But within weeks, Charles “Sam” Faddis knew the Jordanian’s home address, down to the square meter on his targeting grid.The chances to go after Zarqawi would never be better than this.Faddis, a six-foot-two navy captain’s son from the Appalachian foothills of southwestern Pennsylvania, had slipped into Iraq with a team of CIA operatives to gather intelligence on Iraqi military units as well as Ansar al-Islam, the militant oddballs who lived on the Iranian border and maintained loose ties with al-Qaeda. Though already forty-seven and a lawyer, he had pushed hard for the assignment. Faddis had been anxious to find a way to get into the fight after the September 11 attacks, and his counterterrorism background, Middle East experience, and mastery of Turkish had made him particularly suited to lead the mission. Now he and his team were living in safe houses and conducting surveillance of Ansar al-Islam’s base, home to Zarqawi and several dozen other refugee jihadis from Afghanistan.
