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The CIA's Secret Victory in Iraq

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Sun, 06/12/2011 - 9:05am
The CIA's Secret Victory in Iraq

by William Doyle

Download the Full Article: The CIA's Secret Victory in Iraq

Editor's Note: This essay is based on research conducted from the author's recently released book, A Soldier's Dream: Captain Travis Patriquin and the Awakening of Iraq.

The success of the bin Laden raid represents an exceedingly rare public triumph for the CIA, but the agency had a mostly unknown contribution to another recent American success that holds major significance for America's position in the Middle East -- its role in incubating and launching the Awakening of Iraq.

Interviews with government officials and U.S. military documents consulted during the research for my book reveal a vital supporting role played by the CIA at several crucial moments in the birth of the Awakening. The CIA, it turns out, was a midwife to the Awakening.

The Iraq War began turning around in large part in Anbar Province in 2006, when the previously obscure Sheik Sattar abu Risha, a suspected gangster, declared war on the existentially brutal local rule of al Qaeda in Iraq. He was given crucial help by a young Army Special Forces and Afghan combat veteran named Captain Travis Patriquin, an Arabic-speaking, Koran-studying tribal affairs expert, and his army and marine colleagues based in the provincial capital of Ramadi. Patriquin's charismatic personality was a key to his effectiveness with Sattar and his fellow sheiks. "My God," one Iraqi told me, "there is no one who made a deeper connection with the Iraqi people than Travis. They adored him."

Download the Full Article: The CIA's Secret Victory in Iraq

William Doyle is a New York based writer and also author of Inside the Oval Office: the White House Tapes and An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962.

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Comments

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 06/12/2011 - 11:07pm

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Actually the Shi'a movements were not a surprise, our national leadership simply reacted too slowly in developing the appropriate policy until it was too late. Your criticism is noted, but the purpose of this article was too give credit to some unsong heroes of OIF.

Mark Pyruz

Sun, 06/12/2011 - 3:02pm

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The tribute paid by the US to certain Sunnis we know about (ie, "the Awakensing"). But left out from this narrative is the part played by the success of the Shiites in taKing over by force the capital city of Baghdad, as well as the IRGC/Quds arbitration between the Shia militias and the IA. This had nothing to do with a US troop reinforcement, tribute paid or CIA intrigue.