The Targeter
My Life in the CIA, Hunting Terrorists and Challenging the White House
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Narrated by:
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Christine Lakin
About this listen
"A revealing and utterly engrossing account" of the world of high-stakes foreign intelligence, and her role within the campaign to stop top-tier targets inside Al-Qaida from former CIA analyst Nada Bakos. (Joby Warrick)
In 1999, 30-year-old Nada Bakos moved from her lifelong home in Montana to Washington, DC, to join the CIA. Quickly realizing her affinity for intelligence work, Nada was determined to rise through the ranks of the agency first as an analyst and then as a Targeting Officer, eventually finding herself on the frontline of America's War against Islamic extremists. In this role, Nada was charged with determining if Iraq had a relationship with 9/11 and Al-Qaida, and finding the mastermind behind this terrorist activity: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Her team's analysis stood the test of time, but it was not satisfactory for some members of the Administration.
In a tight, tension-packed narrative that takes the llistener from Langley deep into Iraq, Bakos reveals the inner workings of the Agency and the largely hidden world of intelligence gathering post 9/11. Entrenched in the world of the CIA, Bakos, along with her colleagues, focused on leading U.S. Special Operations Forces to the doorstep of one of the world's most wanted terrorists.
Filled with on-the-ground insights and poignant personal anecdotes, The Targeter shows us the great personal sacrifice that comes with intelligence work. This is Nada's story, but it is also an intimate chronicle of how a group of determined, ambitious men and women worked tirelessly in the heart of the CIA to ensure our nation's safety at home and abroad.
©2019 Nada Bakos and Davin Coburn (P)2019 Little, Brown & CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"A revealing and utterly engrossing account of the campaign to stop the terrorist mastermind behind the rise of ISIS. Former intelligence officer Nada Bakos takes the reader deep inside the CIA's secret war in Iraq with a fast-paced narrative that is at turns thrilling, funny, maddening and remarkably candid." (Joby Warrick, author of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
"For the last decade, Nada Bakos has been a go-to source for understanding terrorist networks. Her memoir offers a gripping tale on how terrorists, and the counterterrorists who hunt them, actually operate in the real world." (Clint Watts, senior fellow at Foreign Policy Research Institute and author of Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News)
"Nada Bakos takes you deep inside the tense, stressful, and driven world of the CIA's analysts as few others have. Life and death issues are on the line more than most know - but Ms. Bakos is one who does and she shows you that in the Targeter with candor, drama, integrity, and grit."(John McLaughlin, former acting director and deputy director of CIA)
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- Unabridged
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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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Fascinating and well researched
- By wacek szymkowiak on 07-23-24
By: John Pomfret
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The Fifth Act
- America's End in Afghanistan
- By: Elliot Ackerman
- Narrated by: Elliot Ackerman
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities for years now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families.
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A painful but necessary read
- By Tom Hanks on 08-22-22
By: Elliot Ackerman
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Surprise, Kill, Vanish
- The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 19 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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From Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen, the untold story of the CIA's secret paramilitary units.
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Lots of facts, offset by too much fiction
- By Steve M on 05-24-19
By: Annie Jacobsen
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Betrayal in Berlin
- The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation
- By: Steve Vogel
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Its code name was “Operation Gold”, a wildly audacious CIA plan to construct a clandestine tunnel into East Berlin to tap into critical KGB and Soviet military telecommunication lines. The tunnel, crossing the border between the American and Soviet sectors, would have to be 1,500 feet (the length of the Empire State Building) with state-of-the-art equipment, built and operated literally under the feet of their Cold War adversaries.
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Fascinating Book
- By Toni Bowes on 01-11-20
By: Steve Vogel
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The Spymaster of Baghdad
- A True Story of Bravery, Family, and Patriotism in the Battle Against ISIS
- By: Margaret Coker
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The Spymaster of Baghdad tells the dramatic yet intimate account of how a covert Iraqi intelligence unit called “the Falcons” came together against all odds to defeat ISIS. The Falcons, comprised of ordinary men with little conventional espionage background, infiltrated the world’s most powerful terrorist organization, ultimately turning the tide of war against the terrorist group and bringing safety to millions of Iraqis and the broader world.
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Worth every penny
- By Michelle on 04-20-21
By: Margaret Coker
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Saving Aziz
- How the Mission to Help One Became a Calling to Rescue Thousands from the Taliban
- By: Chad Robichaux, David L. Thomas - contributor, Glenn Beck
- Narrated by: Chad Robichaux, Glenn Beck
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In Saving Aziz, Chad will give you a behind-the-scenes view of the evacuation efforts that saved thousands from the Taliban during the historic humanitarian crisis following the United States’ hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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Blessed
- By Teri Herron on 02-01-23
By: Chad Robichaux, and others
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Checkpoint Charlie
- The Cold War, the Berlin Wall, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
- By: Iain MacGregor
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce Lockhart
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful, fascinating, and groundbreaking history of Checkpoint Charlie, the famous military gate on the border of East and West Berlin where the US confronted the USSR during the Cold War.
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Hard to follow
- By J.Brock on 03-07-21
By: Iain MacGregor
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The Reluctant Spy
- My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror
- By: John Kiriakou, Michael Ruby
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Long before the waterboarding controversy exploded in the media, one CIA agent had already gone public. In a groundbreaking 2007 interview with ABC News, John Kiriakou called waterboarding torture - but admitted that it probably worked. This book, at once a confessional, an adventure story, and a chronicle of Kiriakou's life in the CIA, stands as an important, eloquent piece of testimony from a committed American patriot.
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Fascinating Read about the CIA
- By Nancy on 05-13-10
By: John Kiriakou, and others
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The CIA War in Kurdistan
- The Untold Story of the Northern Front in the Iraq War
- By: Sam Faddis
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2002, Sam Faddis was named to head a CIA team that would enter Iraq to facilitate the deployment of follow-on conventional military forces numbering more than 40,000 American soldiers. This force, built around the 4th Infantry Division, would, in partnership with Kurdish forces and with the assistance of Turkey, engage Saddam's army in the North as part of a coming invasion. Faddis expected to be on the ground in Iraq within weeks, the entire campaign likely to be over by summer. The 4th Infantry Division never arrived, nor did any other conventional forces in substantial number.
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Highly Recommended Read
- By Bill Brown on 11-11-21
By: Sam Faddis
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Red Line
- The Unraveling of Syria and America's Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World
- By: Joby Warrick
- Narrated by: Barrett Leddy
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2012, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was clinging to power in a vicious civil war. When intelligence revealed that the dictator might resort to using chemical weapons, Pres. Obama warned that doing so would cross “a red line”. Assad did it anyway, killing hundreds of civilians and forcing Obama to decide if he would mire America in another unpopular war. When Russia offered to broker the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons, Obama leapt at the out. So begins an electrifying race to find, remove, and destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in the midst of a raging civil war.
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An excellent story for Three Quarters of the Book
- By D. MacLean on 05-11-21
By: Joby Warrick
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Manhunt
- The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden - from 9-11 to Abbottabad
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of the New York Times best-selling Holy War, Inc., this is the definitive account of the decade-long manhunt for the world’s most wanted man, Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda expert and CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen paints a multidimensional picture of the hunt for bin Laden over the past decade, including the operation that killed him.
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DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!
- By Betty on 05-04-12
By: Peter L. Bergen
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Black Ops
- The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior
- By: Ric Prado
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled their war-torn home for the hope of a better life in America. Fifty years later, the Cuban refugee retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as the CIA equivalent of a two-star general. Black Ops is the story of Ric’s legendary career that spanned two eras, the Cold War and the Age of Terrorism.
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Impressive and Inspiring!
- By medardo on 03-12-22
By: Ric Prado
What listeners say about The Targeter
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrew and Rina
- 06-06-23
This book is great
Some of these reviews in here are just silly and do not allow them to sway you from getting this book.
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- Matt Abrams
- 06-11-19
A Montana girl goes to DC: inside the CIA and the fight for the truth and against extremists
I can't recommend this enough. Nada tells a personal story of service and sacrifice and fighting for facts while standing up against political agendas. Importantly, she shows the human story of those that are serving in our Intelligence Community who are our neighbors and our friends...patriots who give their all for the service of others and, all too often, at great sacrifice to themselves and their families vs some “deep state” portrayed so often in movies and by politicians with personal agendas. This is an important read in a time where false information, attacks on facts, and extremist views and ideologies are front & center across the globe. Nada and those with whom she worked, set an example as to what it means to serve and fight (both inside and outside the Intelligence Community) for the truth.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Roberto
- 08-07-21
Awesome book
This books is amazing. She started talking about her personal life and how she got into the CIA. Then talked about her work at CIA, and what she did as a targeting officer of a high value target in the was against terrorism. She went from being nobody, to be the leader of one of the most important job inside the US government.
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- Dean
- 01-23-20
Too much personal information too little targeting
The title captured my attention. I was eager the learn new insights into this relatively new type of analysis — ‘targeting’. The book disappointed me, though. It contained very little about the art of targeting and far too many details about the author’s personal life.
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2 people found this helpful
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- alexis
- 07-14-19
great info, needed work on the story
So this is a two-part review.
if you're not ready to read about the brutality of what terrorists do, where they "come from" and how they operate, and the messed up reality that is the U.S. Government, why it does what it does (facts vs. reality), etc, this is NOT the book for you.
The first review is for the political, job, world, terrorist, inner workings of the CIA:
an overload of information, some of it really upsetting, disturbing and oh, did I say upsetting? but a great briefing of what was happening. and I did mean "briefing" because it felt like I was being briefed in a conference room.
I give it a 4 star.
The second review is for the story:
it's the same problem I saw in Michelle Obama's book, an overload of information but not enough story to move it along. a reluctant hero on a journey, of sorts, who gets their ass handed to them while trying to "fight the good fight" or whatever. it felt more like a briefing than a compelling story with a main character who hooked my attention by their personality, fight, and journey of story. Facts or details do not make a story. Nor a journey. Nor do they hook the audience to your main character. Personality does. emotion does. drama does.
I give it a 2.5 star.
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- More Yahalom
- 09-06-19
interesting
it's a good book with interesting stories about intelligence and CT. my only issue was with the narrator, who's accent for Arabic speakers sounds more like she's trying to do an Eastern European accent... it bothered me a lot
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4 people found this helpful
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- Jack Gimm
- 08-19-19
relatable and intriguing
Fantastic story with relatable emotion but such an intriguing setting. Nada is a fantastic writer.
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- SFKOCH
- 03-10-20
Great Read
Great read. Easy to follow and very in depth and informative. I would highly Recommended.
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- Jacob
- 07-06-20
Burnt Out Experience
As someone who works in the IC, I feel like this book does a good job at portraying the hard work involved with the type of work we often do. However, I do feel like the author goes a little overboard with her view of how bad life is in the IC. I mean really.... it's not that bad. She complaints are mundane and fall on deaf ears of those who have done much harder time in service of their country. Overall a decent book though. The performance legitimacy was skewed a little at her pronouncing of acronyms that people in the community just say a one word. Especially annoying was her "S.O.F.".... we just say "sauf" when referring to SOF or Special Operations Forces.
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- User4879
- 10-10-19
The Queen of USA A+
Nada,
You tore the hinges off the CIA with heart and soul. Thank you for your dedication most government employees thoroughly lack and the drive of a Lioness on the hunt for her Pride. Kristin Chenoweth lacks the poise, grace and beauty you have.
I think I can speak for at least 51% of USA by saying that you’re way under paid. Thank you for a job well done!
Your biggest fan,
D
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1 person found this helpful