Current Affairs Audiobooks | Politics

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to S

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.

Steve Coll (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Warriors of God

Hezbollah is the most powerful Islamist group operating in the Middle East today, and no other Western journalist has penetrated as deeply inside this secretive organization as Nicholas Blanford. Now Blanford has written the first comprehensive inside account of Hezbollah and its enduring struggle against Israel. Based on more than a decade and a half of reporting in Lebanon and conversations with Hezbollah's determined fighters, Blanford reveals their ideology, motivations, and training, as well as new information on military tactics, weapons, and sophisticated electronic warfare and communications systems. Using exclusive sources and his own dogged investigative skills, Blanford traces Hezbollah's extraordinary evolution-from a zealous group of raw fighters motivated by Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution into the most formidable non-state military organization in the world, whose charismatic leader vows to hasten Israel's destruction. With dramatic eyewitness accounts, including Blanford's own experiences of the battles, massacres, triumphs, and tragedies that have marked the conflict, the story follows the increasingly successful campaign of resistance that led to Israel's historic withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. Warriors of God shows how Hezbollah won hearts and minds with exhaustive social welfare programs and sophisticated propaganda skills. Blanford traces the group's secret military build-up since 2000 and reveals the stunning scope of its underground network of tunnels and bunkers, becoming the only journalist to independently discover and explore them. With the Middle East fearful of another, even more destructive war between Lebanon and Israel, Blanford tenaciously pursues Hezbollah's post-2006 battle plans in the Lebanese mountains, earning him newspaper scoops as well as a terrifying interrogation and a night in jail. Featuring sixteen years of probing interviews with Hezbollah's leaders and fighters, Warriors of God is essential to understanding a key player in a region rocked by change and uncertainty.

Nicholas Blanford (Author), Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

Audiobook

Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State

The top-secret world that the government created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks has become so enormous, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs or exactly how many agencies duplicate work being done elsewhere. The result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe may be putting us in greater danger. In TOP SECRET AMERICA, award-winning reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin uncover the enormous size, shape, mission, and consequences of this invisible universe of over 1,300 government facilities in every state in America; nearly 2,000 outside companies used as contractors; and more than 850,000 people granted "Top Secret" security clearance. A landmark exposé of a new, secret "Fourth Branch" of American government, TOP SECRET AMERICA is a tour de force of investigative reporting - and sure to spark national and international alarm.

Dana Priest, William Arkin, William M. Arkin (Author), Dana Priest (Narrator)

Audiobook

Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda

In the years following the 9/11 attacks, the United States waged a "war on terror" that sought to defeat Al Qaeda through brute force. But it soon became clear that this strategy was not working, and by 2005 the Pentagon began looking for a new way. In Counterstrike, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker of the New York Times tell the story of how a group of analysts within the military, at spy agencies, and in law enforcement has fashioned an innovative and effective new strategy to fight terrorism, unbeknownst to most Americans and in sharp contrast to the cowboy slogans that characterized the U.S. government's public posture. Adapting themes from classic Cold War deterrence theory, these strategists have expanded the field of battle in order to disrupt jihadist networks in ever more creative ways. Schmitt and Shanker take listeners deep into this theater of war, as ground troops, intelligence operatives, and top executive branch officials have worked together to redefine and restrict the geography available for Al Qaeda to operate in. They also show how these new counterterrorism strategies, adopted under George W. Bush and expanded under Barack Obama, were successfully employed in planning and carrying out the dramatic May 2011 raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed. Filled with startling revelations about how our national security is being managed, Counterstrike will change the way Americans think about the ongoing struggle with violent radical extremism.

Eric Schmitt, Thom Shanker (Author), George K. Wilson (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Secrets of the FBI

The Secrets of the FBI by New York Times bestselling author Ronald Kessler reveals the FBI's most closely guarded secrets and the secrets of celebrities, politicians, and movie stars uncovered by agents during their investigations. Based on inside access, the book presents revelations about the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, the recent Russian spy swap, Marilyn Monroe's death, Vince Foster's suicide, and J. Edgar Hoover's sexual orientation. For the first time, it tells how the FBI caught spy Robert Hanssen in its midst and how the FBI breaks into homes, offices, and embassies to plant bugging devices without getting caught. From Watergate to Waco, from congressional scandals to the killing of bin Laden, The Secrets of the FBI presents headline-making disclosures about the most important figures and events of our time.

Ronald Kessler (Author), Michael Bybee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Rick Perry: Man of the Hour

Rick Perry: Man of the Hour is about how an individual politician rose up to present an Americana approach to running for president. His trademark phrase was, "I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your lives as I can." This political philosophy derives from a long tradition - of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Justice William Douglas, and yes, Henry David Thoreau, in trying to get government off the people's back. This led to the Bill of Rights, to protect the people from the government. Rick Perry has arisen as an antidote to big government advocates. Is he right or is he wrong? That is up to individuals. But what is clear is that this has just become an exciting presidential race focused on American values. We will be releasing monthly ebooks and audiobooks on this ongoing drama of democracy at work. As Winston Churchill said, "Democracy is unseemly and messy; but it is the best we can do. In fact, it is the best the world can do." That is enough for us.

Deaver Brown, Harvard AB & MBA (Author), Deaver Brown, Harvard AB & MBA (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Triple Agent

A stunning narrative account of the mysterious Jordanian who penetrated both the inner circle of al-Qaeda and the highest reaches of the CIA, with a devastating impact on the war on terror. In December 2009, a group of the CIA's top terrorist hunters gathered at a secret base in Khost, Afghanistan, to greet a rising superspy: Humam Khalil al-Balawi, a Jordanian double-agent who infiltrated the upper ranks of al-Qaeda. For months, he had sent shocking revelations from inside the terrorist network and now promised to help the CIA assassinate Osama bin Laden's top deputy. Instead, as he stepped from his car, he detonated a thirty-pound bomb strapped to his chest, instantly killing seven CIA operatives, the agency's worst loss of life in decades. In The Triple Agent, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Joby Warrick takes us deep inside the CIA's secret war against al-Qaeda, a war that pits robotic planes and laser-guided missiles against a cunning enemy intent on unleashing carnage in American cities. Flitting precariously between the two sides was Balawi, a young man with extraordinary gifts who managed to win the confidence of hardened terrorists as well as veteran spymasters. With his breathtaking accounts from inside al-Qaeda's lair, Balawi appeared poised to become America's greatest double-agent in half a century—but he was not at all what he seemed. Combining the powerful momentum of Black Hawk Down with the institutional insight of Jane Mayer's The Dark Side, Warrick takes the readers on a harrowing journey from the slums of Amman to the inner chambers of the White House in an untold true story of miscalculation, deception, and revenge.

Joby Warrick (Author), Sunil Malhotra (Narrator)

Audiobook

The New Threat: Cyberterrorism With Stephen J. Adler, Frank Cilluffo, Marc Gordon, Michael Mcconnell

Frank Cilluffo, Marc Gordon, Michael Mcconnell, Mike Sheehan, Stephen Adler (Author), Multiple Narrators (Narrator)

Audiobook

Beyond Bin Laden: America and the Future of Terror

Osama bin Laden was the most wanted man in American history—an enemy who brought the United States what President George W. Bush called "a day of fire," and ushered in a new era of terrorism. It took a decade of blood and sacrifice, of determination and frustration, but finally, in a nighttime raid at the end of a dirt road in Pakistan, the hunt for Bin Laden ended with a gunshot. It was a dramatic climax to a long and painful chapter. But now what? The terrorist threat that has defined American policy since the attacks of 9/11 did not die with Bin Laden in his walled compound near Islamabad. Radicals still wish us harm, and we must fight on. In this provocative collection of essays edited and introduced by Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham, a group of penetrating analysts and leaders look ahead to the world after Bin Laden—to the future of Al Qaeda, of Afghanistan, of Pakistan. We explore the political, military, and cultural implications of the post–Bin Laden war on terror. From Richard N. Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, from historian and journalist Evan Thomas to former U.S. Army officer Andrew Exum, Beyond Bin Laden gives readers intelligent, deeply informed, and urgent glimpses of what comes next.

Bing West, James A. Baker Iii, Jon Meacham, Karen Hughes, Richard Haass, Various Authors (Author), Various Readers, Various Readers (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Terrorist Next Door: How the Government Is Deceiving You about the Islamist Threat

Al-Qaeda doesn't care about "Hope" and "Change." The threat of terrorism in America, the Obama administration assures us, is contained and controlled. Attempted attacks like the Times Square bombing, the "underwear bombing" on a flight over Detroit, and the attack on a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Oregon were all isolated plots that failed. In the words of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano, "The system worked." Don't believe it. In The Terrorist Next Door, investigative reporter Erick Stakelbeck exposes the staggering truth about our national security: the Obama administration is concealing and whitewashing the enormous terrorist threat growing right here within America's borders. If you believe terrorism is only a problem for other countries, Stakelbeck's on-the-ground reporting will open your eyes. He has been inside America's radical mosques, visited US-based Islamic enclaves, and learned about our enemies by going straight to the source-interviewing al-Qaeda-linked terrorists themselves. In this shocking book, Stakelbeck reveals: How Islamic radicals have established separatist compounds and even jihadist training camps throughout rural America; That an overt disciple of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini now leads one of the largest mosques in America; How mega-mosques aren't just planned for Ground Zero-they're being built in the heart of the Bible Belt as part of a plan for Islamic domination; What a former US covert agent inside the Iranian regime says about Iran's program to recruit Americans into terror groups; How the Obama administration's beguiling counter-terrorism policies are increasing the threat of another 9/11 The Terrorist Next Door sounds the alarm on a growing threat to every American-one that the US government refuses to face honestly or even to name. As we struggle against a relentless and adaptable Islamist enemy that is committed to destroying our nation, we can't say we weren't warned. "A very important book for every American at a critical time in our history."-Lieutenant General William G. "Jerry" Boykin (Ret.), former deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence

Erick Stakelbeck (Author), Tom Weiner (Narrator)

Audiobook

MasterMind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

Richard Miniter (Author), Richard Miniter (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Simple Government: Twelve Things We Really Need From Washington (and a Trillion That We Don't!)

A commonsense and optimistic manifesto for our future, by one of America's most beloved conservative. Just in time for the run-up to the 2012 election, the bestselling author of Do the Right Thing and A Simple Christmas takes his vision even further, offering clear solutions to the key issues facing our nation in the Obama era. Politicians, lobbyists, and so-called experts spend too much time arguing and focusing on the differences that divide us. As a result, those in Washington are obsessed with the win or loss of their side and not with actually solving problems. Huckabee shows how we can return to our roots-the simple founding principles that created America and made our nation strong-to build a more promising future. For example, instead of a ten-thousand-page tax code that not even CPAs can understand, we need a simple, fair, transparent way Obamacare monstrosity, we need a simple way to help Americans get good health care without bankrupting our future. Approachable as ever, Huckabee presents a plan for our country that will resonate across America.

Mike Huckabee (Author), Mike Huckabee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Current Affairs Audiobooks in Politics