22 Best Intelligence & Espionage, Political Science Books
Intelligence & Espionage, Political Science is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Intelligence & Espionage, Political Science audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 22 Intelligence & Espionage, Political Science audiobooks below.
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Proof of Corruption
- By: Seth Abramson
- Narrator: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 22 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: September 08, 2020
- Language: English
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4.47(102 ratings)
4.47(102 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0044.99 USDIn the third volume of his Proof series, New York Times bestselling author Seth Abramson takes listeners on a deep dive into the Ukraine scandal, revealing it to be more sinister, complex, and transnational than previously thought. Abramson’sIn the third volume of his Proof series, New York Times bestselling author Seth Abramson takes listeners on a deep dive into the Ukraine scandal, revealing it to be more sinister, complex, and transnational than previously thought. Abramson’s research on Trump administration corruption positions the Ukraine scandal as the foreseeable culmination of years of clandestine machinations involving scores of players, from Beijing to Budapest, Ankara to Caracas, Warsaw to Jerusalem, Kyiv to Riyadh, and Moscow to D.C.
While many know about the July 2019 telephone call that ignited the Ukraine scandal, most don’t know about the concurrent attempts by members of Trump’s inner circle to take over Ukraine’s national gas company and bolster dangerous pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarchs–moves that would have benefited Putin and destabilized Ukraine’s government and economy.
In Beijing, Trump’s dealings with the Chinese government not only enriched him and his family, but also culminated in him successfully seeking 2020 election interference from Xi Jinping in the form of closely held information about Joe Biden. In Venezuela, many of the actors involved in the Ukraine scandal engaged in similarly secretive, Kremlin-friendly negotiations that undermined U.S. policy. In Syria and Iraq, Trump’s personal indebtedness to autocrats in Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE cost untold lives. And Abramson brings the story back to an increasingly fractured and depleted United States, where the COVID-19 pandemic exposes the staggering domestic consequences of the Trump administration’s foreign machinations.
In Proof of Corruption, Seth Abramson lays bare Trump’s decades-long pattern of corruption. This globe-spanning narrative is an urgent warning about the unprecedented threat posed by a corrupt president and his administration.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press
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Nine Lives
- By: Aimen Dean
- Narrator: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 15 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.33(799 ratings)
4.33(799 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDAs one of al-Qaeda’s most respected bomb-makers, Aimen Dean rubbed shoulders with the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden himself. As a double agent at the heart of al-Qaeda’s chemical weapons program,As one of al-Qaeda’s most respected bomb-makers, Aimen Dean rubbed shoulders with the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden himself.
As a double agent at the heart of al-Qaeda’s chemical weapons program, he foiled attacks on civilians and saved countless lives, brushing with death so often that his handlers began to call him their spy with nine lives.
This is the story of how a young Muslim, determined to defend his faith, found himself fighting on the wrong side–and his fateful decision to work undercover for his sworn enemy. From the killing fields of Bosnia to the training camps of Afghanistan, from running money and equipment in Britain to dodging barrel bombs in Syria, we discover what life is like inside the global jihad, and what it will take to stop it once and for all.
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From Russia with Blood
- By: Heidi Blake
- Narrator: Marisa Calin
- Length: 10 hours 37 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 19, 2019
- Language: English
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4.3(1115 ratings)
4.3(1115 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDThe untold story of how Russia refined the art and science of targeted assassination abroad: “A compelling rendering of Putin’s frightening extensions of power into Europe and the United States” (Associated Press). They thought... Read moreThe untold story of how Russia refined the art and science of targeted assassination abroad: “A compelling rendering of Putin’s frightening extensions of power into Europe and the United States” (Associated Press).
They thought they had found a safe haven in the green hills of England. They were wrong. One by one, the Russian oligarchs, dissidents, and gangsters who fled to Britain after Vladimir Putin came to power dropped dead in strange or suspicious circumstances. One by one, their British lawyers and fixers met similarly grisly ends. Yet, one by one, the British authorities shut down every investigation — and carried on courting the Kremlin.
The spies in the riverside headquarters of MI6 looked on with horror as the scope of the Kremlin’s global killing campaign became all too clear. And, across the Atlantic, American intelligence officials watched with mounting alarm as the bodies piled up, concerned that the tide of death could spread to the United States. Those fears intensified when a one-time Kremlin henchman was found bludgeoned to death in a Washington, D.C. penthouse. But it wasn’t until Putin’s assassins unleashed a deadly chemical weapon on the streets of Britain, endangering hundreds of members of the public in a failed attempt to slay the double agent Sergei Skripal, that Western governments were finally forced to admit that the killing had spun out of control.
Unflinchingly documenting the growing web of death on British and American soil, Heidi Blake bravely exposes the Kremlin’s assassination campaign as part of Putin’s ruthless pursuit of global dominance — and reveals why Western governments have failed to stop the bloodshed. The unforgettable story that emerges whisks us from London’s high-end night clubs to Miami’s million-dollar hideouts ultimately renders a bone-chilling portrait of money, betrayal, and murder, written with the pace and propulsive power of a thriller.
Based on a vast trove of unpublished documents, bags of discarded police evidence, and interviews with hundreds of insiders, this heart-stopping international investigation uncovers one of the most important — and terrifying — geopolitical stories of our time. -
The Unarmed Truth
- By: John Dodson
- Narrator: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
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4.25(105 ratings)
4.25(105 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAfter the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, John Dodson pulled bodies out of the wreckage at the Pentagon. In 2007, following the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech, Dodson walked through the classrooms, heartbroken, to cover up the bodies ofAfter the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, John Dodson pulled bodies out of the wreckage at the Pentagon. In 2007, following the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech, Dodson walked through the classrooms, heartbroken, to cover up the bodies of the victims.
Then came Arizona–the American border.
Ten days before Christmas, 2010, ATF agent John Dodson awoke to the news he had dreaded every day as a member of the elite team called the Group VII Strike Force: a US border patrol agent named Brian Terry had been shot dead by bandits armed with guns that had been supplied to them by ATF. Was this an inevitable consequence of the Obama administration’s Project Gunrunner, set in place one year earlier ostensibly to track Mexican drug cartels?
Brian Terry’s murder would not only change John Dodson’s life forever; it would reveal a scandal so unthinkably unpatriotic that it forced President Barack Obama to claim executive privilege and caused Attorney General Eric Holder to be held in contempt of Congress.
Federal Agent John Dodson, an ex-military man, took an oath to defend the world’s greatest country and proudly considered himself a walking patriotic example of the American Dream. Brian Terry, ex-military like Dodson, was only forty years old, a family man who served his country by working for the government.
Dodson was terrified when the next phone call came, one with the potential to destroy his career, his family, and his life. CBS investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson asked Dodson to go public with what he knew about Fast and Furious. To Agent Dodson, this meant blowing the whistle. But to the family of Agent Terry, it was a chance to save lives and right a wrong. As he took a fight from the border towns of Arizona to a showdown in the halls of Congress, Dodson clung to the hope that truth would prevail, that he would be redeemed, and that Brian Terry’s death would not be in vain.
Like whistle-blowers before him, John would not be welcome back on the job. But he found strength in his conscience, in the support of the American public, and in Senators Darrell Issa and Chuck Grassley. When his first-amendment rights to publicly tell his story were threatened, the ACLU took up his case. For her report revealing Dodson as the key whistle-blower in Fast and Furious, Sharyl Attkisson received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.
Ultimately, Dodson was cleared by the Inspector General’s office, publicly heralded as a hero, and returned to Arizona.
Perhaps a lesson gleaned from John Dodson’s powerful account is well stated by former Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn: “If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.”
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The Plot to Destroy Democracy
- By: Malcolm Nance
- Narrator: Peter Ganim
- Length: 12 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: June 26, 2018
- Language: English
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4.23(911 ratings)
4.23(911 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDA provocative, comprehensive analysis of Vladimir Putin and Russia’s master plan to destroy democracy in the age of Donald Trump. In the greatest intelligence operation in the history of the world, Donald Trump was made President of theA provocative, comprehensive analysis of Vladimir Putin and Russia’s master plan to destroy democracy in the age of Donald Trump.
In the greatest intelligence operation in the history of the world, Donald Trump was made President of the United States with the assistance of a foreign power. For the first time, The Plot to Destroy Democracy reveals the dramatic story of how blackmail, espionage, assassination, and psychological warfare were used by Vladimir Putin and his spy agencies to steal the 2016 U.S. election — and attempted to bring about the fall of NATO, the European Union, and western democracy. It will show how Russia and its fifth column allies tried to flip the cornerstones of democracy in order to re-engineer the world political order that has kept most of the world free since 1945.
Career U.S. Intelligence officer Malcolm Nance will examine how Russia has used cyber warfare, political propaganda, and manipulation of our perception of reality — and will do so again — to weaponize American news, traditional media, social media, and the workings of the internet to attack and break apart democratic institutions from within, and what we can expect to come should we fail to stop their next attack.
Nance has utilized top secret Russian-sourced political and hybrid warfare strategy documents to demonstrate the master plan to undermine American institutions that has been in effect from the Cold War to the present day. Based on original research and countless interviews with espionage experts, Nance examines how Putin’s recent hacking accomplished a crucial first step for destabilizing the West for Russia, and why Putin is just the man to do it.
Nance exposes how Russia has supported the campaigns of right-wing extremists throughout both the U.S. and Europe to leverage an axis of autocracy, and how Putin’s agencies have worked since 2010 to bring fringe candidate Donald Trump into elections.
Revelatory, insightful, and shocking, The Plot To Destroy Democracy puts a professional spy lens on Putin’s plot and unravels it play-by-play. In the end, he provides a better understanding of why Putin’s efforts are a serious threat to our national security and global alliances — in much more than one election — and a blistering indictment of Putin’s puppet, President Donald J. Trump.
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Russian Roulette
- By: Michael Isikoff
- Narrator: Peter Ganim
- Length: 12 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: March 13, 2018
- Language: English
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4.22(4532 ratings)
4.22(4532 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDThe incredible, harrowing account of how American democracy was hacked by Moscow as part of a covert operation to influence the U.S. election and help Donald Trump gain the presidency. “Russian Roulette is…the most thorough and rivetingThe incredible, harrowing account of how American democracy was hacked by Moscow as part of a covert operation to influence the U.S. election and help Donald Trump gain the presidency.... Read more“Russian Roulette is…the most thorough and riveting account.” — The New York Times
Russian Roulette is a story of political skullduggery unprecedented in American history. It weaves together tales of international intrigue, cyber espionage, and superpower rivalry. After U.S.-Russia relations soured, as Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on U.S. political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate information that could affect the 2016 election.
The Russians were wildly successful and the great break-in of 2016 was no “third-rate burglary.” It was far more sophisticated and sinister — a brazen act of political espionage designed to interfere with American democracy. At the end of the day, Trump, the candidate who pursued business deals in Russia, won. And millions of Americans were left wondering, what the hell happened? This story of high-tech spying and multiple political feuds is told against the backdrop of Trump’s strange relationship with Putin and the curious ties between members of his inner circle — including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn — and Russia.
Russian Roulette chronicles and explores this bizarre scandal, explains the stakes, and answers one of the biggest questions in American politics: How and why did a foreign government infiltrate the country’s political process and gain influence in Washington?
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Proof of Collusion
- By: Seth Abramson
- Narrator: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.22(728 ratings)
4.22(728 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USDThe New York Times bestselling, explosive record of the unthinkable: how a US president compromised American foreign policy in exchange for financial gain and covert election assistance.Looking back at this moment, historians will ask if AmericansThe New York Times bestselling, explosive record of the unthinkable: how a US president compromised American foreign policy in exchange for financial gain and covert election assistance.
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Looking back at this moment, historians will ask if Americans knew they were living through the first case of criminal conspiracy between an American presidential candidate turned commander in chief and a geopolitical enemy. The answer might be: it was hard to see the whole picture. The stories coming in from across the globe have often seemed fantastical: clandestine meetings in foreign capitals, secret recordings in a Moscow hotel, Kremlin agents infiltrating the Trump inner circle…
Seth Abramson has tracked every one of these far-flung reports, and now in, Proof of Collusion, he finally gives us a record of the unthinkable–a president compromising American foreign policy in exchange for financial gain and covert election assistance. The attorney, professor, and former criminal investigator has used his exacting legal mind and forensic acumen to compile, organize, and analyze every piece of the Trump-Russia story. His conclusion is clear: the case for collusion is staring us in the face. Drawing from American and European news outlets, he takes readers through the Trump-Russia scandal chronologically, putting the developments in context and showing how they connect. His extraordinary march through all the public evidence includes:
-How Trump worked for thirty years to expand his real estate empire into Russia even as he was rescued from bankruptcy by Putin’s oligarchs, Kremlin agents, and the Russian mafia.
-How Russian intelligence gathered compromising material on him over multiple trips.
-How Trump recruited Russian allies and business partners while running for president.
-How he surrounded himself with advisers who engaged in clandestine negotiations with Russia.
-How Trump aides and family members held secret meetings with foreign agents and lied about them.
By pulling every last thread of this complicated story together, Abramson argues that–even in the absence of a report from Special Counsel Mueller or a thorough Congressional investigation–the public record already confirms a quid pro quo between Trump and the Kremlin. The most extraordinary part of the case for collusion is that so much of it unfolded in plain sight. -
The Twilight War
- By: David Crist
- Narrator: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 25 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.17(765 ratings)
4.17(765 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDThe dramatic secret history of the undeclared, ongoing war between the US and Iran For the past three decades, the United States and Iran have been engaged in an unacknowledged secret war. This conflict has frustrated five American presidents,The dramatic secret history of the undeclared, ongoing war between the US and Iran
For the past three decades, the United States and Iran have been engaged in an unacknowledged secret war. This conflict has frustrated five American presidents, divided administrations, and repeatedly threatened to bring the two nations to the brink of open warfare. Drawing upon unparalleled access to senior officials and key documents of several US administrations, David Crist, a senior historian in the federal government, breaks new ground on virtually every page of The Twilight War. From the Iranian Revolution to secret negotiations between Iran and the United States after 9/11 to Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions against it, Crist brings vital new depth to our understanding of “the Iran problem”–and what the future of this tense relationship may bring.
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The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture
- By: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 16 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.12(203 ratings)
4.12(203 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDMeticulously formatted, this is a highly readable edition of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Central Intelligence Agency interrogation and detention programs launched in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Based on over sixMeticulously formatted, this is a highly readable edition of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Central Intelligence Agency interrogation and detention programs launched in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Based on over six million internal CIA documents, the report details secret prisons–like the one in Thailand run by Gina Haspel–prisoner deaths, interrogation practices, and cooperation with other foreign and domestic agencies. It also examines charges that the CIA deceived elected officials and governmental overseers about the extent and legality of its operations.
Over five years in the making, and withheld from public view since its declassification in April, 2014, this is the full summary report as finally released by the United States government on December 9, 2014.
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The Spymasters
- By: Chris Whipple
- Narrator: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 14 hours 49 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.07(612 ratings)
4.07(612 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Gatekeepers, an “engaging…richly textured” (The New York Times), behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to run the world’s most powerful intelligence agency.From the New York Times bestselling author of The Gatekeepers, an “engaging…richly textured” (The New York Times), behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to run the world’s most powerful intelligence agency. “The best book about the CIA I’ve ever read…one hell of a story” (Christopher Buckley).
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With unprecedented access to more than a dozen individuals who have made the life-and-death decisions that come with running the world’s most powerful and influential intelligence service, Chris Whipple tells the story of an agency that answers to the United States president alone, but whose activities–spying, espionage, and covert action–take place on every continent. At pivotal moments, the CIA acts as a counterforce against rogue presidents, starting in the mid-seventies with DCI Richard Helms’s refusal to conceal Richard Nixon’s criminality and through the Trump presidency when a CIA whistleblower ignited impeachment proceedings and armed insurrectionists assaulted the US Capitol.
Since its inception in 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency has been a powerful player on the world stage, operating largely in the shadows to protect American interests. For The Spymasters, Whipple conducted extensive, exclusive interviews with nearly every living CIA director, pulling back the curtain on the world’s elite spy agencies and showing how the CIA partners–or clashes–with counterparts in Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. Topics covered in the book include attempts by presidents to use the agency for their own ends; simmering problems in the Middle East and Asia; rogue nuclear threats; and cyberwarfare.
A revelatory, well-researched history, The Spymasters recounts seven decades of CIA activity and elicits predictions about the issues–and threats–that will engage the attention of future operatives and analysts. Including eye-opening interviews with George Tenet, John Brennan, Leon Panetta, and David Petraeus, as well as those who’ve recently departed the agency, this is a timely, essential, and important contribution to current events. -
Harpoon
- By: Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
- Narrator: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 07, 2017
- Language: English
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4.05(211 ratings)
4.05(211 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDA revelatory account of the cloak-and-dagger Israeli campaign to target the finances fueling terror organizations–an effort that became the blueprint for U.S. efforts to combat threats like ISIS and drug cartels. ISIS boasted $2.4 billion ofA revelatory account of the cloak-and-dagger Israeli campaign to target the finances fueling terror organizations–an effort that became the blueprint for U.S. efforts to combat threats like ISIS and drug cartels.
ISIS boasted $2.4 billion of revenue in 2015, yet for too long the global war on terror overlooked financial warfare as an offensive strategy. “Harpoon,” the creation of Mossad legend Meir Dagan, directed spies, soldiers, and attorneys to disrupt and destroy money pipelines and financial institutions that paid for the bloodshed perpetrated by Hamas, Hezbollah, and other groups. Written by an attorney who worked with Harpoon and a bestselling journalist, Harpoon offers a gripping story of the Israeli-led effort, now joined by the Americans, to choke off the terrorists’ oxygen supply, money, via unconventional warfare.
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Putin’s Trolls
- By: Jessikka Aro
- Narrator: Jessikka Aro
- Length: 12 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.02(80 ratings)
4.02(80 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDA chilling account of Russian information warfare, Putin’s Trolls exposes the individuals and organizations behind the Kremlin’s coordinated, military-style social media operations against the West. In this courageous and unflinchingA chilling account of Russian information warfare, Putin’s Trolls exposes the individuals and organizations behind the Kremlin’s coordinated, military-style social media operations against the West.
In this courageous and unflinching book, award-winning journalist Jessikka Aro interweaves her own dramatic story as a target of Russian social media propaganda with accounts from many internationally known critics of the Kremlin, who share their own stories of being targeted by Russia’s multifaceted cyber warfare campaigns.
As Aro began to investigate the impact of the Kremlin’s troll operations outside of Russia, she learned that private citizens in many other countries were being victimized by Kremlin-designed information campaigns. These actions were frequently conducted through an organized “troll factory” led by Russia’s security and intelligence apparatus, using unregulated social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Many of the disinformation campaigns were centered around the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent occupation of the Crimean Peninsula.
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Black Ops
- By: Ric Prado
- Narrator: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: March 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.96(617 ratings)
3.96(617 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDA memoir by the highest-ranking covert warrior to lift the veil of secrecy and offer a glimpse into the shadow wars that America has fought since the Vietnam Era. Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of aA memoir by the highest-ranking covert warrior to lift the veil of secrecy and offer a glimpse into the shadow wars that America has fought since the Vietnam Era.
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. Operating in the shadows, Ric and his fellow CIA officers fought a little-seen and virtually unknown war to keep USA safe from those who would do it harm.
After duty stations in Central, South America, and the Philippines, Black Ops follows Ric into the highest echelons of the CIA’s headquarters at Langley, Virginia. In late 1995, he became Deputy Chief of Station and co-founding member of the Bin Laden Task Force. Three years later, after serving as head of Korean Operations, Ric took on one of the most dangerous missions of his career: re-establish a once-abandoned CIA station inside a hostile nation long since considered a front line of the fight against Islamic terrorism. He and his team carried out covert operations and developed assets that proved pivotal in the coming War on Terror.
A harrowing memoir of life in the shadowy world of assassins, terrorists, spies and revolutionaries, Black Ops is a testament to the courage, creativity and dedication of the Agency’s Special Activities Group and its elite shadow warriors.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press
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Shadow State
- By: Luke Harding
- Narrator: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 12 hours 47 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 30, 2020
- Language: English
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3.94(536 ratings)
3.94(536 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDA thrilling account of how Russia is waging a hidden war against America and the West, using espionage, corruption, fake news, and KGB-style murder March 2018. Two Russian assassins arrive in a provincial English city to kill a former officer fromA thrilling account of how Russia is waging a hidden war against America and the West, using espionage, corruption, fake news, and KGB-style murder
March 2018. Two Russian assassins arrive in a provincial English city to kill a former officer from Russia’s GRU intelligence agency. His crime? Passing secrets to British spies. The poison? A lethal nerve agent, novichok. The attempted execution was a reminder – as if one were needed – of Russia’s contempt for international norms. The Soviet Union and its doctrine are long gone, but the playbook used by the Kremlin’s spies during that long confrontation with the West is back. And the underlying goal remains the same: to undermine democracy and exploit divisions within American and European society and politics.
Moscow’s support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election has grown into the biggest political scandal of modern times. Its American players are well-known. In Shadow State, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Luke Harding reveals the Russians behind the story: the spies, hackers and internet trolls. Harding charts how the Kremlin has updated Communist-era methods of influence and propaganda for the age of Facebook and Twitter, and considers the compelling question of our age: what exactly does Vladimir Putin have on President Trump?
Similar to those of the Cold War, Putin’s ambitions are truly global. His emissaries include oligarchs, bankers, lawyers, mercenaries, and agents of influence. They roam from Salisbury to Helsinki, Ukraine to Central Africa, London to Washington, D.C. Shadow State is the singular account of how the Kremlin seeks to reshape the world, to divide the US from its European friends, and to remake America in its own dark and kleptocratic image. This is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand how our politics came to be so chaotic and divided. Nothing less than the future of Western democracy is at stake.
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The CIA as Organized Crime
- By: Douglas Valentine
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 16 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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3.88(255 ratings)
3.88(255 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThe author of three books on CIA operations, Douglas Valentine began his research into the agency’s activities when CIA director William Colby gave him free access to interview agency officials who had been involved in various aspects of theThe author of three books on CIA operations, Douglas Valentine began his research into the agency’s activities when CIA director William Colby gave him free access to interview agency officials who had been involved in various aspects of the Phoenix program in South Vietnam. It was a permission Colby was to regret. The CIA would eventually rescind it and made every effort to impede publication of The Phoenix Program, which documented an elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture, and assassination in Vietnam.
While researching Phoenix, Valentine learned that the CIA allowed opium and heroin to flow from its secret bases in Laos to generals and politicians on its payroll in South Vietnam. His investigations into this illegal activity focused on the CIA’s relationship with the federal agencies mandated by Congress to stop illegal drugs from entering the United States. Based on interviews with senior officials, Valentine wrote two subsequent books, The Strength of the Wolf and The Strength of the Pack, showing how the CIA infiltrated federal drug enforcement agencies and commandeered their executive management, intelligence, and foreign operations staffs in order to ensure the unimpeded flow of drugs to traffickers and foreign officials in its employ.
Ultimately, portions of his research materials were archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
This book includes excerpts from the aforementioned titles, along with subsequent articles and transcripts of interviews on a range of current topics, with a view to shedding light on the systemic dimensions of the CIA’s ongoing illegal and extralegal activities. These articles and interviews illustrate how the agency’s activities impact social and political movements abroad and at home.
A common theme is the CIA’s ability to deceive and propagandize the American public through its impenetrable, government-sanctioned shield of official secrecy and plausible deniability.
Though investigated by the Church Committee in 1975, CIA praxis then continues to inform CIA praxis today. Valentine tracks the agency’s steady expansion into practices targeting the last population to be subjected to the exigencies of the American empire: the American people themselves.
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America’s Secret War
- By: George Friedman
- Narrator: Brian Emerson
- Length: 13 hours 49 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2004
- Language: English
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3.87(946 ratings)
3.87(946 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDDubbed by Barron’s as “The Shadow CIA,” Stratfor is one of the world’s most respected private global intelligence firms with an unmatched ability to provide clear perspective on the current geopolitical map. Here, drawing onDubbed by Barron’s as “The Shadow CIA,” Stratfor is one of the world’s most respected private global intelligence firms with an unmatched ability to provide clear perspective on the current geopolitical map. Here, drawing on Stratfor’s vast information-gathering network, George Friedman delivers the geopolitical story that the mainstream media has been unable to uncover: the startling truth behind America’s foreign policy and war effort in Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond.
In America’s Secret War, Friedman identifies the United States’ most dangerous enemies, delves into presidential strategies of the last quarter century, and reveals the real reasons behind the attack of September 11 and the Bush administration’s motivation for the war in Iraq. Here, in eye-opening detail, is an insightful picture of today’s world that goes far beyond what is reported in the news media.
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Ghost
- By: Fred Burton
- Narrator: Tom Weiner
- Length: 9 hours 37 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
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3.77(917 ratings)
3.77(917 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDFor decades, Fred Burton, a key figure in international counterterrorism and domestic spy craft, has secretly been on the front lines in the fight to keep Americans safe around the world. Now, in this hard-hitting memoir, Burton emerges from theFor decades, Fred Burton, a key figure in international counterterrorism and domestic spy craft, has secretly been on the front lines in the fight to keep Americans safe around the world. Now, in this hard-hitting memoir, Burton emerges from the shadows to reveal who he is, what he has accomplished, and the threats that lurk unseen except by an experienced, world-wise few.
In the mid-80s, the idea of defending Americans against terrorism was still new. But a trio of suicide bombings in Beirut–including one that killed 241 marines and forced our exit from Lebanon–sparked a change in the State Department’s mindset. Burton, a member of a tiny but elite counterterrorism unit, was plunged into a murky world of violent religious extremism spanning the streets of Middle Eastern cities and the informant-filled alleys of American slums.
From battling Libyan terrorists and their Palestinian surrogates to facing down hijackers, hostages, and Hezbollah double agents, Burton found himself on the front lines of America’s first campaign against terror.In this globe-trotting account of one counterterrorism agent’s life and career, Burton takes us behind the scenes to reveal how the United States tracked Libya-linked master terrorist Abu Nidal; captured Ramzi Yusef, architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and pursued the assassins of major figures including Yitzhak Rabin, Meir Kahane, and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the president of Pakistan–classic cases that have sobering new meaning in the treacherous years since 9/11. Here, too, is Burton’s advice on personal safety for today’s most powerful CEOs, gleaned from his experience at Stratfor, the private firm Barron’s calls “the shadow CIA.”Told in a no-holds-barred, gripping, nuanced style that illuminates a complex and driven man, Ghost is both a riveting read and an illuminating look into the shadows of the most important struggle of our time.
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The Golden Thread
- By: Ravi Somaiya
- Narrator: Ravi Somaiya
- Length: 7 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: July 07, 2020
- Language: English
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3.72(355 ratings)
3.72(355 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDLONGLISTED FOR THE ALCS “GOLD DAGGER” AWARD FOR NON-FICTION CRIME WRITINGUncover the story behind the death of renowned diplomat and UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in this true story of spies and intrigue surrounding one of theLONGLISTED FOR THE ALCS “GOLD DAGGER” AWARD FOR NON-FICTION CRIME WRITING
Uncover the story behind the death of renowned diplomat and UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in this true story of spies and intrigue surrounding one of the most enduring unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century.
On September 17, 1961, Dag Hammarskjold boarded a Douglas DC6 propeller plane on the sweltering tarmac of the airport in Leopoldville, the capital of the Congo. Hours later, he would be found dead in an African jungle with an ace of spades playing card placed on his body.Hammarskjold had been the head of the United Nations for nine years. He was legendary for his dedication to peace on earth. But dark forces circled him: Powerful and connected groups from an array of nations and organizations–including the CIA, the KGB, underground militant groups, business tycoons, and others–were determined to see Hammarskjold fail.A riveting work of investigative journalism based on never-before-seen evidence, recently revealed firsthand accounts, and groundbreaking new interviews, The Golden Thread reveals the truth behind one of the great murder mysteries of the Cold War.... Read more -
Disruption
- By: Aki J. Peritz
- Length: 11 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: December 21, 2021
- Language: English
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3.7(35 ratings)
3.7(35 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDAl Qaeda did not stop after 9/11. Its reign of terror continued with bombings and mayhem across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. But its frustration grew as the group failed to fundamentally undermine America and its allies. Five yearsAl Qaeda did not stop after 9/11. Its reign of terror continued with bombings and mayhem across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. But its frustration grew as the group failed to fundamentally undermine America and its allies.
Five years later the time was ripe for another spectacular mega-plot. Fresh from masterminding the London Underground carnage, one veteran operative set in motion a new operation to destroy passenger aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean–and kill thousands of people in the process.
Disruption tells the story of that conspiracy and the heroic efforts by the intelligence services of the United States, Great Britain, and Pakistan to uncover and crush it. From the streets of London to the training camps of Pakistan to the corridors of power in
Washington DC, the story unfolds with murders, doublecrosses, probes, jailbreaks, and explosions.Former counterterrorism analyst Aki J. Peritz brings the story to life with vivid imagery, interviews with top intelligence officials, and never-before-seen declassified documents. Disruption is the not-to-be-missed account of the race to stop a terrorist conspiracy
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that would have remade our world–forever. -
Hacks
- By: Donna Brazile
- Narrator: Donna Brazile
- Length: 8 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 07, 2017
- Language: English
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3.55(1231 ratings)
3.55(1231 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Explosive… A blistering tell-all.”—Washington Post “People should sit up, take notes and change things.”—Ace Smith, Los Angeles Times “Brazile most certainly has a storyNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Explosive… A blistering tell-all.”—Washington Post
“People should sit up, take notes and change things.”—Ace Smith, Los Angeles Times
“Brazile most certainly has a story to tell…. Vivid.”—The Guardian
From Donna Brazile, former DNC chair and legendary political operative, an explosive and revealing new look at the 2016 election: the first insider account of the Russian hacking of the DNC and the missteps by the Clinton campaign and Obama administration that enabled a Trump victory.
In the fallout of the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee–and as chaos threatened to consume the party’s convention–Democrats turned to a familiar figure to right the ship: Donna Brazile. Known to millions from her frequent TV appearances, she was no stranger to high stakes and dirty opponents, and the longtime Democratic strategist had a reputation in Washington as a one-stop shop for fixing sticky problems.
What Brazile found at the DNC was unlike anything she had experienced before–and much worse than is commonly known. The party was beset by infighting, scandal, and hubris, while reeling from a brazen and wholly unprecedented attempt by a foreign power to influence the presidential election. Plus, its candidate, Hillary Clinton, faced an opponent who broke every rule in the political playbook.
Packed with never-before-reported revelations about what went down in 2016, Hacks is equal parts campaign thriller, memoir, and roadmap for the future. With Democrats now in the wilderness after this historic defeat, Hacks argues that staying silent about what went wrong helps no one. Only by laying bare the missteps, miscalculations, and crimes of 2016, Brazile contends, will Americans be able to salvage their democracy.
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Sabotage
- By: Rowan Scarborough
- Narrator: Tom Weiner
- Length: 6 hours 30 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.44(33 ratings)
3.44(33 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0013.95 USDIn this groundbreaking new book, bestselling author Rowan Scarborough reveals how CIA bureaucrats are undermining President Bush and the War on Terror through disinformation, incompetence, and outright sabotage. Using first-rate sources in allIn this groundbreaking new book, bestselling author Rowan Scarborough reveals how CIA bureaucrats are undermining President Bush and the War on Terror through disinformation, incompetence, and outright sabotage. Using first-rate sources in all levels of national security, from field officers to high ranking analysts to former intelligence heads, Scarborough paints a disturbing picture of partisan politics endangering the success of our campaigns abroad and the very lives of our soldiers and agents.
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Codeword Overlord
- By: Nigel West
- Narrator: Ralph Lister
- Length: 14 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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3.14(5 ratings)
3.14(5 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThe Allied invasion of Europe during summer 1944 was widely expected, and it fell to the Axis intelligence services to provide High Command with advance warning of the precise date and place of the landings. Using cryptanalysis of Allied signals,The Allied invasion of Europe during summer 1944 was widely expected, and it fell to the Axis intelligence services to provide High Command with advance warning of the precise date and place of the landings. Using cryptanalysis of Allied signals, undercover agents and ships, and photographic evidence, Axis intelligence was pitted directly against their Allied counterparts, who actively tried to create a decoy and aim their enemies at the wrong location. The success of Operation Overlord has played a large part in historians usually disparaging the German army as incompetent and corrupt. However, recently declassified documents suggest a different story. Spies on the ground, codebreakers from across the Axis, and photo intelligence: theirs was a sophisticated, integrated intelligence system that was supremely conscious of the Allies’s counter-intelligence schemes. For the first time, acclaimed intelligence author Nigel West provides the full, true story of Axis intelligence and how they affected the events of the D-Day landings.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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