Christopher Strom - Brooklyn to Baghdad: An NYPD Intelligence Cop Fights Terror in Iraq

I FIRST MET CHRIS STROM in the winter of 2002. I was interviewing him for a very sensitive assignment within the Intelligence Division of the New York City Police Department. Between the flood of endorsements from his peers, the accolades from his supervisor, and the research I had done on my own, I had gotten a pretty clear picture of the man who was sitting before me. It took only a few minutes to confirm all of my positive preconceptions.

Here was someone who was modest, intelligent, diligent, and able to work well with others. A person who was dedicated not only to his job but also to performing quality work and excelling in his career at a rapid speed. Most important, I saw a man who was willing to give his all to protect the city of New York.

The position was for a field intelligence officer, and it required a person who was highly motivated and had excellent knowledge of investigations and a willingness to work in the gray areas of law enforcement. There was no rule book for this job. Not even rough guidelines. The job was what you made of it, and Chris exceeded all expectations for a candidate.

Although Chris was being interviewed for a position working in one of the citys seventy-six precincts as a solo field investigator, I already had an idea that he would be a natural fit for supervising one of our investigation teams. Shortly after being picked up as a field intelligence officer, Chris was shifted to supervise a team.

In the wake of September 11, the Intelligence Division had transformed, and Chriss team had a huge task to perform. Its sole responsibility was to investigate tips generated by the community. If you were one of the thousands of people who took the See something, say something slogan as a call to action, be content in the knowledge that Chis and his team investigated each and every tip to its fullest.

The key to Chriss success in this role was his dedication, which motivated his team to be diligent. He understood that one of these tips could be the only indication of another attack. Although most investigations led to a reasonable explanation with no nexus to terrorism, no stone was left unturned. Some of these tips were passed on for their intelligence value, and a few of them became the catalyst for bigger terrorism cases. His team investigated tip number twenty thousand with the same sense of dedication and importance as tip number one. He led by example and always looked out for his guys.

When Chris retired from the NYPD, it was of little surprise to find out he wasnt taking it easy on a beach down in Florida. He wasnt on a suburban backyard deck flipping burgers while wearing a chefs hat and an apron. He was instead in harms way, as he had always been. Keeping us safe from a distance, overseas. For this and countless other reasons I will always regard him as truly one of New Yorks finest and one of those guys I could always count on to have my back.

And now he has gifted us with this book, an exhilarating and infuriating look at busting bad guys on both sides of the Earth. Feel secure that the man about to tell you his story of law enforcement from Brooklyn to Baghdad is of the utmost character. You are in good hands.

NYPD DEPUTY INSPECTOR VINCENT MARRA,
OPERATIONS COMMANDER, INTELLIGENCE DIVISION, RET.

THIS IS A TRUE STORY. When possible, spoken words have been quoted verbatim. However, when that was not possible, conversations have been reconstructed as closely as possible to reality based on the recollections of those who spoke and heard the words. In places speech has been slightly edited, but only to improve readability. The denotations and connotations of the words remain unaltered. In some cases, witnesses are credited with verbal quotes that in reality occurred only in written form.

Some locations have been changed for security reasons, and the names and other identifying details of some individuals and organizations have been fictionalized. This is sometimes to protect them, but also sometimes because Ive forgotten a name, or knew the person only by a nickname, or knew someones name but havent got a clue how to spell it. Please dont assume that a fictionalized name means something sinister. Ive always made the changes with your reading ease in mind. Fictionalized names will be italicized on first mention. Any resemblance between fictionalized names and the names of real persons is strictly coincidental.