A Foreign Affair: A True Story of Love and War
A Foreign Affair is a sweeping
Iraq War memoir that chronicles the forbidden romance between a female U.S.
service member and her Iraqi translator, who meet while serving together on the
front lines of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In the summer of 2005, U.S. Navy intel analyst
Amanda Matti deployed to Baghdad to serve as a Foreign Affairs Liaison Officer
within the new Iraqi National Intelligence Service. The INIS was established
and overseen by the CIA, and Amanda’s mission was to help strengthen relations
between the new Iraqi government and U.S. intelligence personnel. A few days
after her arrival in country, Amanda was introduced to Fadi, who was assigned
to serve as her translator for the duration of her deployment.
Over the next few months, Amanda and Fadi
forged a close friendship while working round-the-clock together at the INIS
building. Three months into Amanda’s deployment, she, Fadi, and a handful of
others from their department were sent on a covert forward deployment to assist
with intel collection and analysis efforts in western Iraq near the Syrian
border – at the time, ground-zero of a bloody ongoing battle between U.S.
military forces and foreign Al-Qaeda insurgents flowing into Iraq from Syria.
While on the front lines, Amanda and Fadi’s relationship deepened and blossomed
into love. Despite their stark differences, the two developed a connection that
transcended culture, geography, and politics.
As Amanda neared the end of her
deployment, she made the decision that once she returned to the U.S., she would
find a way to get Fadi out of Iraq. Not only did she want to bring him to the
U.S. because she was in love with him, but also because his life was in
imminent peril as a direct result of his service to U.S. forces. Having spent
several years working for the American military across Iraq and U.S. government
agencies in Baghdad as a translator, Fadi wound up on Al-Qaeda’s hit list after
his identity was leaked to insurgents. ‘Wanted’ posters with his name and photo
were posted in Mosques across Fallujah and Ramadi offering a reward to anyone
who delivered him to local Al-Qaeda leaders – dead or alive. He was forced to
permanently move into the INIS building after returning home from work one
evening to find a hand grenade sitting on his doorstep with a note wrapped
around it stating that if he did not stop “working for the infidels,” he and
his family would be killed.
Amanda knew she may have to choose
between Fadi and her career, but she never imagined the hell that would soon
become her reality. The day after her return from Iraq, Amanda was subjected to
several days of intense interrogation by NCIS investigators who were convinced Fadi
was using her to gain intel. They accused her of divulging classified
information to Fadi, whom they suspected of having ties to terrorist groups.
Convinced there was no possible way their relationship was genuine, NCIS
ordered Amanda not to leave the immediate area and spent nearly a year trying
to build a case against her – threatening charges that ranged from mishandling
of classified information clear up to espionage.
Months into their investigation, NCIS
still hadn’t produced a shred of evidence that Amanda had committed any
chargeable crimes, or that Fadi had any ties to anti-American groups. As a
last-ditch effort to emerge with a win, the NCIS agents dictated a confession
for Amanda to write up, promising that if she simply signed it, they’d be able
to close the case and, at most, she’d face minor military disciplinary action
and then be free to move on with her life and career. Though just 23-years-old,
Amanda had the wisdom to see through their ploy and promptly retained civilian
legal counsel experienced in national security cases.
With Amanda now lawyered up in the
states, NCIS moved on to Fadi in Iraq. Agents in Baghdad interrogated him on
multiple occasions and pressed him too to write and sign a confession, doing
their best to convince him that if he signed a confession all of Amanda’s
troubles in the U.S. would disappear. “If you truly love her, you’ll do this
for her…” To Fadi’s great credit, he sensed a trap and refused to sign anything,
but as an employee of the INIS, he remained at the mercy of the Americans
directly overseeing operations within the INIS – the CIA, who never lets an
opportunity to manipulate a situation to their benefit pass them up.
Though Fadi had sidestepped NCIS’s
attempt to guilt-trip him into a confession, the CIA Deputy Chief of Station,
Max, still recognized Fadi had a weakness when it came to Amanda. Max managed
to convince him that he alone had the power to make Amanda’s legal issues back
in the U.S. disappear, but Fadi would have to do something for him in return. Max
groomed and transformed Fadi into an asset and used him to track and gather
intel on employees of the INIS’s rival agency – the Interior Ministry.
While the American CIA was building an
intelligence network within the INIS, the Iranian government was doing the same
within Iraq’s Interior Ministry. A covert shadow war soon broke out between
Tehran and D.C. that raged in the streets of Baghdad. Shiite militias controlled
by the Interior Ministry (essentially Iran) began kidnapping the predominantly
Sunni INIS employees and interrogating and torturing them in secret prisons
hidden across Baghdad. Typically, their bodies – riddled with holes made by
power drills - would be discovered days later dumped in back allies and
ditches. To counteract the Iranian-backed militias, the CIA and INIS formed
armed task forces to gather intel and carry out special ops against these
Shiite militias. Thus, a full-scale secular war erupted in Baghdad.
Within a few months, Fadi became a team
leader on one of the INIS’s task forces. He was a uniquely reliable asset in
the midst of a secular war as he was neither Sunni nor Shiite, but a member of
Iraq’s Christian minority, born and raised Catholic. Thoroughly impressed by Fadi’s
skills in both intel collection and tactical operations, Max pulled some
strings to have Amanda’s NCIS investigation stalled back in the states so that
he could continue to leverage Fadi. However, even though Fadi was skilled, the
extremely risky missions he and his task force carried out soon landed him in
one of the Interior Ministry’s secret prisons, where he was beaten and
tortured. Typically, Max wouldn’t lift a finger to assist and would simply find
a new “Fadi,” but even he wasn’t 100% sure Amanda hadn’t shared sensitive
classified information with Fadi, so he couldn’t afford for Fadi to end up in
the hands of an Iranian Intelligence interrogator. After some cunning
diplomatic shuffling, Max secured Fadi’s release from the IM secret prison.
A few days after Fadi’s release, the NCIS
case against Amanda was dropped and no criminal charges were filed. However,
because of all the trouble she’d caused, the Navy issued her a non-judicial
punishment, revoked her security clearance and kicked her out with a General
Discharge. As soon as she was free from the Navy and criminal investigation,
Amanda filed to bring Fadi to the U.S. on a Fiancé Visa. Two years later, Fadi
arrived in the U.S. and the couple wed. Fadi and Amanda have been happily
married for 13 years and live in San Diego with their two beautiful daughters.
For an added dose of irony, a few months
after Fadi arrived in the U.S., he was recruited by the Department of Defense,
granted a security clearance, and sent back to Iraq to serve as an advisor and
translator, while Amanda remains classified as unfit for any form of Federal
employment.
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