
Ghost Wars
The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
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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
Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2005
Lionel Gelber Prize
New York Times Notable Book
The explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan.
With the publication of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll became not only a Pulitzer Prize winner, but also the expert on the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of Bin Laden, and the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill Bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998.
©2011 Steve Coll (P)2011 PenguinListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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-
-
Supremely thorough and interesting
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-
The American War in Afghanistan
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, is now the longest armed conflict in the nation's history. It is currently winding down, and American troops are likely to leave soon - but only after a stay of nearly two decades.
-
-
A superb summary of the Afghan war
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Performance
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Story
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Critic reviews
“Certainly the finest historical narrative so far on the origins of al Qaeda in the post-Soviet rubble of Afghanistan . . . Ghost Wars provides fresh details and helps explain the motivations behind many crucial decisions.”—The New York Times Book Review
“The CIA itself would be hard put to beat his grasp of global events . . . Deeply satisfying.”—The New York Review of Books
“A well written, authoritative, high-altitude drama with few heroes, many villains, bags of cash, and a tragic ending—one that may not have been inevitable.”—The Washington Post
What was one of the most memorable moments of Ghost Wars?
Interesting detail of how first the US and Saudi Arabia supported the taliban, and later how Pakistan supported the Taliban and Bin Laden.Fascinating background to 9/11
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Exhaustive and enlightening
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Provides context for the post-9/11 world
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Where does Ghost Wars rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
It's a decent enough book but it's heavily aimed at Afghanistan with a sprinkling of information on the CIA and Bin Laden.Has Ghost Wars turned you off from other books in this genre?
Not at all.What about Malcolm Hillgartner’s performance did you like?
Excellent narrator, let down by sloppy editing. Sentences cut off before words are finished. Lines repeated.If you could give Ghost Wars a new subtitle, what would it be?
A history of AfghanistanAny additional comments?
Overly long.Badly edited audio spoils it
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informative
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Story - Amazing, Production Quality - Mediocre
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A Masterpiece.
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What made the experience of listening to Ghost Wars the most enjoyable?
great story telling, accurate and abundant information, unbiased reporting.What aspect of Malcolm Hillgartner’s performance would you have changed?
the russian helicopter in the book is a Mil-17, through out the read, he reads it as an MiG 17. for someone with a decent military hardware background, it drove me nuts. couple of other similar misuse of technical terms.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
noAny additional comments?
glitches in the recording, skipped lines and sentences. could be a bad burn to CD...great book, minor recording/narrating flaws
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Terrible editing
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Any additional comments?
Packed with a lot of substance, I kept trying to take notes on those things that were new to me. I certainly learned a lot about these decades. This book contravenes some well rooted myths about the CIA, Taliban and other actors. The CIA did a heroic job in Astan. The only drawback for me was organization and some redundancy in the material, although I didn't mind too much.A good historical account...
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