How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq »

Matthew Alexander spent fourteen years in the U.S. Air Force and is now part of the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He has personally conducted more than 300 interrogations in Iraq and supervised more than 1,000. Matthews was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his achievement in Iraq, has two advanced degrees, and speaks three languages. When he's not chasing the world's most wanted, he goes surfing.

John Bruning is the author or co-author of eight books including House to House by David Bellavia, Bruining has been a writer and historian for seventeen years.

The first inside look at the U.S. military’s attempt at more civilized interrogation techniques—and their astounding success.

Publishers Weekly

Alexander, a pseudonymous air force officer, and writer Bruning (House to House), collaborate to tell the stranger-than-fiction "story of the intelligence operation that located and ultimately killed Abu Musab Al Zarqawi," the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq. An "Air Force investigator turned interrogator," Alexander was trained in the post-Abu Ghraib interrogation techniques that replace "fear and control" with "respect, rapport, hope, cunning and deception." He arrived in Iraq in March 2006, a month after al-Qaeda bombed the Golden Dome Mosque in Samarra in an effort to incite sectarian violence, and Zarqawi became "the most wanted man in Iraq" and the primary focus of U.S. intelligence efforts. Using the new methods, Alexander interrogated five captured al-Qaeda members and tracked down Zarqawi's personal spiritual adviser, who unwittingly led U.S. Special Forces to Zarqawi's hideout; this vindicated Alexander's methods and eliminated the key terrorist leader. Alexander provides a front-row seat to the intelligence war inside the "Global War on Terrorism" in a riveting, fast-paced account that reads like a first-rate thriller. (Oct.)

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Foreword by Mark Bowden

Part Iâ??Prologue
The Golden Dome
1. The 'Gator Pit
2. The Skeleton
3. The Jovial Imam
4. Love of Family
5. The Convenient Car Bomb
6. The Burning House

Part IIâ??Coming into Focus
7. Fractures
8. The Other Side of the House
9. The Group of Five
10. The Second Wife
11. A Life for Redemption
12. Preacher of Hate
13. The Blue BMW
14. The Devil's Choice 160

Part III Going in Circles
15. Cat and Mouse
16. The Leader
17. Fault Lines
18. The Eyes of Fatima
19. The Return to the Other Side of the House
20. Terrorist Follies
21. The Media Man
22. A Visit from the Boss
23. A Slip

Part IV Dice Roll
24. A Single, Empty Hand
25. Six Hours
26. The Duel
27. A Chance for Unity
28. Treason
29. The Secret Deal
30. Stasis
31. The Unknown Imam
32. The Seventh of June

Epilogue: Killing the Hydra