On July 10, 2002, more than eight months before the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, eight American CIA operatives slipped into northern Iraq. They endured almost a year of being denied vital supplies by a NATO ally, Turkey, as they pursued a covert operation with profound consequences for both the War on Terror and the Iraq War: Operation Hotel California. "Operation Hotel California" tells the inside story of the dangerous mission that paved the way for the Iraq invasion--and delivers the most blistering indictment to date by any American counterterrorism officer of the Bush administration's blunders vis-a-vis Iraq and al Qaeda. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Charles Faddis, the operation's leader, and other team members, "Operation Hotel California" is a riveting work that will shake Washington to the core.