
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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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
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Fascinating, An education on spying
- By Anthony on 12-13-15
By: Jack Devine
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Confront and Conceal
- Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power
- By: David E. Sanger
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Three and a half years ago, David Sanger’s book The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power described how a new American president came to office with the world on fire. Now, just as the 2012 presidential election battle begins, Sanger follows up with an eye-opening, news-packed account of how Obama has dealt with those challenges, relying on innovative weapons and reconfigured tools of American power to try to manage a series of new threats.
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Sobering reminder on what the presidency requires
- By Marilyn on 09-03-12
By: David E. Sanger
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A World of Trouble
- The White House and the Middle East
- By: Patrick Tyler
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Middle East is the beginning and the end of U.S. foreign policy: events there influence our alliances, make or break presidencies, govern the price of oil, and draw us into war. But it was not always so - and as Patrick Tyler shows in this thrilling chronicle of American misadventures in the region, the story of American presidents' dealings there is one of mixed motives, skulduggery, deceit, and outright foolishness, as well as of policymaking and diplomacy.
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Does't deliver
- By Matthew on 02-10-09
By: Patrick Tyler
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88 Days to Kandahar
- A CIA Diary
- By: Robert L. Grenier
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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In his gripping narrative, we meet General Tommy Franks, who bridles at CIA control of "his" war; General "Jafar Amin", a gruff Pakistani intelligence officer who saves Grenier from committing career suicide; Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's brilliant ambassador to the US, who tries to warn her government of the al-Qaeda threat; "Mark", the CIA operator who guides GulAgha Shirzai to bloody victory over the Taliban.
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Honest conclusion based on practical realities.
- By rehman on 03-30-15
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Holy War, Inc.
- Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: Peter L. Bergen
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Abridged
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The September 11 assault on the World Trade Center was the most sophisticated and horrifying in a series of operations masterminded by Osama bin Laden and his Jihad group - an organization that CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen calls Holy War, Inc. One of only a handful of journalists to have interviewed the world's most wanted man face to face, Bergen explains the Jihadist network that operates globally and in secrecy.
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sorry about spelling
- By Sergei on 10-18-07
By: Peter L. Bergen
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At the Center of the Storm
- My Years at the CIA
- By: George Tenet
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In the whirlwind of accusations and recriminations that has attended the post 9/11 world, one man's vital testimony has been conspicuously absent. Candid and compelling, At the Center of the Storm is George Tenet's memoir of his life at the CIA - a revelatory look at the inner workings of America's top intelligence agency and its dealings with national leaders at home and abroad.
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Brilliant!
- By Karen on 05-05-07
By: George Tenet
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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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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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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War on Peace
- The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
- By: Ronan Farrow
- Narrated by: Ronan Farrow
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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American diplomacy is under siege. Offices across the State Department sit empty while abroad, the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We're becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing account ranging from Washington, DC, to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea in the years since 9/11, acclaimed journalist and former diplomat Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history.
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Well Timed and Authoritative:
- By JC on 04-24-18
By: Ronan Farrow
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Shadow Strike
- Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power
- By: Yaakov Katz
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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On September 6, 2007, shortly after midnight, Israeli fighters advanced on Deir ez-Zour in Syria. Israel often flew into Syria as a warning to President Bashar al-Assad. But this time, there was no warning and no explanation. This was a covert operation, with one goal: to destroy a nuclear reactor being built by North Korea under a tight veil of secrecy in the Syrian desert. Shadow Strike tells, for the first time, the story of the espionage, military might and psychological warfare behind Israel’s operation to stop one of the greatest known acts of nuclear proliferation.
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Important Book!
- By Gerald J. Vogt on 05-10-19
By: Yaakov Katz
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Great modern history story
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Please no more accents!
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Great modern history story
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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
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A true story of family, ambition, and greed in the most bitter and controversial takeover struggle in business history. The high-stakes fight between Texaco and Pennzoil to take over Getty Oil is a startling and intriguing case involving family infighting, courtroom drama, and corporate intrigue that ends in bankruptcy and the largest damages award in American history.
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Sibling contention, intrique, courtroom drama
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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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The Terror Years
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With the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. This collection draws on several articles he wrote while researching that book as well as many that he's written since, following where and how al-Qaeda and its core cultlike beliefs have morphed and spread.
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Contains much old material from "Looming Tower"
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Overall
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So much learned
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Not a Good Day to Die
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At dawn on March 2, 2002, America's first major battle of the 21st century began. Over 200 soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Division flew into Afghanistan's Shah-i-Kotvalley - and into the mouth of a buzz saw. They were about to pay a bloody price for strategic, high-level miscalculations that underestimated the enemy's strength and willingness to fight.
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50/50
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Overall
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In a cloak-and-dagger story of spies, saboteurs, and secret agents, Kinzer reveals the involvement of Eisenhower, Churchill, Kermit Roosevelt, and the CIA in Operation Ajax, which restored Mohammad Reza Shah to power. Reza imposed a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection.
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Hard to please
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Life Stories
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One of art's purest challenges is to translate a human being into words. The New Yorker magazine has met this challenge more often and more successfully than any other modern American journal. Starting with its light fantastic evocations of the glamorous and the idiosyncratic in the '20s and continuing to the present, with complex pictures of such contemporaries as Marlon Brando and Richard Pryor, The New Yorker's Profiles have presented readers with a vast and brilliant portrait gallery.
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Exceptional writing makes this a fascinating read
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Performance
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Through the eyes of Dexter Filkins, we witness the chain of events that began with the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, continued with the attacks of 9/11, and moved on to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Forever War allows us a visceral understanding of today's battlefields and of the experiences of the people on the ground, warriors and innocents alike. It is a brilliant, fearless work, not just about America's wars after 9/11, but ultimately about the nature of war itself.
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A memorable "read"
- By TCinDC on 02-16-09
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Legacy of Ashes
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- By: Tim Weiner
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- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.
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Flawed but Important
- By Michael on 07-18-08
By: Tim Weiner
What listeners say about Ghost Wars
Highly rated for:
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- Howard H. Shen
- 05-01-12
great book, minor recording/narrating flaws
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?
no
Any additional comments?
glitches in the recording, skipped lines and sentences. could be a bad burn to CD...
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14 people found this helpful
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- A. M.
- 08-23-14
A good historical account...
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.
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- Jon
- 06-20-17
Terrible editing
The editing in this is very poorly done. The last sentence of each chapter is cut off. Other than that though the story is fantastic
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- Thomas A.
- 08-31-16
Great book, poor recording.
This book is an excellent, thorough, and unbiased assessment of American involvement in the middle east from the 1970s to September 10, 2001. The only flaws were present in the recording, where there were often words or sentences partially cut out of the recording.
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- Tony B
- 07-15-16
Amazing and Enlighting
Absolutely required reading.
Narrated perfectly.
Don't think about it another second, just listen.
*This includes the updates from the 9/11 Commission released after the original book was published.
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- Divertom
- 09-06-22
Great History
This is a great history of the evolution of Islamic terrorism. The narrator does an excellent job as well.
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- lijrobert
- 11-23-21
A Masterpiece of Unbiased, Critical Journalism
This is an amazing account of American policy towards Afghanistan, with a focus on terrorism and clandestine operations. it is not a history of the Soviet War, the subsequent Afghanistan Civil Wars or the 9/11 attacks. Rather it weaves events and personal accounts together in a long but excellent account of how America failed its own citizens and the citizens of Afghanistan. it shows that there is not a simple answer of "how" 9/11 happened. It came out of a cascading series of events and policy failures that politicians and clandestine agents failed to see, at least with enough precision or political will to prevent the attacks.
This book is very fair to all participants Even when it notes failures to act on the threat of global,, Isalmic terrorism (both broadly and in specific cases), it makes sure to explain why politicians acted this way.. While leftists and conservatives may find flaws with the book's treatment of certain individuals, its hard to criticize the author's dedication to facts.
This book is necessarily an American centric story. it does make sure to highlight Afghan suffering when possible, however. It also points to American and European hypocrisy on certain human rights issues. It discusses some Afghan war crimes, but does not go into detail.
The audio edition is well performed, although I noticed some editing errors which caused sentences to end suddenly, without pause. This is confined to a small number of parts and is acceptable, although not ideal. The wonderful content and performance makes up for these issues. My only other, potentially negative, thought on the book is that it is very detailed and therefore long. I listened to it in three. day long sessions, however I expect most do not have that much time.
For those looking for a shorter, more generalist history of Afghanistan which covers much of the same ground, I would recommend "Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History" by Thomas J. Barfield. it is also excellent and on audible, although it has a different goal. It covers most of Afghanistans pre Soviet War history and imparts a better understanding of the people of Afghanistan. The book may be good to read before moving to Ghost Wars (as I did), but the context is not necessary to understand the book.
Ultimately, if you are a dedicated reader who wants to learn more about the invisible and clandestine forces in Afghanistan and America's policy failures surrounding 9/11, I can't recommend this books enough.
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- Noah
- 06-04-20
Fantastic Narrative/Narrator, Atrocious Editing
This book covers US foreign policy, CIA covert action, and the international and domestic politics involved. It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of current US involvement in South Asia, and a highly recommended book to read before Steve Coll's next book, "Directorate S."
However, as good as the narrator is, there are many editing problems associated with the full audio track. This most often manifests in cut-off sentences that pick up very oddly in a related, but very slight tangential topic the author was discussing. If it were just a few, I would understand. However, there are at least two dozen times this happens making me question if there is more information and writing that I missed because it accidentally got edited out. This occurs throughout the entire book and is a major nuisance.
Otherwise, this is an excellent book that I highly recommend.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-28-21
Tech issue great "story"
There are random words that are not said throughout the book. In one spot Osama Binladin is s only partially said but in the rest of the book his name is used. This happens throughout the book for various words.
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- Player Zero
- 08-04-19
Amazing read
Excellent read for anyone interested in intelligence and US foreign policy. Highly recommended for anyone in uniform, and leaders.
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