Terror On The Line | CIA
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And what would you do...

in their position. This is True Spies. 2006 and 2007 were the toughest years in the war in Iraq. Chaos. Iraq literally devolved into a complete anarchy. Everybody was being slaughtered. Every group was involved. And I remember thinking what seemed like an impossibility was now about to materialize in front of my face.

I'm Daisy Ridley and this is True Spies from Spyscape Studios. Terror on the line. At an undisclosed location, a short helicopter ride from Baghdad, a CIA officer finds himself at a military detention center. It's just after midday. The air is dry and the sun is piercing.

I have to take off my helmet, my vest, my weapons, since I cannot meet with a detainee carrying any weapons. It's 2007 and Iraq is hell on earth. Hot, stifling and brutalized by an incredibly complicated war. Nobody feels as though they're winning.

But in this detention center, our CIA officer is about to enact a plan that could help to calm the relentless rage. I was overwhelmed. If it's successful, his idea could help the Americans achieve a more peaceful and dignified exit from the country. My brain is racing and I'm thinking of what will I ask him? He's taken to a pod which looks a little like a shipping container. It's carpeted.

Grey, with a table, two chairs and a camera. The rumble of the air conditioning unit shakes its thin walls. It is very noisy. Helicopters are taking off and landing. Sometimes you'll hear explosions. There's always commotion. He sees in front of him a frail, elderly man with white hair and blue overalls. The old man is softly spoken. They've never met.

But the CIA officer knows exactly who is sitting in front of him. I was shaking. This is he. This is the man that we have talked about. This is the man that we have been chasing and trying to get arrested. And here he was, looking frail, looking weak. And I'm trying not to look that I'm frail and weak. I had to project confidence. The detainee has power and influence beyond measure.

The CIA officer is here to ask him for a ceasefire. A request that he and his many, many Sunni Muslim insurgents stop shooting at the coalition forces in Iraq.

Here I am, by myself, in a Black Hawk, being taken to a detention facility to meet with what is considered to be Iraq's top terror leader at the time. The meeting was only possible because the young officer, a rookie, a small fish in the big pond of the CIA, had a very simple idea. An idea that seemed almost unthinkable. Time to meet the officer in question. My name is Joseph Assad.

I was an operations officer in the Counterterrorism Center for the CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency recently declassified this file. It's a story that hasn't yet been told. A True Spies exclusive.

Any time you want to speak about something related to the CIA or your time in the CIA, you have to put your information in writing and send it to the PRB. The PRB is the Publications Review Board. The name of this operation has been redacted.

They will redact certain sections that could compromise either ongoing operations, names of individuals or locations. But in this case, we know the location all too well. Iraq in 2007 is a country shaped by conflict and anarchy. The land of poets, artists and scholars is now a baking furnace of dust, heat and death.

I always tell people there is a certain smell. I don't know if it is the burning tires, the spent munitions, the heat. If you had me blindfolded, I would recognize where I was at. In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration designated Iraq part of a so-called "axis of evil." They believed that it had weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons, and even a nuclear program.

In 2003, the American-led coalition invades. Operation Iraqi Freedom is in full force. Around 150,000 American troops enter the country. Their goal, to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, is a success. But at the same time, public infrastructure is eradicated.

Civilians are left to fend for themselves and hope for almost everyone there is in short supply. The removal of Saddam's highly centralized dictatorship created a security and political vacuum in Iraq. He kept a lid on sectarian tensions and balance between sectarian groups such as the Sunnis, the Shia, the Kurds, Christians, Yazidis and many others.

The two main Muslim groups, the Shia and the Sunni, are divided. They agree on the fundamentals of Islam and share the same holy book, but have been fighting for centuries over political, religious and ideological differences.

There was an uptick in ambushes, car bombs, targeted killings, suicide bombings. Sunni terror insurgent groups and Shia death squads slaughtered each other and targeted multinational forces in Iraq. Torture and assassinations hit fever pitch.

This is the height of the war on terror, and Joseph, an Arabic-speaking Egyptian-American, is based in the green zone of Iraq's capital, Baghdad. We were based in a compound near the U.S. embassy at an undisclosed location. The green zone in Baghdad is a heavily fortified sanctuary that now houses coalition government officials and powerful, friendly Iraqis.

It was once Saddam's control center, and it's now home to the largest CIA station overseas. My specific duties was to reach out to Sunni insurgents and Sunni terrorists, trying to recruit sources within these organizations in order for us to find out the plans and intentions of these terror groups, gaining intelligence that would stop terror attacks happening.

Foreign fighters from Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Morocco flood the country. Meanwhile, more and more Iraqis are becoming hostile towards what they now consider to be an occupying force.

You had checkpoints everywhere, you have armored vehicles, you have snipers, you have helicopters, you have aircraft. You hear the sounds of bombings and shooting day and night. There are rockets and mortars that are being lobbed from one side of the city to the other. It was utter chaos trying to figure out who is who and what was the fighting all about. America has no way of predicting where this war is going, nor how it will end.

One thing that alarmed us is that we were seeing a level of coordination like never before between Al-Qaeda and the Sunni insurgents. One of our primary objectives of our Sunni engagement initiative was to drive a wedge between Al-Qaeda and nationalist insurgents.

If these nationalist insurgent groups were to join with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network, the war could enter an unprecedented and brutal phase. They were feeding off each other. They were sharing the same ideology. It was only a matter of time. The rules of war were rewritten after 9/11. Traditional espionage operations and Cold War-style asset recruitment were not going to work in the heat of Iraq.

They were stuck in an unfamiliar land with an unpredictable and ever-changing enemy. CIA officers spent a great deal of time brainstorming, coming up with creative ways to gain access to insurgent leaders at all levels of their organization. But nothing was working. We needed a graceful way to exit Iraq.

The Americans need to engage the tribes, reconcile with the insurgents, and install a government that can serve after they've left.

I arrived there in the summertime. It is hot. It literally was 120 degrees. We lived in pods. We had sandbags trying to protect us from shrapnel when rockets and mortars would hit the green zone. The green zone was protected by C-RAM, the Counter Rocket and Mortar System. C-RAM would sound an alarm if the base was coming under attack. Incoming! Incoming! Incoming!

This gives the residents less than five seconds to get into one of the many nearby bunkers. Despite the relative safety of the Green Zone, Joseph is constantly reminded of the dangers all around him. In 2007, one of my colleagues, an Iraqi counter-terrorism officer, had been brutally murdered. She had secretly left the Green Zone to visit her family, but she never returned.

She was stalked and killed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, as we called it AQI. The message from Al-Qaeda was clear: "We know who you are. We know how to get to you." They achieved their goal of spreading terror. Joseph needs to talk to the power players inside those groups. No easy feat. I love a big challenge.

Just as he's beginning his tour in Iraq, he's called to an extraordinary operational meeting in a building known as "The Villa", previously used by the Iraqi government and Saddam's inner circle. It's secure and extravagantly decorated. The glass windows have been replaced by a blast-proof barrier. The swimming pool has been drained. The lush gardens that once housed tigers and wild animals have been left to bake in the heat.

Joseph is joined by the Chief of Stations, who is in charge of all stations in Iraq and who communicates directly with Washington. Also in attendance are the Deputy Chief of Stations, the Chief of Operations, and Joseph's Branch Chief, who is in charge of CIA operations in Baghdad.

One name kept coming up and that was the most senior Sunni insurgent leader in Iraq at the time. They redacted the real name. I will call him Abu Walid. That was the name that was approved by the agency. It's here a new directive is announced. Create the space for a peaceful withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq. It's given the highest priority.

The CIA is extremely competitive and Joseph needs to make his mark. He's 32 in a room full of grey-haired experience. If he can reach this potential asset, his career will be made. In 2007, Abu Walid was on the top 10 most wanted terrorists in Iraq. Joseph needs a quick, easy to implement solution to what could be a never-ending problem.

Abu Walid was so dangerous because he commanded the second largest terror group in Iraq after al-Qaeda. The name of his group has also been redacted.

Abu Walid is well known to the CIA. He fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

and became a leader at the services office for the Arab Mujahideen, where he met Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. It's here they conducted fundraising and the recruitment of terrorist fighters from all around the world. Walid becomes the Sharia law commander for his Sunni insurgent group in Iraq, providing the religious justification for them to engage in conflict.

He approves or denies the death penalty for people who have been captured, whether they be Shiite fighters, coalition forces, or even collaborators.

They were well armed. They were very violent. They have been committing targeted assassinations, car bombings, truck bombings. They were beheading individuals, drivers, journalists. They were the epitome of evil in Iraq and have committed so many heinous acts against civilians as well as other militant groups. Nothing was working in reaching out to these insurgent leaders.

Joseph gets a seat in the room because he knows the name Abu Walid very well. He recently recruited a team to keep tabs on him, and now the insurgent leader is a high priority target. Joseph looks down at his notes, then at the wall to the side of him where the grand portraits were once mounted. A bolt of inspiration strikes. What are you thinking?

He is going to pick up the phone, call Abu Walid and invite him to meet face to face to discuss him laying down his arms. The room falls silent. You are going to pick up the phone and call a terrorist leader and say: Hey man, would you like to come over and have some chai, some tea and have a little chat? This has never been done before.

But Joseph is confident that his skill set will carry the plan through. I was a native Arabic speaker. To me, picking up the phone and speaking in Arabic, using the right lingo with somebody came natural. He's humoured for a moment by the senior officers in the room.

For about 11 seconds you feel good that somebody is willing to entertain your idea. After that, terror and fear just overwhelm me. This is not going to work, but now I have to follow through, I have to make that phone call. The ops manager gives him the green light there and then, saying: You can't make things worse than they are. The executive branch of the US government is briefed on the plan to call Waleed.

The Americans have nothing to lose. The chances of a terrorist leader such as Abu Walid answering a call from an unknown number was slim to none. I remember thinking, "I don't want to be the guy that messes this up." Joseph's naive plan is now poised to become one of the war's most crucial moments.

If it succeeds, he's contributed to America leaving the country in a dignified manner. No more deaths. If it fails, then it'll push Abu Walid deeper underground and increase resistance to the occupying forces. I'm trying to do something that I felt would make a difference in the war, something that is out of the box.

Very quickly, his plan is put into action. So I picked up a clean phone that's an operational phone that's never been used, that would not trace back to the CIA. He's nervous and full of doubt, alone in a quiet spot inside the green zone. I turn the phone on and I remember my hands are sweaty. Hainfully aware of the risk he's taking, he dials the number for Abu Walid.

It's 115 degrees outside. Incoming, incoming, incoming. 15 minutes earlier, the C-RAM alarm had sounded, alerting the compound to incoming fire. Imagine the pressure. And I'm dialing in that number for the first time. The phone rings and rings. He has a sinking feeling. Nothing. He tries again. I couldn't get through.

But then finally, Abu-Walid answered the phone. I said, "As-salamu alaykum, Shaykh." An Islamic greeting. "Peace be upon you, Shaykh." I also referred to him as "Shaykh" or "Shaykhna," "our Shaykh" or "the Shaykh."

which is also a term of respect. It acknowledges that he is a sharia and spiritual leader of the group, and that's how his followers would refer to him, both in the religious term, but in terms of their hierarchy, culturally. The word "Sheikhna" will also hint to Walid that Joseph is Muslim. He's actually a Christian, but he's happy for Walid to believe whatever's most convenient.

He calls himself Sam. Abu Walid is intrigued by this caller. He can't quite place his accent. Joseph is well-travelled and can speak many Arabic dialects.

It was the weirdest moment of my life. I felt that the biggest accomplishment here was the fact that he answered the phone. "Obstacle 1 is complete. The subject answers the phone and he isn't immediately hostile. Time to face obstacle 2. Get him to agree to meet." And I told him I was with American intelligence and I was calling to invite Abu-Walid to meet in Baghdad. Abu-Walid sounded shocked and asked, "How did you get my number?"

I ignore this question. I want to set up a cordial meeting to discuss a ceasefire and reconciliation issue with you. The phone line disconnects. Silence. In these circumstances, you rarely get a second shot. One of the most notorious terrorists in Iraq, Abu Walid has generated a serious amount of paperwork over the years. He's been tailed, tracked, tapped and monitored.

All of that work, all of that research, the thousands of hours poured into this operation, have now gone up in smoke in a few seconds. My CIA colleagues kind of were happy that I failed in a way, thinking, well, we knew this was not going to work. That was a nice try. So I had to redeem myself. I had to figure out how do I clean this up. Joseph will have to report everything that happened.

He's trembling, scared for his career and utterly humiliated. The CIA then determines that Waleed is not currently in Iraq and because of the call, he'll be spooked.

I am confident that what Abu Ali did was he took his SIM cards out of the phone, he smashed the phone, thinking that the phone call could be the precursor for a kinetic strike against him. That's a military euphemism for direct physical action against a target.

But the CIA doesn't give up easily and quickly identifies a new number for him. I immediately sprung into action and I wanted to call him. But how do the CIA know they're talking to the right person?

we have things that we call targeting packages. And in these targeting packages, we have a lot of assessment, backgrounds, photographs, sometimes even the voices of these individuals. Abu Walid was a known figure. He issued religious edicts, opinions. As a spiritual leader in Iraq, there were videos of him, there were sermons, there were directives. So we had a good idea of what he looks like

as well as how he sounded like, when I called him, I had no doubt that I had Abu-Walid on the other end of the line. Joseph, as Sam, tries once more. I was utterly surprised that he answered my call again. This time, Joseph skips the pleasantries.

Instead of slamming down the phone, Abu Walid listened carefully. He wanted to confirm my phone number for future contact. He would call me "Ibni", which is my son. He would refer to me as his son because he saw that I respected him as a sheikh, as a leader. He said that he would consider my proposal and will contact me soon to arrange a meeting in Baghdad. Joseph leaves the phone on charge 24 hours a day.

Several days go by. Nothing. In the eyes of the CIA, the operation has died. Joseph tries to locate him, speaking to his sources and analyzing the leader's previous movements. He hears that Walid is still considering his proposal, but the reliability of the source is suspect. Then, out of nowhere, the phone rings, but it's not Walid. Joseph is perplexed.

As far as he knows, there is only one person with this number, and it's the terrorist. So the voice on the phone surprises him. It's speaking in perfect American English. It's the US military, and they're looking for somebody called Sam.

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They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately. And I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years, and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment, whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change, or a frothy page-turner to help them escape the stresses of work, socializing,

school, everything. You'll learn something about yourself as a reader, and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for What Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website, whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more. Joseph's phone that sits on charge 24 hours a day waiting for contact from Abu Walid has just received a call.

But it's not the jihadist leader. The military asked us: Are we familiar with any Sam Green that would be affiliated with Abu Walid? Joseph confirms that he is Sam. He's then given the news: Coalition forces captured Abu Walid at an undisclosed location. One of the top 10 most wanted terrorist leaders in Iraq was detained trying to re-enter the country.

Joseph is phoned before the name even gets officially reported. The circumstances of his detention are classified, but he was accompanied by so many other people, women and children included, thus avoiding a kinetic strike in an area where we thought terrorists were coming back into Iraq. Waleed is on a kill or capture list.

Fortunately for him, the US military have plumped for the second option. And now that he's in custody, he keeps asking for somebody in the American forces. The CIA breathes a sigh of relief. If the leader of Iraq's second largest terrorist group had died at the hands of the Americans, they'd be kept in the country even longer, having to deal with the fallout from the ensuing power vacuum.

He only knew my first name. He said he had saved my phone number as Sam Green because I resided in the Green Zone. But this is a common stalling tactic. Captured insurgents will often ask for somebody in the forces they claim to know. To prove it, the military makes him turn on the phone. And he shows them the number. The CIA call a critical meeting to discuss next steps.

Joseph convinces his management that he needs to go and see Walid in person. He's then put on a Black Hawk helicopter to go and meet the terrorist leader. The doors are open with gunners on both sides in order to return fire in case we are attacked. It's loud, it's intimidating, and he's hooked to the floor of this death machine to stop him falling should the trip take a turn for the worse.

The heat is suffocating. They're operating in broad daylight and they're severely vulnerable to attacks from the ground. And at one point, the helicopter automatically fired flares when they see a reflection on the ground. Sometimes it's mistaken for incoming fire. I had no idea whether this was incoming or outgoing fire. I have never experienced flares and I may have let out a little scream.

The military personnel on board are unfazed, but Joseph has turned pale. The weight of his weapons and protective clothing keep him rooted in his seat. He's armed, just in case the helo goes down and he has to fend for himself. We're skimming over power lines, flying very low, and it's about a 45-minute ride from Baghdad to an undisclosed location in northern Iraq where Abolid is being held.

The helo lands in the military base and Joseph is unclipped as the blades keep slicing through the air. Joseph is shaking, his ears are ringing. He ignores the sandstorm swirling around him. He ponders for a second. Meeting a terrorist must be approached soberly. One misstep with Walid here and the consequences could be dire.

I don't know what to think, whether I had something to do with Abu Walid showing up in Iraq? Was this a coincidence? Was he planning a terror attack? Joseph is taken through the detention facility, the Spartan building in which we began this episode. He's stripped of his weapons, has read the rules and signs all the paperwork.

The pod-like shipping container housing Walid is small and noisy. He opens the door and the cold air hits him. When you walk into these pods, there's like an air conditioning smell. The AC is running 24/7.

When I first saw Abu Waleed, I was in disbelief. He seemed frail, smaller than I thought he looked in pictures. The elderly Waleed comes off as very gracious, very polite, and has trouble walking. Not what you would expect in a leader of a terrorist organization that has ordered the murder and assassination of countless people, including many Americans. I extended my hand. I said, Assalamu alaikum, Abu Waleed. I am Sam.

And he immediately looks at the military personnel that were with us and said, I told you, I told you I was not lying. I was here to see Sam. What happens over the next few minutes is remarkable. He immediately tried to put on me that I had betrayed him by getting him detained. You told me this and I came to Iraq and I was going to meet with you, but they detained me. Imagine for a second you're working for the CIA.

And all of a sudden, through a series of unlikely events, you've come face to face with your main target. Would you trust Abu Walid on what he says? He could be here to commit more atrocities or be on his own mission to see the faces of his enemies to share with his vast networks. My phone call was a lifeline to Abu Walid. He used that to claim that he had arrived in Iraq to meet with me.

But the question that keeps running through Joseph's mind is, why is Waleed back in Iraq?

The only times he had left the country previously had been to go to Afghanistan and Pakistan to participate in other jihadist activities. That, or to lay low in one of Iraq's neighboring lands. He was in communication with al-Qaeda senior leadership outside of Iraq and being fed information directly sometimes from Osama bin Laden to fight against coalition forces given he would receive funds

instructions, equipment, weapons, as well as fighters to resist the occupying forces. Joseph needs him to agree to a meeting in the Green Zone in Baghdad to discuss the ceasefire. I provided a pitch which I had prepared, which was what I had intended to do on a phone call had it been longer than a few seconds.

As it turns out, Walid is not impressed with Joseph's smooth, well-practiced recruitment pitch. There's no more time for mind games. Joseph lays it out straight.

There are two things that could result from Abu Walid not agreeing to go along with the pitch. One was he was to remain in jail. The second significant consequence, at the time the U.S. military, while we wanted to get out of Iraq, we were having to surge people into Iraq in order to stabilize the situation and undoubtedly

we would have expanded this conflict against nationalist insurgents and it would have been far more catastrophic. Thousands, if not tens of thousands more lives would needlessly be lost in Iraq as a result. Joseph then gets into why it would personally benefit Walid. I told him, you're being squeezed by al-Qaeda in Iraq, which pretends to be your friend, but are taken over by bringing foreign fighters. They're commanding Iraqis.

They are now dominating the scene, building their power base, stealing resources, destroying other Sunnis. Meanwhile, Iran is squeezing you from the other side and you are focused on the coalition? You are spinning your wheels. We are not your enemy. Joseph tells him it's not complicated. It's not political. The threat to his organization and his people is real.

It is not going too far to say that the Sunnis would have been wiped out. Consider laying down your weapons and stop fighting us. We would also like you to consider allowing your people to participate in the political process and populate local governing positions to save the future of Iraq's Sunnis. That was my ask, and it was carefully and politely worded.

The CIA knows that Abu Walid has been having his doubts about fighting alongside al-Qaeda and bin Laden ever since the Americans reacted so forcefully to 9/11. Joseph decides to take advantage of that doubt.

There was an incident in which his forces had to kill three al-Qaeda leaders after they had kidnapped a family, accused them of espionage and of cooperating with the enemy. And they murdered the two children in front of their parents.

And Abu Walid said that was a turning point to see that Al-Qaeda brutality has reached a new level and that they did not want them to remain in Iraq. Abu Walid says that he issued the edict to have the commanders killed. Even for a terrorist leader such as Walid, AQI are taking things too far.

And he told me at one point that he had complained directly to bin Laden that what al-Qaeda was doing in Iraq was tearing Iraq apart. Their fight was to rid Iraq of an occupation, whereas al-Qaeda was mayhem, destruction. The two keep verbal sparring until Walid says something which surprises Joseph.

Abu Walid said the word "Iqtanat" which translates into a very forthright declaration "I am now convinced". He could not have chosen stronger language in which to agree to the proposal. It's a major breakthrough and it might change the course of the war in Iraq. But Walid has conditions.

Abu Alid said that he would be willing to lay his arms against coalition forces but not against Shia death squads. He provided many examples of how Shia militias and death squads were obliterating entire Sunni neighborhoods,

and he could not fathom being asked to lay down any arms against them. Therefore, it was decided that we would proceed with the first step, and that was a cessation of hostilities against coalition forces. Another request is made by Walid. He wants Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two major Sunni countries, in the room as guarantors.

I knew in conflict resolution there is a process to any reconciliation and I was skipping quite a few steps. However, I told Abu Walid

I give you the guarantee of the United States of America, of the intelligence community, and if that is not good enough for you, I don't know how good the word of any other third party would be. This isn't to Walid's liking, but he agrees that the bureaucracy involved in making this happen would be vast and time-consuming. Joseph wants to keep it simple.

What was being asked was in the best interest of Iraq's Sunni population. Waleed now knows that time is against him and his people, and he agrees. Planning for a meeting in the Green Zone to make the ceasefire official begins immediately.

Getting a known terrorist leader into the zone requires supreme levels of organization. Every risk must be assessed. Every ounce of danger weighed. We also started the process of asking the military to release him from detention, process him out so he can attend this meeting. The meeting is set two weeks after the initial handshake.

surveillance and security around the Green Zone is amplified. After all, this could be an opportunity for Abiy Walid's final act of jihad, taking out hundreds of US personnel. When you're in a war zone, time is relative. You can't tell somebody to show up at 11 o'clock and expect him to be there.

There are so many other considerations such as checkpoints, violence, a terror attack. Many times we would cancel meetings with our sources due to a car bomb. He arrives by himself as agreed. He's searched and checked. He walks through the concrete barrier checkpoints on his own. He meets with Joseph who escorts him on foot to an undisclosed location run by coalition forces.

Members of the top military leadership in Iraq are there, including US generals, British generals, commanders and the CIA. And I will never forget that due to the involvement and presence of some of the British commanders, to break the ice they had offered Abu Walid some coffee and some scones and little cucumber sandwiches and some tea.

Joseph is still in shock that his phone call has made it this far. He introduces Abu Walid to the room. They want to make the ceasefire official to protect all of the countries who form the MNFI, the multinational force Iraq.

He is convinced that a ceasefire with coalition forces was the way forward, that he had spoken with Sam, and he now fully understands that the intentions of U.S. forces and coalition forces was not to remain in Iraq, not to steal Iraq's resources. They were looking for a way out. The meeting goes off without a hitch. No mistakes are made. The peace agreement is signed.

It was very cordial, it was measured, and there were no points of contention. Once a decision like this is made, how on earth do you get that message out to fighters? And how do you ensure they obey the order? Joseph's job is far from over.

The US tails Abu Walid as he leaves to make sure he sticks to his word. When he left the meeting, he went directly to meet with other leaders of other insurgent groups. There was a large amount of terrorist leaders gathered in a farm outside of Baghdad. Walid faces opposition to the ceasefire from various groups. He's also accused of being an American agent.

Factions of the US military want to seize the opportunity of having so many of the most wanted terrorists all in one place. They're in the middle of nowhere, away from civilians. No collateral damage. They want to call in a strike.

Tensions are rising between the CIA and the military. The military wants to take the shot.

I panicked in terms of contact with insurgent leaders. This would have destroyed not just reconciliation efforts with his terrorist organizations, but with any other future organization that we want to reach out to. The future of the war is still so uncertain. There would be retaliatory attacks against coalition forces, against Iraqi forces. It would have just deepened the abyss.

Fortunately for the CIA, the strike doesn't materialize. But no matter how much equipment, skill, personnel, funding, grit and perseverance they have, what happens next is completely out of their hands. 24 hours later, Abu Walid made the most important decision of the entire war. He gave approval for a ceasefire. Had we not

taking him out, we would not be here talking about this today. It would be a different outcome in Iraq. The leaders disperse. Joseph can breathe. What happens next vindicates Joseph's one-shot-in-a-million plan. His group immediately and unconditionally ceased all hostilities against U.S. forces and coalition forces.

The amount of power that Abu Walid had is scary, that he is able to command thousands of fighters to fight or lay down their arms. And it went to show how a direct approach, a personal approach, a simple one at that, could have huge consequences. How Abu Walid actually made this happen, we'll never know. The information was redacted.

But his order reverberates across Iraq. He was, after all, the leader of Iraq's second most powerful terrorist group. Abu Walid's directive had a domino effect as more and more Sunnis came to the same realization and decided they should try an alternate method to achieving their objectives.

Joseph's foresight that Abu Walid's immense influence could span tribes, organizations and borders had been proven accurate. There was no plan B. Joseph's deceptively simple idea of just phoning Abu Walid resulted in a relative easing of the fighting in Iraq and allowed US forces to withdraw. More horror was to come in the shape of ISIS. But at this moment, the country had hope again.

Sometimes we really do face mountains. The important thing to remember is not to let intimidation or uncertainty fool you into thinking the obstacles are immovable. And we in the CIA never thought that this day would come when the leader of Iraq's largest insurgent group would issue a directive unconditionally and immediately

From something so small came huge and positive consequences. Many lives were saved. It doesn't matter if one life was spared by Abu Alid issuing that statement because somebody called him out of the blue and asked him to come and have some chai, have some tea and discuss reconciliation.

Joseph made it clear that he credits his CIA colleagues and senior field managers for the success of this operation. He added that he was grateful that he was cleared to share details of this operation for the first time, and that this is only a small window into the incredible hard work and sacrifices that his CIA colleagues continue to carry out on a daily basis. I'm Daisy Ridley. Join us next week for more crucial contact with True Spies.