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Legacy of Ashes
- The History of the CIA
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
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Publisher's summary
National Book Award Winner, Nonfiction, 2007
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.
Legacy of Ashes is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA. Everything is on the record. There are no anonymous sources, no blind quotations. With shocking revelations that will make headlines, Tim Weiner gets at the truth and tells us how the CIA's failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.
Critic reviews
"A timely, immensely readable, and highly critical history of the CIA, culminating with the most recent catastrophic failures in Iraq." (Mark Bowden, author of Blackhawk Down)
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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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The Killing of Osama Bin Laden
- By: Seymour M. Hersh
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2011, an elite group of US Navy SEALS stormed an enclosure in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden, the man the United States had begun chasing before the devastating attacks of 9/11. The news did much to boost President Obama’s first term and played a major part in his reelection victory of the following year. But much of the story of that night, as presented to the world, was incomplete, or a lie. The evidence of what actually went on remains hidden.
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Ridiculous
- By Amazon Customer on 08-22-17
By: Seymour M. Hersh
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Rise and Kill First
- The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations
- By: Ronen Bergman
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 25 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting the nation from harm has been the responsibility of its intelligence community and armed services, and there is one weapon in their vast arsenal that they have relied upon to thwart the most serious threats: Targeted assassinations have been used countless times, on enemies large and small....
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Eye Opening
- By Ari Safari on 02-09-18
By: Ronen Bergman
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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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State of Denial
- Bush at War, Part III
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
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Bob Woodward examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to the Congress, and often to themselves in State of Denial. Woodward's third book on President Bush is a sweeping narrative from the first days George W. Bush thought seriously about running for president, through the recruitment of his national security team, the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the struggle for political survival in the second term.
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Concerning and hard to put down
- By Chris on 12-10-06
By: Bob Woodward
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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
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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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1983
- Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink
- By: Taylor Downing
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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A riveting, real-life thriller about 1983 - the year tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union nearly brought the world to the point of nuclear Armageddon. The year 1983 was an extremely dangerous one - more dangerous than 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the United States, President Reagan vastly increased defense spending, described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire," and launched the "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative to shield the country from incoming missiles.
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Great story, poor narration choices.
- By John Gray on 02-11-19
By: Taylor Downing
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The One Percent Doctrine
- Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
- By: Ron Suskind
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Abridged
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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author Ron Suskind takes you deep inside America's real battles with violent, unrelenting terrorists, a game of kill-or-be-killed, from the Oval Office to the streets of Karachi.
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The Agenda is Clear
- By Penny on 09-28-11
By: Ron Suskind
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The War State
- The Cold War Origins Of The Military-Industrial Complex And The Power Elite, 1945-1963
- By: Michael Swanson
- Narrated by: Larry Wayne
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Today when you factor in the interest on the national debt from past wars and total defense expenditures the United States spends almost 40% of its federal budget on the military. It accounts for over 46% of total world arms spending. Before World War II it spent almost nothing on defense and hardly anyone paid any income taxes. You can't have big wars without big government. Such big expenditures are now threatening to harm the national economy.
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Surprisingly Good
- By ohmie on 04-22-14
By: Michael Swanson
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Spycraft
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Now, in the first book ever written about this ultrasecretive department, the former director of OTS teams up with an internationally renowned intelligence historian to give listeners an unprecedented look at the devices and operations deemed "inappropriate for public disclosure" by the CIA just two years ago.
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Unique, informative history of the CIA
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What listeners say about Legacy of Ashes
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Gerald
- 08-23-07
A surpise!
Considering the author's NY Times resume, I was not surprised at the discussion of poor CIA performance under Ike. But when he slammed the Kennedy brothers in a later chapter, I got interested.
It's an even-handed destruction of the CIA, as we thought it existed. It rings true, to my dismay.
"Dilbert's World" exists - with real world problems as a result.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Jose
- 11-28-15
Product of New York Times, Total Rubbish
Narrator is great, one of the best
The book is something that is between truth, opinion, total omissions, and 1/2 truths. Normal NYT readers want to be told what to think, but normal people just want the truth.
Among other things, an example of the bias on this book is the laudatory words on Jimmy Carter's White House. During Jimmie's time Iran, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and El Salvador, all fell apart with collateral damage still evident today. But Jimmie's CIA was great!
Also the book gets into the make- no-sense category. "Spying on Anericans" is considered the ultimate evil. If you are actually a world traveler or follow radical thought origins...they are American/European exports. Just like Twitter and Facebook today, US radicals are the mouthpiece and origins for global extremists....like climate change clowns, social justice beggars, open border nuts, and income inequality bums.
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7 people found this helpful
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- C. L. Buerger
- 10-08-15
Correct Subtitle: A History of the CIA's screw-ups
Should be Subtitled "A History of the CIA's screw-ups." Solid look at the mistakes of the past, with a focus on how the CIA was supposed to be one thing and ended up another. Rarely talks about the successes, and spends lots of time on Washington and presidents. Richard Helms is praised in the book, but his time as Director is criticized, this duality is never explained. Wish it was, if he was so good, what was he doing right besides telling everyone else that they're doing it wrong.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael
- 03-07-10
Long and Biased
Tim Weiner's VERY LONG history of the CIA is a rather convincing indictment of the CIAs blunders through the years, and according to this book with the exception of 4 times, the CIA has been completely (or if Tim is being charitable mostly) incompetent. This is a very biased book, and should be looked at as an indictment where a prosecutor only displays the failures. If you are inclined to this view, this book is for you.
To be fair the this book did present some interesting revelations regarding how politicians, once elected, continually expected different missions from the CIA, so they were never on steady footing.
Audio-wise, Stephan did a passable job narrating the book, though there isn't a lot of feeling put into the narration.
This book is VERY CHALLENGING because it jumps through history and it can be quite difficult to follow. The author is constantly going back and forth through time and it can be challenging to gain a linear time line.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Wayne
- 12-06-15
Non-fiction History of the FBI
Legacy of Ashes goes back more than 8 years in my Audible library. It is a critical history of the FBI from its founding through 2006 written by journalist Tim Weiner. It is an excellent and continuously interesting history if not a great one. Highly recommended.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael
- 02-10-10
They suceeded believe it or not
It is easy to take a select number of anecdotes of failure and paint a big picture that the CIA was a huge waste of resources and that it failed to prevent or predict every big event to happen in the previous 65 years of world history, but I believe that they succeeded. How they succeeded through happenstance was to prevent the cold war from turning hot. They did this by building relationships and communication links with the USSR and with our allies during the Cold War.
The CIA may have missed predicting certain major events in world history over the previous 65 years, but the nature of military and political intelligence is not clairvoyance. An intelligence analyst is not a fortune teller. I'll even bet that within the organization there were people who made adequate and very accurate predictions for the major events that the CIA is accused of missing, but the nature of reporting to U.S. Presidents and other politicians is political. This means that the reporter tells the politician what they want to hear. If you go telling them what they don't want to hear, wrong or right, you will be replaced.
So don't blame this Agency for failures that it is not responsible for. Blame the culture surrounding the Office of the Presidency, and that of the Congress. Therein lies your problem.
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Overall
- Craig C.
- 06-18-09
Compelling
Excellent history, profoundly important because of the nature of undercover operations. Shows the limits of such activity which seems to ensure blowback and unintended consequences.
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Overall
- JerryL
- 03-04-09
Thank you Mr. Weiner...this book is five stars!
This is simply the finest audiobook I have ever listened to about the CIA and the political environment in Washington. The author takes great pains to provide unvarnished and untainted facts about how the CIA has become an emasculated intelligence agency that has lost its sense of purpose and direction.
When I first started listening, I thought Weiner was taking partisan swipes at the republican presidents and politicians; however I quickly discovered he is completely apolitical in his analysis of the mostly inept and certainly ill-conceived presidential orders with which the agency was saddled.
Moreover, Weiner conveys to the reader just how incapable, recalcitrant and uninformed many of the agencies directors were and apparently are. Example after example is cited in the book of rouge agents, dishonest politicians, shoddy congressional oversight and presidential indifference.
This book stunned me, depressed me and frankly scared the hell out of me. It will leave you with so many questions that you will not stop thinking about it for days afterward.
Bravo Mr. Weiner, I hope this book becomes required reading for any Political Science student; for that matter, all students and US Citizens.
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Overall
- Jason
- 11-26-08
Very intresting however a little slanted
I highly recommend anyone to read this book. While it is long and admittedly I stopped listening to it for a long time, it has opened my eyes and explained in detail many historic events. While I won't give anything away in the book, I am quite honestly surprised the CIA didn't start us a war with a few nations due to failed or exposed CIA missions. But who knows, they could have and it could still be classified.
I will say that the author seems to be slanted in his views. He seems to pull out and explain many many failed missions he doesn't go into as much detail in the missions that were a success. Successful missions he lists and explains seem less than what you can count on two hands. I find it hard to believe the CIA has been that ineffective. CIA is no James Bond but if they were truly that unsuccessful then they would have been abolished long ago.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- D
- 05-06-08
An Amazingly Comprehensive Indictment
This book is a surprisingly refreshing look at the often revered American intelligence community. It's non-partisan and thoughtful insight into the history of the CIA is an must listen for anyone who cares about the future of the United States.
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