Chapter 13 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 13 provides an Animal House cum James Bond interlude. Emboldened by Afghanistan and authorized by the President, Tenet sends two small paramilitary teams into mountainous northern Iraq, knowing they face danger from Turks, Kurds, and Saddam. Tenet has$189 million to spend and Bush does not penalize mistakes. In July, "Tim" (security nickname) leads a team of seven from Turkey to Sulaymaniyah, halfway to Baghdad. The ex-SEAL, fluent in Arabic, has oral instructions to penetrate Iraqi military, intelligence, and security, and to establish relationships with the Kurds, who form the two rival parties of Jalal Talabani's dominant Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which makes enough money off Saddam's regime to oppose a change. Distinguishing true and false in the mountains of information is hard, but Tim sorts out the best for Washington. Tim interviews refugees and...