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Dirty Wars
- The World Is a Battlefield
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 24 hrs and 9 mins
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Publisher's Summary
In this groundbreaking book of new reportage, sure to stir a global debate, journalist Jeremy Scahill - author of the acclaimed international best seller Blackwater - takes us into the heart of the War on Terror’s most dangerous battlefields as he chases down the most important foreign-policy story of our time.
From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen, Somalia, and beyond, Scahill speaks to the CIA agents, mercenaries, and elite Special Operations Forces operators who populate the dark side of American war-fighting. He goes deep into al Qaeda-held territory in Yemen and walks the streets of Mogadishu with CIA-backed warlords. We also meet the survivors of US night raids and drone strikes - including families of US citizens targeted for assassination by their own government - who reveal the human consequences of the dirty wars the United States struggles to keep hidden.
Written in a gripping, action-packed narrative nonfiction style, Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield reveals that, despite his pledge to bring accountability to US wars and to end Bush-era abuses, President Barack Obama has kept in place many of the most dangerous and secret programs that thrived under his predecessor. In stunning detail, Scahill exposes how Obama has escalated these secret US wars and has built up an elite secret US military unit that answers to no one but the president himself. Scahill reveals the existence of previously unreported secret prisons, kidnappings, assassinations, and cover-ups of covert operations gone terribly wrong.
In this remarkable story from the frontlines of the undeclared battlefields of the War on Terror, journalist Jeremy Scahill documents the new paradigm of American war: fought far from any declared battlefield, by units that do not officially exist, in thousands of operations a month that are never publicly acknowledged.
The devastating picture that emerges in Dirty Wars is of a secret US killing machine that has grown more powerful than whatever president happens to reside in the White House. Scahill argues that far from keeping the United States - and the world - safe from terrorism, these covert American wars ensure that the terror will grow and spread.
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- James Turney
- 08-23-13
Compelling, informative, balanced
Would you listen to Dirty Wars again? Why?
I started out thinking this book would be a total bashing of the Bush administration but the author was balanced in his treatment of current and past administrations.
Additionally it gave me a much better understanding of how the Executive branch of the US government has managed to side step most of the review process put in place at the end of the Vietnam war to control covert operations. It was real eye opener to hear how little hard evidence is required before a drone strike can be order and how little concern within administration there is for collateral damage and deaths caused by the strikes.
7 people found this helpful
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- Lanlady
- 06-08-13
fantastic book -- and disturbing
THANK YOU JEREMY SCAHILL for bringing us Dirty Wars -- this is a book that had to be written, and in my view it should be read by everyone who is concerned about where our country is headed in its relations with the rest of the world. Succeeds brilliantly in describing how, and why, our most secretive, clandestine defense and national security assets (JSCO, drones) have evolved into the weapons of choice of our political and military leaders, and the shattering implications of this trend. Throughout Dirty Wars we follow the saga of US citizen Anwar Awlaki, targeted for "elimination" by the Oval Office without a shred of due process. Scahill very skillfully puts his story into its global context, but at the same time brings us back again and again to the heart-breakening, human story behind the so-called "signature strike" -- assassination by any other name -- that ultimately killed Awlaki, Samir Khan (another young American), and, soon thereafter, Awlaki's teenaged son and other family members.
Dirty Wars is not a hatchet job against Obama or Bush or any political group in particular. It's about how we as a nation have ceded basic constitutional rights and responsibilities in the name of fighting terrorism, even as, unwittingly, more terrorists and America-haters are created in consequence of our actions.
Scahill's book appears amid a flood of recent stories about NSA etc. harvesting all of our email and phone calls. But one question I haven't heard the media ask is: what the heck are they doing with all that information, what is its practical purpose? But having read Dirty Wars, the answer is pretty clear: they're using it to detect patterns of behavior and build out profiles and "signatures" for the list of kill targets that goes to the president's desk. All of this is going on extra-judicially, beyond any attempt at oversight, much less within legal structures. It is frightening.
24 people found this helpful
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- aaron
- 05-11-13
Non political BUT very anti-violence
First off, this is a GREAT book. Very well researched, full of new information, and written in a way that will hold your attention; especially if you enjoy CIA/black ops/ SEALs stuff.
Now for the negative, and it's not really a negative, just something you should keep in mind.
This author comes across as VERY anti-targeted strikes/ anti-drones. In fairness, he does present both sides of the argument, but he presents much more of the "innocent civilian casualties" side than perhaps is necessary.
He tends to disregard the mindset of most Americans, which is "if people are hanging out with terrorists (IE in the same car with them), then they are probably people that are a threat to the US" I'm not saying I agree with this, and there are always exceptions, but it's certainly a stance that deserved more weight in the book. Let's face it, other than journalists, there aren't many "innocent" people riding around in cars in the desert with the leaders of Al Qaeda. There just aren't.
This didn't paint my enjoyment of the book, however. The author doesn't beat you over the head with one particular opinion or the other, he just simply spends a bit too much time talking to the family members of suspected terrorists. For the most part, he sets out all the facts and lets you decide. I'd give this book 5 stars, simply based on the classified information and incredible interviews that are inside. The story and narrator make it outstanding.
36 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 07-18-13
Great book, wrong voice
Any additional comments?
I have only just begun listening to this book and as expected it has all the diligent and intelligent insight and reporting I expect from Scahill. However, Maddow, Soufan, Hastings, all found the time to be able to narrate their books themselves not to mention Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbertt. This narrators voice has just thrown me off from the beginning and for a book that is so definitely steeped in Jeremy Scahill's unique intelectual voice it would be nice to have his physical voice as well.
Nonetheless great start to what I am sure will be a great book.
7 people found this helpful
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- T. Barber
- 10-23-14
Heavy and Unnerving
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Listening to this book feels a bit like being in a military briefing. It is so jam packed with information and the reader delivers every piece with the same level importance. I found it tough to listen to for long periods of time.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
This book makes me angry. I don't know that I've ever heard in this much detail the specifics of the US military actions around the world. It's disheartening to hear all of it... albeit important to be made aware of.
Any additional comments?
Jeremy Scahill is one of the few reporters in the world that I trust at this point.
2 people found this helpful
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- David
- 03-07-14
JSOC
I thought this would be a good story about the possible unlawful use of force by the American military in other countries and, to a large degree, it was. But, in telling the story, the author also provided an incredible picture of one of the most effective and efficient non-traditional military forces in the world - JSOC. It amazes how well they are trained, supplied, and led while, at the same time, are abused by the very government they serve.
This was one of the best books I have read about the US special operations world.
5 people found this helpful
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- James
- 07-01-13
Good book, with some unfortunate character flaws
Dirty Wars is a very thorough retelling of the expanded global war on terror. It manages to weave together disparate actions into a larger, more visible whole which is no small feat.
However, Mr. Scahill's effort begins to wear on you a little towards the end. The overly repetitive theme of USA as bumbling agent of blind vengeance starts to feel like more of an antagonism as opposed to a legitimate analysis of events. This position also starts to make him look almost sympathetic to the terrorists - constantly pointing out JSOC and the WH's ineptitude while glossing over the actions of AQAP, Al Shabaab and others as just mere bullet points to be communicated.
All in all it's a good read and informative, but unnecessarily slanted which tends to sap credibility towards the end.
11 people found this helpful
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- PeacefulSeeker
- 05-15-13
USA: Still the Same Country as Before
Answer: Kill them, unless you can torture them first. What was the question?
If you're looking for the country that ruthlessly eliminated indigenous peoples, tried to annex Canada in 1812, then annexed Texas from Mexico, then invaded Mexico, occupying Mexico City hoping to seize the continent by divine mandate, who invaded and conquered Hawaii, who then went after territories around the planet--you'll find she's alive and kicking, stomping and shooting.
This amply researched work reveals the dark side that so many pretend is not there or know is there but imagine there's nothing wrong with bellicose imperialism.
If this book won't provide a stroke of conscience, nothing will.
20 people found this helpful
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- Ryan D. Gilbert
- 06-26-13
Glutton of editorializing spoils the meat of story
It quickly becomes obvious as to where the author stands with his view on war, and what he thinks of the United States when it comes to geopolitics. It's hard to discern fact from fiction, because the author integrates so much of his own hyperbole with hard facts, and first person testimony, it becomes a convoluted mess.
There are some very interesting stories and research the author has done, but at times it feels like on Oliver Stone movie where he's presenting the data in a way that supports his opinion as opposed to just giving the reader the facts. Almost every personal testimony presents them as an innocent civilian, who has been unfairly targeted by the evil US government.
I don't think there was any story the author presented where the US government was presented in a positive light. This is what irked me the most, because I'm not naive enough to believe that there isn't a ton of nasty things that any government does when it comes to Special Ops, but I didn't get this book to listen to an author give his opinion on this stuff. Just give me the facts!
The only person I would recommend this book to, is anyone who is anti-war or who doesn't agree with how the US Government is handling the war on terror. This book would be very good for you, because it does present great information and your opinion will line up with what the author feels as well.
For anyone else, I would NOT recommend this book.There are lots of other books out there that present this same information is a much more factual presentation, and with a more interactive writing style. By the end, I could barely finish listening to this book as it was just becoming unbearable.
13 people found this helpful
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- Valde Garcia
- 06-20-22
Don’t bother.
This has to be among the top three most biased books I’ve ever read or listened to. Many of the incidents mentioned here I have read or listened to in other books. Listening to them was almost like reading a different story. The majority of his sources were people who had but one perspective and it would not be much of an exaggeration to say that 99% of the adjectives and adverbs used were such that they gave the most sinister and diabolical view of the situation. Every word was used to paint a very dark picture of what occurred. While it had two or three technical errors in the book, the general events presented did occur. The motivations he listed for why they occurred, did not. If you want to read an objective view about the War on Terror, this is NOT it.
Related to this topic
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In The Longest War, Peter Bergen offers a comprehensive history of this war and its evolution, from the strategies devised in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to the fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond. Weaving together internal documents from al-Qaeda and the U.S. offices of counterterrorism, first-person interviews with top-level jihadists and senior Washington officials, along with his own experiences on the ground in the Middle East, Bergen balances the accounts of each side.
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very good, completes the picture - take a listen
- By J on 03-13-11
By: Peter L. Bergen
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The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world’s leading expert on Osama bin Laden delivers for the first time the definitive biography of a man who set the course of American foreign policy for the 21st century, and whose ideological heirs we continue to battle today.
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Well written and exciting
- By Nancy on 08-19-21
By: Peter L. Bergen
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Twilight Warriors
- The Soldiers, Spies, and Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War
- By: James Kitfield
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Twilight Warriors, award-winning foreign correspondent James Kitfield introduces us to the tight-knit brotherhood that strives to keep the United States safe from the dimly understood threats it now faces. Together these men have broken down the boundaries between their respective agencies to engineer a network-centric way of fighting using a seamless web of intelligence analysts, information networks, FBI forensics experts, and Special Forces units to take the fight to America's enemies as never before.
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South African Perspectives
- By Bernard Remacle on 03-22-17
By: James Kitfield
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The Way of the Knife
- The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth
- By: Mark Mazzetti
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Mazzetti examines secret wars over the past decade, tracking key characters from the intelligence and military communities across the world. Among the characters we meet in The Way of the Knife are a young CIA officer dropped into the tribal areas to learn the hard way how the spy games in Pakistan are played; an Air Force test pilot who fired the first drone missile in the Nevada desert; and a chain-smoking Pentagon official who ran an off-the-books spying operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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Excellent critique of covert operations
- By Keefer on 04-27-13
By: Mark Mazzetti
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The Management of Savagery
- How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump
- By: Max Blumenthal
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Management of Savagery, Max Blumenthal excavates the real story behind America's dealings with the world and shows how the extremist forces that now threaten peace across the globe are the inevitable flowering of America's imperial designs. Washington's secret funding of the mujahedin provoked the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. With guns and money, the United States has ever since sustained the extremists, including Osama Bin Laden, who have become its enemies.
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Middle management of savagery.
- By jeff on 09-03-19
By: Max Blumenthal
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Reign of Terror
- How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump
- By: Spencer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Spencer Ackerman
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For an entire generation, at home and abroad, the United States has waged an endless conflict known as the War on Terror. In addition to multiple ground wars, the era pioneered drone strikes and industrial-scale digital surveillance, weakened the rule of law through indefinite detentions, sanctioned torture, and manipulated the truth about it all. These conflicts have yielded neither peace nor victory, but they have transformed America. Today’s nativist resurgence walked through a door opened by the 9/11 era. And that door remains open.
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Insightful and true, but leftist
- By Danel.Rakovski on 08-18-21
By: Spencer Ackerman
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The Longest War
- America and Al-Qaeda Since 9/11
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Longest War, Peter Bergen offers a comprehensive history of this war and its evolution, from the strategies devised in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to the fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond. Weaving together internal documents from al-Qaeda and the U.S. offices of counterterrorism, first-person interviews with top-level jihadists and senior Washington officials, along with his own experiences on the ground in the Middle East, Bergen balances the accounts of each side.
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very good, completes the picture - take a listen
- By J on 03-13-11
By: Peter L. Bergen
-
The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world’s leading expert on Osama bin Laden delivers for the first time the definitive biography of a man who set the course of American foreign policy for the 21st century, and whose ideological heirs we continue to battle today.
-
-
Well written and exciting
- By Nancy on 08-19-21
By: Peter L. Bergen
-
Twilight Warriors
- The Soldiers, Spies, and Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War
- By: James Kitfield
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Twilight Warriors, award-winning foreign correspondent James Kitfield introduces us to the tight-knit brotherhood that strives to keep the United States safe from the dimly understood threats it now faces. Together these men have broken down the boundaries between their respective agencies to engineer a network-centric way of fighting using a seamless web of intelligence analysts, information networks, FBI forensics experts, and Special Forces units to take the fight to America's enemies as never before.
-
-
South African Perspectives
- By Bernard Remacle on 03-22-17
By: James Kitfield
-
The Way of the Knife
- The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth
- By: Mark Mazzetti
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Mazzetti examines secret wars over the past decade, tracking key characters from the intelligence and military communities across the world. Among the characters we meet in The Way of the Knife are a young CIA officer dropped into the tribal areas to learn the hard way how the spy games in Pakistan are played; an Air Force test pilot who fired the first drone missile in the Nevada desert; and a chain-smoking Pentagon official who ran an off-the-books spying operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
-
-
Excellent critique of covert operations
- By Keefer on 04-27-13
By: Mark Mazzetti
-
The Management of Savagery
- How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump
- By: Max Blumenthal
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Management of Savagery, Max Blumenthal excavates the real story behind America's dealings with the world and shows how the extremist forces that now threaten peace across the globe are the inevitable flowering of America's imperial designs. Washington's secret funding of the mujahedin provoked the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. With guns and money, the United States has ever since sustained the extremists, including Osama Bin Laden, who have become its enemies.
-
-
Middle management of savagery.
- By jeff on 09-03-19
By: Max Blumenthal
-
Reign of Terror
- How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump
- By: Spencer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Spencer Ackerman
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For an entire generation, at home and abroad, the United States has waged an endless conflict known as the War on Terror. In addition to multiple ground wars, the era pioneered drone strikes and industrial-scale digital surveillance, weakened the rule of law through indefinite detentions, sanctioned torture, and manipulated the truth about it all. These conflicts have yielded neither peace nor victory, but they have transformed America. Today’s nativist resurgence walked through a door opened by the 9/11 era. And that door remains open.
-
-
Insightful and true, but leftist
- By Danel.Rakovski on 08-18-21
By: Spencer Ackerman
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From Warsaw with Love
- Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging of an Unlikely Alliance
- By: John Pomfret
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
From the award-winning and acclaimed author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, From Warsaw with Love tells the epic story of how Polish intelligence officers forged an alliance with the CIA in the twilight of the Cold War. In 1990, soon after the Polish people voted in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Polish government sent a veteran spy, who’d battled the West for decades, to rescue six American officers trapped in Baghdad.
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Great story and good listen
- By matt r on 07-04-22
By: John Pomfret
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The Spymasters
- How the CIA's Directors Shape History and Guard the Future
- By: Chris Whipple
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
With unprecedented access to more than a dozen individuals who have made the life-and-death decisions that come with running the world’s most powerful and influential intelligence service, Chris Whipple tells the story of an agency that answers to the United States president alone, but whose activities — spying, espionage, and covert action — take place on every continent. At pivotal moments, the CIA acts as a counterforce against rogue presidents, starting in the mid-70s with DCI Richard Helms’s refusal to conceal Richard Nixon’s criminality.
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Just HORRIBLE
- By Joe Rensin on 01-11-21
By: Chris Whipple
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State of War
- The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
- By: James Risen
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
With relentless media coverage, breathtaking events, and extraordinary congressional and independent investigations, it is hard to believe that we still might not know some of the most significant facts about the presidency of George W. Bush. Yet beneath the surface events of the Bush presidency lies a secret history, a series of hidden events that makes a mockery of current debate.
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Critical to understanding how we got to Snowden.
- By Oak Nut on 06-27-14
By: James Risen
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The Afghanistan Papers
- A Secret History of the War
- By: Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: Defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off-course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives.
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Eye-Opening Book
- By David J Ray on 09-01-21
By: Craig Whitlock, and others