Chain of Command
The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
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Narrated by:
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Peter Friedman
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By:
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Seymour M. Hersh
About this listen
Hersh established himself at the forefront of investigative journalism 35 years ago when he broke the news of the massacre in My Lai, Vietnam, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Ever since, he's challenged America's power elite by publishing the stories that others can't or won't tell.
In Chain of Command, Hersh takes an unflinching look behind the public story of President Bush's "war on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. With an introduction by The New Yorker's editor, David Remnick, Chain of Command is a devastating portrait of an administration blinded by ideology and of a President whose decisions have made the world a more dangerous place for America.
Don't miss Seymour Hersh with David Remnick at The New Yorker Festival.©2004 Seymour M. Hersh (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
- Audie Award Finalist, Short Stories/Collections, 2005
"Chain of Command is the best book we are likely to have, this close to events, about why the United States went from leading an international coalition...to fighting alone in Iraq and, in Abu Ghraib, to violating the very human rights it said it had come to restore....This book reminds us why tough, skeptical journalism matters so much: it helps to keep us free." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Mr. Hersh's work is necessary reading for anyone remotely interested in what went wrong and continues to go wrong in Iraq, and how the Bush administration came to take America to war there in the first place." (The New York Times)
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Story
Ever since 9/11 America has fought an endless war on terror, seeking enemies everywhere and never promising peace. In Pay Any Price, James Risen reveals an extraordinary litany of the hidden costs of that war: from squandered and stolen dollars, to outrageous abuses of power, to wars on normalcy, decency, and truth. In the name of fighting terrorism, our government has done things every bit as shameful as its historic wartime abuses - and until this audiobook, it has worked very hard to cover them up.
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If you care about our liberties, read this book.
- By John L. Moncrief on 11-02-14
By: James Risen
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Hubris
- The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War
- By: Michael Isikoff, David Corn
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This fast-paced, behind-the-scenes narrative tells the inside story of how the Bush administration used bad intelligence to sell and then justify the Iraq war. Veteran reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn take the reader behind the scenes at the White House, the CIA, the Pentagon, the State Department, and Congress, where controversial decisions and turf battles were fought in the highest circles of the Bush administration.
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Hubris
- By Pamela on 12-19-06
By: Michael Isikoff, and others
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Your Government Failed You
- Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters
- By: Richard A. Clarke
- Narrated by: Richard A. Clarke
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Abridged
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In Your Government Failed You, Clarke looks at why failures have continued and how America and the world can succeed against the terrorists. But Clarke goes beyond terrorism to examine the recurring U.S. government disasters. Despite the lessons of Vietnam, we've gotten involved in Iraq. Drawing on his 30 years in the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and Intelligence Community, Clarke discovers patterns in the failure and suggests ways to stop the cycle.
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Stellar Criticism
- By Tim on 04-01-09
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The War Conspiracy
- JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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A remarkable analysis linking the assassination of JFK and 9/11, and how both events were used to influence war policy. Peter Dale Scott examines the many ways in which war policy has been driven by “accidents” and other events in the field, in some cases despite moves toward peace that were directed by presidents. This book explores the “deep politics” that exerts a profound but too-little-understood effect on national policy outside the control of traditional democratic processes.
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data dump on every rabbit hole
- By Shawn R. Veltheim on 12-20-18
By: Peter Dale Scott
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The New Nobility
- The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB
- By: Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogin
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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While Vladimir Putin has been president and prime minister of Russia, the Kremlin has deployed the security services to intimidate the political opposition, reassert the power of the state, and carry out assassinations overseas. At the same time, its agents and spies were put beyond public accountability and blessed with the prestige, benefits, and legitimacy lost since the Soviet collapse.
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A little difficult to follow
- By Jairus on 12-10-10
By: Andrei Soldatov, and others
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The Road to 9/11
- Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This is an ambitious, meticulous examination of how U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s has led to partial or total cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, including, perhaps, the catastrophe of 9/11. Peter Dale Scott, whose previous books have investigated CIA involvement in southeast Asia, the drug wars, and the Kennedy assassination, here probes how the policies of presidents since Nixon have augmented the tangled bases for the 2001 terrorist attack.
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Full of Interesting Information, Hard to Follow
- By Blizzard on 09-20-13
By: Peter Dale Scott
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The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam
- By: Douglas Valentine
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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A shocking expos of the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam, with a new introduction by the author. In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, America’s Central Intelligence Agency secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the “Viet Cong.”
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An Answer To My Unanswered Questions
- By JustBill on 08-27-19
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Known and Unknown
- A Memoir
- By: Donald Rumsfeld
- Narrated by: Donald Rumsfeld
- Length: 30 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful memoir from the late former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history. Both a fascinating narrative and an unprecedented glimpse into history, Known and Unknown captures the legacy of one of the most influential men in public service.
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Inside view of five decades in politics
- By Brooks on 02-19-11
By: Donald Rumsfeld
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Plan of Attack
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
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Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.
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Rorschach Test
- By Michael on 05-03-04
By: Bob Woodward
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Enemies
- A History of the FBI
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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We think of the FBI as America’s police force. But secret intelligence is the Bureau’s first and foremost mission. Enemies is the story of how presidents have used the FBI as the most formidable intelligence force in American history. This is the first definitive history of the FBI’s secret intelligence operations, from an author whose work on the Pentagon and the CIA won him the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
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Good book, just not for me
- By a on 11-12-12
By: Tim Weiner
What listeners say about Chain of Command
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Nancy
- 10-31-04
Reporting as it should be
This book brings you information in a factual, specific manner. It would appeal to readers with a good undertanding of and interest in current events. It will supplement your understanding of our world and the politics that shape it but a reader who has not followed current events or relies on "Fox News" would be lost. However, the Fox news junkie is absolutely the person who should read this. But for all of you fact/ real news junkies it is a must read. You will develop a profound respect for a real news journalist.
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38 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Dean Carter
- 09-09-05
journalistic coverage of Presidency gone bad
Hersh is a quality journalist who is documenting the travails of a sitting President who could very possibly go down in history as the most corrupt Presidency in history. A Presdent that is more concerned with showing his macho then with showing leadership. A single President that is doing more harm to political stability of the world then any President before him. Hersh documents everything but that is my problem wth the book, it is basically telling the story of Afganistan and Iraq by rehashing what he has already published, and adds very little analysis that gives us new insight into the problems that he talks about. Still all in all a quality listen.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Nicholas
- 10-12-04
Absolutely Fantastic
It comes as no surprise that Seymor Hersh has written another well written and well researched book, and it comes as no surprise that it's as entertaining to read as it is informative. Unlike so many of the "election time" books (Unfit For Command on the right, The Family on the left) This book is more than just unfounded libel, innuendo or poorly sourced junk. This is a book written by a veteran journalist and his skill shines through in the way he sources his work, and explains the nuances of the subject matter. In short, this book is a MUST READ (errr listen). As a bonus, the narration is excellent, but then, we've come to expect that from any product on Audible.com and they do deliver handsomly.
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134 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Robert
- 11-14-04
Good book - poorly read
Interesting historical and editorial material. Reader needs to learn to properly pronounce names. NOT Abu "Gareeb!" Annoying and distracting.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Blue Tooth
- 10-21-04
Fascinating and frightening insights
You owe it your country and our troops to become better informed about the status of our war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. Clearly, given the shifting stories from both sides of the political aisle and weak reporting on tv, you owe it to yourself to find other sources than politicians, spin artists and most broadcast news outlets. This is one source that provides explanations that fit the current situation and fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle.
I was interested in this book based on the author's prior writing on Abu Graib and Mei Lai, two events that were hard to even believe because they so contradicted our image of ourselves and the values of our country. But both were true and in many years of writing, Mr. Hirsch has been more right than wrong when he broke a story. Although the picture of the current administration is very disturbing, when I had the opportunity to read his sources, I found he had not mistated things. Since a lot of his sources are unnamed, you often have to trust the author but I think there is reason to do so.
A friend of mine in the Special Forces told me shortly after Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" that his comrades in Iraq expected an increasingly capable insurgency to mount a serious challenge to our occupation and he was right, not just because he was connected but because insurgencies often follow a predictable pattern. What is most interesting about this book is insight into how the current administration functions in spite of evidence and experience that contradicts their beliefs. At first I didn't feel that Iraq bore any relationship to Vietnam but as time goes on, I've come to believe that Iraq will be another war that cannot be won but one that costs us much more dearly.
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67 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Marc
- 08-02-05
Twist & Turn
The author has only shown that anyone can take a plotical position, twist it and turn it until it doesn't evenly remotely represent what really happened.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael
- 02-14-05
Chain of Compost
If you believe this hooey, you might as well order you socialist membership card now. I am an avid reader of political science and history - especially on current issues. However, some pieces should be kept on the Fiction shelf from which they were spawned. Talk about making assumptions, this book takes the cake. Save yourself the hours of drool logic, and get it all in about 30 minutes of NBC. I am sure that this book was written by Katie Couric under an adopted pen name.
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17 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Bruce Roquet
- 10-12-04
Yellow Journalism
What passes for journalism is designed only to push a particular world view that is opposed to that of the President's views. It is not intended to bring truth and light but only another viewpoint of the opposition to the President's re-election.
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61 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Rhonda
- 10-14-04
revelation
I did my best to find some truth in this audiobook, but in the end, the book was a pattern of corruption (and yes, yellow journalism) explained clearly; which made it all the more frightening and stomach churning.
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41 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Qbook
- 10-18-04
Reality is Showing Hersh to be Correct
Chilling!
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12 people found this helpful