'The Spymaster of Baghdad': How journalist Margaret Coker captured the bravery of Iraqis in new book

The non-fiction read paints the stories of elite intelligence heroes who defeated ISIS

The Iraqi Falcons, who relied on the help of ordinary Iraqis to defeat ISIS between 2013 and 2017. Reuters 

Sometimes the simplest, least technologically advanced approach to a problem can be best. This is something Iraqi and coalition intelligence forces learnt through hard practice as they staved off, and then defeated, ISIS's rapid advance between 2013 and 2017.

"A drone can tell you who has entered a building, but it can't tell you what is being said in the room. We can, because our people are inside those rooms," Abu Ali Al Basri, leader of the Falcons, an elite Iraqi intelligence cell, told Margaret Coker, then a journalist at The New York Times, in 2018. She is now the author of the highly praised book The Spymaster of Baghdad.

Coker is a veteran foreign correspondent and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016. She worked across a collapsing Soviet Union, as well as in Afghanistan, Turkey, the UAE and the UK, during her career with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. She now runs The Current, an investigative news website focused on politics in the US state of Georgia.

The Spymaster of Baghdad tells the story of Al Basri, and of Harith and Munaf Al Sudani, two young agents from Sadr City, an impoverished quarter of the Iraqi capital. The book starts under the Baathist rule of Saddam Hussein when Al Basri is a young man and the Al Sudani brothers are children. The dictatorship, the eventual US invasion in 2003 and the ensuing sectarian chaos help to shape all three into resilient defenders of the new government.

At the heart of the Falcons’ mission is “human intelligence”. Al Basri, the spymaster, learns during the Iraqi insurgency of 2003-2011 that “US forces in Iraq ... did not have the human resources or personal contacts to create a team of informants to track who was building and sending suicide bombs to the capital”.

Consequently, "the spy chief found himself on the side of the intelligence debate that emphasised the need for human sources, not big data and high-tech wizardry".

To demonstrate the need for human intelligence, Al Basri sends Harith under­cover as an ISIS foot soldier and assigns Munaf as his handler. Together, "over the course of 16 months", the brothers foil "30 suicide bombers" and "18 separate massive terror attacks".

Coker spends the first half of the book creating colourful character arcs for the spies and delves into their tough childhoods under Saddam and Baathism. When Coker tells us that Harith was killed by ISIS, we understand the risks he took, his bravery and his unique drive to protect the new Iraqi nation.

Coker tells The National that The Spymaster of Baghdad serves as a "historic corrective" to the surplus of books that deal with American and British intervention in the country. For Coker, the aim of her book is "to recalibrate Iraq's history away from one that until now has centred on the Americans' sins, suffering and victories, and to illuminate the admirable role" that Iraqis have played.

"Both Iraqis and their western allies need to understand the real bravery the Iraqis have shown in putting their nation back together and defending themselves," she says.

The book is a stirring combination of non-fiction human interest reporting, deep research and quick-paced spy-thriller narrative that leaves the reader entertained and informed about the complex reasons for the rise of ISIS and the resistance shown by ordinary Iraqis.

The worlds of foreign correspondence and spycraft entertainingly fuse throughout the work. Coker's skills as an investigative journalist will appeal to those interested in policy, just as her stylish storytelling will capture readers who love spy fiction. After all, even James Bond, the world's most famous spy, was the creation of an ex-Reuters and Sunday Times journalist.

However, Coker has written a book that makes characters out of real-life spooks. She cites British author John le Carre as one of her many guiding influences.

"Working in amoral spaces and the corridors of institutions: these are the big themes of le Carre's novels that I do see working in today's Iraq," she says. "The political world of sectarian bosses ... the physical world of jihadis. Le Carre is definitely the fictional master of all of this."

Coker says it took time and trust to gain access to her book’s main characters.

"Al Basri's motivation for trusting me was material and very direct: he lost his officer behind enemy lines. He had incredible sympathy for the Al Sudani family. He couldn't break classification in order to help them, and what that meant was the family couldn't get a formal death certificate for their son and couldn't get his veteran's benefits." However, her reporting on Harith for The New York Times "unwittingly helped to create a national hero".

She is clear that, for now, Iraqi nationalism is a positive force. "It's a controversial subject, but nationalism isn't always bad. In the wake of a civil war, it can be a good thing."

Iraq's future is now "better in many ways", says Coker, but "I don't think an American's opinion entirely rates".

"Saddam Hussein is gone and Baathism is no more. The entire edifice of government collapsed in 2003, which brought a huge amount of tragedy, but the fact is Iraqis do have a chance to rebuild for themselves."

In an effort to piece the country together, the Iraqi Falcons Intelligence Cell is currently focused on defeating "local militias who have arms and go into protection rackets".

The questions, now, according to Coker, is: how do you break that all up? “How do you rebuild a nation with a functioning centralised government?”