Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq

by Charles S. Faddis and Mike Tucker

Book Overview

This two-in-one volume guides you out of spiritual failure, frustration, and listlessness and into an authentic Christian life. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1599213664
• ISBN13: 9781599213668
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

If truth, the book is earth shattering

This book has much to offer with some limitations. The book makes some claims that you won't see anywhere else. If true these claims back up President Bush's speeches justifying the Iraq War. No one else has done that outside of the political supporters. First, a little about the book. The book is about the CIA station chief in Northern Iraq, before the start of the war. That adds a little new twist to the story of Iraq. There has been some rumors about CIA operations before March of 03. This book chronicles that story. The book isn't written all that well. It is in places nothing but the transcript of an interview of the station chief. The author even describes the background information of the interview place like what the waitress was at the coffee shop in Washington DC. That is the bad part of the book. However if a person focuses on the content you will enjoy the book. The story sounds like a movie as you get into it. It is an exciting story to read about how they got into Iraq, how they set up, what they did in country, their complications and all that. It is also interesting to hear through this guy's perspective about went wrong. He cites a couple of cases where Washington had no perspective on reality. They viewed things in Iraq like a staff game they played in the Pentagon war room. One example of this is how they ordered the CIA crew to get ready to receive several airplanes load of weapons in Iraq for the Kurds. They ordered the CIA on site crew to light up a runway, get trucks and forklifts for unloading a plan ready. I found such requests behind lines from headquarters very funny, almost like something from Monty Python. Another example is where they sent in a DoD team to check things out but each team, the DoD team and the CIA team not to talk to each other behind enemy lines. Other books say the same thing about the Washington way of war. He also cites how the White House was so in love with Chalabi so much they wouldn't let the facts upset that idea. That prevented them taking up other opportunities that might have ended the war successfully. The author has a couple of really huge things. These things are revolutionary if true. To my knowledge he is the only author who supports two of President Bushes main reasons for the war. He cites that he knew of a Al Qaeda base inside of Iraq. He not only knew of the base through collected intelligence but personally saw the base. If that is true it backs up Bushes claim that Sadam was in bed with Ben Laden. No one else has said that fact. The author also mentions that he saw nuclear weapons production parts outside of a plant in Mosul Iraq at the end of the invasion of Iraq in 03. Again this book is the only place outside of Bush worshipers where that claim is stated. However the author has some critical things to say about Bush. He stated that the infighting Bush allowed between the CIA and DoD under Rumsfeld screwed up the surrender of the Iraqi Army in Northern Iraq. Those s

Eye-opening, informative, like real life Jack Bauer (24)

The amount of actual information given in this book is amazing. The book should be "required reading" for anyone with any interest in world affairs and the war in Iraq. Although it was fascinating to hear the story as told by Charles (Sam) Faddis, it was also gut-wrenching and disturbing to know the truth of what went/goes on. As someone who sometimes found myself defending what Bush and his "people" were doing regarding Iraq, I now have had my eyes opened to the reality of the situation. It is disturbing how poorly the administration and past administrations handled it. This continuing war did not have to be; Operation Hotel California could and should have been a total success. After reading this book, I searched online - and found and listened to a couple of public radio interviews with Charles Faddis. The inteviews and the book were informative, fascinating. Again ... book should be required reading.

Two Voices on a Vital Subject

OPERATION HOTEL CALIFORNIA is a unique and riveting book about war. The reviews here run hot and cold, and that's to be expected -- this is a war book like few others. Mike Tucker and his interview subject, the US counter-terrorist soldier Charles Faddis, combine their voices in counterpoint here. Tucker frames and story in both historic and mythic terms, while Faddis provides direct commentary on what happened when he and his team were ordered to enter Iraq in mid-2002 before the US invasion. This fugue of voice and view does not pretend to be the final word on US Iraq policy or on the events that preceded the US invasion, but it provides essential insight in two areas: (1) the egregious lack of coordination between the Bush administration and its own soldiers and allies, and (2) the way counter-terrorist teams operate and think in real time and real situations. Faddis's accounts of action on the ground mix heroism, frustration and wit. I love the account of his team playing "Grand Theft Auto" and watching the film "Sideways" in-country, but I also love the explanations of how the team managed to take out rail lines essential to the Iraqi army in coordination with the Kurds. Faddis does not skimp on expressing his frustration: with inaccuracies in Bob Woodward's recent book, with the unwillingness of Bush administration figures to listen to the military, with failures of nerve and intelligence generally in how the administration failed to trust its own officers and troops. Tucker's commentary -- and his policy recommendations in the book's epilogue -- strongly credits the Kurds with being the best allies of he US in the region. Tucker also endorses a series of policies going forward from the present (ending the Iraq War, fighting in Afghanistan, moving on global warming, reconstituting the OSS, allying with China and India in the global war on Islamic extremism). You may or may not agree with these notions -- or with the two authors' affection for single-malt scotch and music -- but they come out of a factual narrative about the beginning of the Iraq War that needs to be absorbed by people who are thinking about how to succeed in this critical military effort. OHC reads quickly and sheds a wholly new light on the recent actions in the Middle East. Anyone interested in the topic should welcome these two unique views.

Great read, amazing story

To be honest, this is the first "military book" I've ever read. Other then a few Tom Clancy novels, I tend to (for better or worse) avoid most of this genre. After hearing an interview with co-author Charles Faddis on APM's The Diane Rehm Show in October, I preordered this book and sat down with it the day it came out. Crunching through the 200 pages in an afternoon, I can say that this is an exhilarating read. More so, it provides an essential perspective to modern US foreign military that all American should be aware of. I'm not an expert enough to say if this book is definitive, but it is hard to imagine anything else being this gripping and informative. Do yourself a favor and pick this up ASAP!

Fantastic!

Operation Hotel California is a stunning book about the ineptitude of the administration's policy in pre-war Iraq, a policy that (among other things) prevented the elimination of an Al Queda cell--something that author Sam Faddis and his team of CIA operatives on a clandestine mission inside Iraq could have organized quickly and with ease. I read the book in one sitting. Fantastic!