Midnight in Samarra

The riveting, exclusive true story of an Iraq whistleblower who continues to be betrayed by his country, as told by an international bestselling author.

Gregory Ford, an intelligence agent and medic, was in Iraq for only a short time—from the invasion in March 2003 until early June of the same year, when he was strapped to a stretcher, drugged, and “renditioned” out of Iraq in a clandestine and criminal operation at the behest of his command, who were frantically trying to silence him. But why?
 
Midnight in Samarra is the shocking true story of one soldier’s attempt to speak up and report the abuse and torture he saw being inflicted on the local population, as well as secret, incriminating, enormous Iraqi arms stores of American-made Weapons of Mass Destruction with bills of lading implicating, among others, famous political families. His warnings about simmering anti-American fury of the local populace were ignored and suppressed by his command; hundreds of millions of dollars in cash seized in the home of Saddam Hussein’s main banker as a result of Ford's intelligence work vanished without a trace. Ford’s information about Hussein’s location, which could have led to the dictator's apprehension six months before his actual capture, was also ignored and suppressed. As Ford was filing charges against his superior officers, they seized his weapons (illegal in a war zone), tried to declare him insane, abducted him by force, restrained him, administered a dangerous mind-altering drug during a Medevac flight, and tried to interrogate him while he was under.
 
Years later, Gregory Ford is still trying to get justice. His command—and high-ups in both the military and the government—lied, dissembled, obfuscated, danced, and dodged while Ford endured libel, slander, and innuendo, feared for his life, and, nearly a decade after the drugging on the plane, learned that the chemical injected into him had done permanent damage to his heart and nervous system. Midnight in Samarra is the story of one man’s courage and conviction, and the horrifying truths of one of our most trusted and honored institutions.

Frank Gregory Ford, part Native American, part Scots, has traveled the world, from Siberia to Sikkim to South America, has worked jobs ranging from presidential security under Nixon during Watergate to assistant medical examiner in Dade County. Now retired, he lives in California and seeks justice for the powerless.

Eleanor Cooney is the author of the international bestselling T'ang Trilogy, as well as the critically-acclaimed memoir Death in Slow Motion. Her work has appeared in Mother Jones and Harper's. She lives in Mendocino, California.

"It must have been painful for Greg Ford to tell his story. It is painful to read it. There are forces in place determined to silence all soldiers with a conscience, using false accusations and severe discipline to shut them down. Few stand up and give voice to truth. It's a long process, painfully littered with dead ends and threats by people who want the truth to go away. Greg Ford is a determined man and committed to telling his story. Read and read again what commanders and senior officers are capable of doing to "one of their own" in order to cover up intentional crimes and personal failures. They picked the wrong man when they tried to silence Ford. They obviously never looked at his personal history; whoever thought he would just roll over did not know him at all. His story is a powerful testament to how far corrupt leaders will go to get whatever they are after, even if it means committing felonies of unimaginable proportions." —Janis Karpinski, former Brigadier General and Commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and author of One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story

“Riveting! Reads like a cross between Carlos Castaneda and The Guns of August!” —Barbara Honegger, author of The October Surprise

“Greg Ford has some amazing and disheartening stories to tell from his brief deployment to Iraq during the opening invasion in 2003. His memoir cracks open secrets about incompetence, brazen self-interested careerism, and cruelty among U.S. Army officers, presenting a veritable litany of what not to do when invading a country under false pretenses. Refusing to compromise his integrity and moral principles, Ford has paid a heavy price for objecting to the crimes he witnessed.” —Booklist

“Midnight in Samarra is a uniquely mind-blowing and brilliant contribution to our understanding of the various evil forces that have mired America in the never-ending Iraq war. Authors Greg Ford and Eleanor Cooney combine their unique talents to give us the backstory of criminal intrigue in Washington DC and Baghdad, the lies about WMD and Saddam Hussein, hundreds of millions of dollars looted by senior officers, and much more. Greg Ford's first-hand account of the minute details of his harrowing experience is astounding in its recall, as is his courage and determination to survive and tell the world what happened when he tried to "blow the whistle." Cooney, a first-rate writer, has lassoed Ford's complex and far-flung story and shaped it into a taut, suspenseful narrative that reads like fiction, but, alas, is not.” —Dr. Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of Psychology, Stanford University and author of The Lucifer Effect and The Time Paradox

“This first-hand account of the 2003 U.S. war in Iraq by a military intelligence whistleblower sets the record straight regarding the allegedly elusive weapons of mass destruction. The discovery in Samarra by Ford of VX gas canisters of American origin, and the lengths to which Washington went to cover up their existence, should be included in every account of the war following the publication of this book.” —Len Bracken, author of Guy Debord—Revolutionary