, and John McLaughlin all shared ideas and helped to steer me back on track. In addition, more than three dozen current and former CIA officials—including some who served in Iraq and witnessed the events described here firsthand—contributed information and comments for this book. Although none of them would discuss classified information, they have all asked to remain anonymous. Thank you for your service to our country.

My editor, Jed Donahue, and my agent, Mel Berger at William Morris Agency, kept this project on track, while Random House lawyer Matthew Martin helped to clarify the line between fact and opinion. Your skill and insights are much appreciated. Any mistakes are all mine.

Since his arrest on what I believe were trumped-up charges, I have lost touch with former DIA officer Larry Franklin, whom I have known since 1995. Larry, just like Scooter Libby, you deserve a medal for all you have done for your country, not jail time. Thanks to Plato Cacheris for giving me access to the court record.

As a president, George W. Bush has demanded absolute loyalty from his top advisors. While not unusual in itself, when exercised by a president who rightly suspects the elite media of seeking his defeat, it makes the task of a conservative reporter such as myself more difficult than it might otherwise be. As one senior White House official told me when I asked him to comment on actions by State Department officials that went directly counter to stated administration policies, “As far as the president is concerned, Condi is in charge. He has zero tolerance for executive branch officials dumping on others in the executive branch.”

As Shadow Warriors makes clear, if this president believes that the permanent bureaucracy is committed to his agenda, he is truly living in a fantasy world.