Samuel P.N. Cook

Major Samuel P.N. Cook, USA (born February 1, 1978) is a former commander of the United States Army’s 3rd ACR Crazyhorse Scout Troop who was responsible for implementing an insurgent amnesty program in the Sharqat area of Iraq's Salahuddin province in November 2007. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy (West Point) and recently completed his M.A. in World History from New York University.

Insurgent Amnesty Program
Captain Cook was commanding the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment's C troop in the northern Tigris Valley in Salahuddin province and had been pursuing a leader of Al Queda, who eventually decided to stop running and talk.

He provided information on the whereabouts of a higher al Qaeda leader for the province, who was killed in a firefight two weeks later. He also told them that al Qaeda in Iraq had three major sources of funding: crime, the Kurds, and the Iranians. Cook would use this information adroitly, asking local Sunni insurgents why they thought al Qaeda was their friends, if it was on the payroll of the dreaded Persian power.

Cook began appealing to the insurgents with signs of respect, such as wishing a happy Eid al-Fitr, and sending letters to local villages asking insurgents to cooperate with the American troops. Sarhan Hassan Wisme, a local legend, who had boasted of over 200 car bombs and numerous other killings, had come forward to discuss the insurgency and cooperation with the American captain. As taken from "The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008" by Thomas E. Ricks, "Captain, you just make me out to be a very bad man, saying I have murdered, raped, and stolen," Sarhan protested, according to those notes. "I fight only the Americans, and all of Sharqat is my witness." "What about car bombs?" Cook asked. "If you have witnesses that I was part of a car bombing, then you can kill me right now," the insurgent responded indignantly. "You are part of a group and ideology that is destroying Iraq," Cook said, not willing to cede any moral ground. "We have enough evidence to shoot you on sight. . . . When you leave, unless this meeting goes very well, I will still try to kill you."

Sarhan, hesitant to turn himself in, as he was initially a local who was simply bringing himself in to discuss the insurgency, finally turned himself in on February 4, 2008. "The mufti for al Qaeda who had been so potent in his rhetoric against us gave the opening remarks at the reconciliation conference in mid-February in front of over a thousand people. He was now telling most of his erstwhile colleagues in the insurgency why it was time to lay down their weapons,” Cook said.