
Directorate S
The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
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Narrated by:
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Malcolm Hillgartner
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By:
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Steve Coll
About this listen
Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Nonfiction
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars, the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11.
Prior to 9/11, the United States had been carrying out small-scale covert operations in Afghanistan, ostensibly in cooperation, although often in direct opposition, with I.S.I., the Pakistani intelligence agency. While the US was trying to quell extremists, a highly secretive and compartmentalized wing of I.S.I., known as "Directorate S", was covertly training, arming, and seeking to legitimize the Taliban, in order to enlarge Pakistan's sphere of influence. After 9/11, when 59 countries, led by the US, deployed troops or provided aid to Afghanistan in an effort to flush out the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the US was set on an invisible slow-motion collision course with Pakistan.
Today, we know that the war in Afghanistan would falter badly because of military hubris at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the drain on resources and provocation in the Muslim world caused by the US-led invasion of Iraq, and corruption. But, more than anything, as Coll makes painfully clear, the war in Afghanistan was doomed because of the failure of the United States to apprehend the motivations and intentions of I.S.I.'s "Directorate S". This was a swirling and shadowy struggle of historic proportions, which endured over a decade and across both the Bush and Obama administrations, involving multiple secret intelligence agencies, a litany of incongruous strategies and tactics, and dozens of players, including some of the most prominent military and political figures. A sprawling American tragedy, the war was an open clash of arms but also a covert melee of ideas, secrets, and subterranean violence.
Coll excavates this grand battle, which took place away from the gaze of the American public. With unsurpassed expertise, original research, and attention to detail, he brings to life a narrative at once vast and intricate, local and global, propulsive and painstaking. This is the definitive explanation of how America came to be so badly ensnared in an elaborate, factional, and seemingly interminable conflict in South Asia. Nothing less than a forensic examination of the personal and political forces that shape world history, Directorate S is a complete masterpiece of both investigative and narrative journalism.
©2017 Steve Coll (P)2017 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"[A]journalistic masterpiece...Coll succeeds on all levels.... Coll is masterful at plumbing the depths of agencies and sects within both Afghanistan and Pakistan.... In this era of fake news, Coll remains above it all, this time delivering an impeccably researched history of diplomacy at the highest levels of government in Washington, Islamabad, and Kabul." (Kirkus Reviews, starred)
“With his evenhanded approach, gift for limning character, and dazzling reporting skills, he has created an essential work of contemporary history.” (Booklist, starred)
“The most comprehensive work to date on the US war in Afghanistan.... Coll’s vital work provides a factual and analytical foundation for all future work on the Afghan War and US policy in Central Asia.” (Publisher’s Weekly)
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- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The audio edition of On the Grand Trunk Road is finally available, revised and updated with new material. Focusing on Coll's journeys in conflict-ridden India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afghanistan as a bureau chief for The Washington Post, On the Grand Trunk Road reveals a little-seen area of the world where violence, corruption, and greed have had devastating effects on South Asians from all walks of life.
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Another good book ruined by appalling narration
- By AG on 03-01-16
By: Steve Coll
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The Unit
- My Life Fighting Terrorists as One of America's Most Secret Military Operatives
- By: Adam Gamal, Kelly Kennedy
- Narrated by: Adam Gamal, Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Inside our military is a team of operators whose work is so secretive that the name of the unit itself is classified. Highly-trained in warfare, self-defense, infiltration, and deep surveillance, "the Unit," as the Department of Defense has asked us to refer to it, has been responsible for preventing dozens of terrorist attacks in the Western world. Never before has a member of this unit shared their story — until now.
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Meh
- By Anonymous User on 03-06-24
By: Adam Gamal, and others
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Black Flags
- The Rise of ISIS
- By: Joby Warrick
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In a thrilling dramatic narrative, awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents.
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So much learned
- By mike flavin on 02-11-16
By: Joby Warrick
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The Looming Tower
- Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Lawrence Wright
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.
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Supremely thorough and interesting
- By Josh on 10-05-17
By: Lawrence Wright
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Fiasco
- The American Military Adventure in Iraq
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
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The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.
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History not Politics
- By Scott on 08-10-06
By: Thomas E. Ricks
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The Withdrawal
- Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of US Power
- By: Vijay Prashad, Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Not since the last American troops left Vietnam have we faced such a sudden vacuum in our foreign policy—not only of authority, but also of explanations of what happened, and what the future holds. Few analysts are better poised to address this moment than Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad, intellectuals and critics whose work spans generations and continents.
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There is nothing better than a Chomsky book.
- By Eric Andrade on 10-06-22
By: Vijay Prashad, and others
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The Wrong Enemy
- America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014
- By: Carlotta Gall
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Combining searing personal accounts of battles and betrayals with moving portraits of the ordinary Afghans who were caught up in the conflict for more than a decade, The Wrong Enemy is a sweeping account of a war brought by American leaders against an enemy they barely understood and could not truly engage.
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Thank you
- By Abdullah Noori on 07-03-23
By: Carlotta Gall
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The Killing of Osama Bin Laden
- By: Seymour M. Hersh
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2011, an elite group of US Navy SEALS stormed an enclosure in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden, the man the United States had begun chasing before the devastating attacks of 9/11. The news did much to boost President Obama’s first term and played a major part in his reelection victory of the following year. But much of the story of that night, as presented to the world, was incomplete, or a lie. The evidence of what actually went on remains hidden.
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Ridiculous
- By Amazon Customer on 08-22-17
By: Seymour M. Hersh
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The Fourth Man
- The Hunt for a KGB Spy at the Top of the CIA and the Rise of Putin's Russia
- By: Robert Baer
- Narrated by: Robert Baer, Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of the Cold War, American intelligence caught three high-profile Russian spies: Aldrich Ames, Edward Lee Howard, and Robert Hanssen. However, rumors have long swirled of another mole, one perhaps more damaging than all the others combined. Perhaps the greatest traitor in American history, perhaps a Russian ruse to tear the CIA apart, or perhaps nothing more than a bogeyman, he is often referred to as the Fourth Man.
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A Who Done it without The Who Did it
- By Amazon Customer on 05-25-22
By: Robert Baer
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First In
- An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan
- By: Gary C. Schroen
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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While America held its breath in the days immediately following 9/11, a small but determined group of CIA agents covertly began to change history. This is the riveting first-person account of the treacherous top-secret mission inside Afghanistan to set the stage for the defeat of the Taliban and launch the war on terror. As thrilling as any novel, First In is a uniquely intimate look at a mission that began the US retaliation against terrorism - and reclaimed the country of Afghanistan for its people.
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A Courageous tale
- By DKSTRYKER on 02-19-25
By: Gary C. Schroen
awesome read
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I didn't appreciate how brief certain topics were. should be cheaper 😉.
thrilling read, a bit general and brief
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Eye opening for sure!!
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Explains what a commitment of war is.
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The Definitive Story of the Afghan War
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the book is well written, authoritative, and it's multi angular perspective makes the book a must read for anyone willing to know how some of the mightiest powers of the world got bogged down in a land of sand stuck in medieval norms.
Enthralling narrative of a bloody triangular mess
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Great Story
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Good,but
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This book is a mammoth well researched and extremely well written narrative of our messy attempts to modernize a medieval country.
OUR TANGLED WEB IN SOUTH ASIA POST 9/11
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Very comprehensive
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