During the 1990’s, Charles Duelfer spent more time in Iraq than any other American. As the senior intelligence officer in search of weapons of mass destruction, he had interviewed top members of the regime. He knew the culture and understood the fears and phobias of those who had lived under Saddam. When Saddam Hussein was finally apprehended, Duelfer was put in charge of his interrogation.

Duelfer also knew many Iraqi citizens who were accomplished, qualified, and not sympathetic to the Saddam regime. Yet a fundamental lack of understanding between the US and Iraq had developed during the long period of sanctions. The resulting miscalculations were disastrous for both sides.

In 2004, President Bush asked Duelfer to investigate the Saddam regime and WMD to find out why U.S. estimates had been so wrong. The resulting Duelfer report is the comprehensive assessment about the search for WMDs in Iraq. But his book, Hide and Seek, is a more personal account of the people, events, and lost opportunities in the post-invasion years. It gives the American and Iraqi perspectives on why decisions were made, where they went wrong, and what might have been done to bring a smooth transition.

Charles Duelfer served as the deputy chairman of the United Nations weapons inspection team. He was also the leader of the Iraq Survey Group. He left the CIA in 2005 after a twenty year career as an intelligence officer.