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 deploy