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The Operators
- Narrated by: Dan Russell
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
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The Operators
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3 out of 5 stars
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Looking for a place in History?
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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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5 out of 5 stars
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Publisher's summary
General Stanley McChrystal, commander of international and US forces in Afghanistan, was living large, with staff calling him a rock star.
Journalist Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone looked on as McChrystal and his staff let off steam, partying and openly bashing the Obama administration. When Hastings' piece appeared a few months later, it set off a political firestorm: McChrystal was ordered to Washington, where he was unceremoniously fired.
Hastings gives us a shocking behind-the-scenes portrait of Allied military commanders, their high-stakes manoeuvres and often bitter bureaucratic infighting.
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,240
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,885
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,904
Charlie Wilson's War is the untold story behind the last battle of the Cold War and how it fueled the rise of militant Islam. George Crile tells how Charlie Wilson, a maverick congressman from east Texas, conspired with a rogue CIA operative to launch the biggest, meanest, and most successful covert operation in the agency's history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The REAL Story of the Middle East and the CIA
- By Dale on 08-24-04
By: George Crile
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The Taliban Shuffle
- Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan
- By: Kim Barker
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 462
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 403
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Story4 out of 5 stars 403
Kim Barker is not your typical, impassive foreign correspondent—she is candid, self-deprecating, laugh-out-loud funny. At first an awkward newbie in Afghanistan, she grows into a wisecracking, seasoned reporter with grave concerns about our ability to win hearts and minds in the region. In The Taliban Shuffle, Barker offers an insider’s account of the “forgotten war” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, chronicling the years after America’s initial routing of the Taliban, when we failed to finish the job.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Warring Your Way to Peace Does Not Work
- By Sue on 09-01-12
By: Kim Barker
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The Mirror Test
- America at War in Iraq and Afghanistan
- By: J. Kael Weston
- Narrated by: J. Kael Weston
- Length: 22 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the US State Department in some of the most dangerous frontline locations. Upon his return home, while traveling the country to pay respect to the dead and wounded, he asked himself: When will these wars end? How will they be remembered and memorialized? What lessons can we learn from them?
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Must Read
- By Jessica Myrick on 06-04-16
By: J. Kael Weston
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The Nightingale's Song
- By: Robert Timberg
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 22 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Robert Timberg weaves together the lives of Annapolis graduates John McCain, James Webb, Oliver North, Robert McFarlane, and John Poindexter to reveal how the Vietnam War continues to haunt America. Casting all five men as metaphors for a legion of well-meaning if ill-starred warriors, Timberg probes the fault line between those who fought the war and those who used money, wit, and connections to avoid battle.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Too Long
- By Tom Carroll on 11-15-18
By: Robert Timberg
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The Main Enemy
- The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
- By: Milton Bearden, James Risen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 820
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 731
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 721
A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A masterpiece of espionage history
- By kucherv on 08-21-18
By: Milton Bearden, and others
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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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Overall4 out of 5 stars 621
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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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5 out of 5 stars
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Concerning and hard to put down
- By Chris on 12-10-06
By: Bob Woodward
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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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Overall4 out of 5 stars 172
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 104
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Story4 out of 5 stars 104
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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4 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating Read about the CIA
- By Nancy on 05-13-10
By: John Kiriakou, and others
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A Kingdom of Their Own
- The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster
- By: Joshua Partlow
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fabulous
- By Charles S. on 10-23-23
By: Joshua Partlow
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The Road Not Taken
- Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam
- By: Max Boot
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 308
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 264
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 265
In chronicling the adventurous life of legendary CIA operative Edward Lansdale, The Road Not Taken definitively reframes our understanding of the Vietnam War. In this epic biography of Edward Lansdale (1908-1987) best-selling historian Max Boot demonstrates how Lansdale pioneered a "hearts and mind" diplomacy, first in the Philippines, then in Vietnam. It was a visionary policy that, as Boot reveals, was ultimately crushed by America's giant military bureaucracy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An honest look at Vietnam Nam and USA
- By Catherine on 01-16-18
By: Max Boot
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Left of Boom
- How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda
- By: Douglas Laux, Ralph Pezzullo
- Narrated by: Mike Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,289
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,153
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,159
On September 11, 2001, Doug Laux was a freshman in college, on the path to becoming a doctor. But with the fall of the Twin Towers came a turning point in his life. After graduating, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency, determined to get himself to Afghanistan and into the center of the action. Through persistence and hard work, he was fast-tracked to a clandestine operations position overseas. Dropped into a remote region of Afghanistan, he received his baptism by fire.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Too Censerord to be Enjoyable
- By Nathan on 08-26-16
By: Douglas Laux, and others
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I Lost My Love in Baghdad
- A Modern War Story
- By: Michael Hastings
- Narrated by: Michael Hastings
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
At age 25, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek. He had at his disposal a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a 21st-century reporter: cell phones, high-speed Internet access, digital video cameras, fixers, drivers, guards, and translators.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Sad story...
- By kathryn on 01-01-09
By: Michael Hastings
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The Unraveling
- High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq
- By: Emma Sky
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
When Emma Sky, an intrepid young British woman, volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, she had little idea what she was letting herself in for: a tour that would last over a decade, longer than that of any senior military or political official. As the only adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk and the closest confidante to US General Odierno, Sky was valued for her controversial voice and outsider's point of view.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Inspiring memoir; irritating narration
- By Amazon Customer on 09-17-16
By: Emma Sky
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The Assassins' Gate
- America in Iraq
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 19 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 203
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
The Assassins' Gate, so dubbed by American soldiers, is the entrance to the American zone in the city of Baghdad. In 2003, the United States blazed into Iraq to depose dictator Saddam Hussein. But after three years and unknown thousands killed, that country faces an escalating civil war and an uncertain fate. How did it get to this point?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Highly Recommended
- By Drapeau on 02-01-07
By: George Packer
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The Finish
- The Killing of Osama bin Laden
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 484
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 415
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Story4 out of 5 stars 416
From Mark Bowden, internationally best-selling and acclaimed author of Black Hawk Down and the preeminent chronicler of the actions of our military and special forces writing today, comes an intensely gripping account of the hunt for and elimination of Osama bin Laden. With unprecedented access to key sources and his great gift for storytelling, Bowden takes us inside the rooms where decisions were made and on the ground where the action unfolded.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Listen to No Easy Day...much better
- By JMM on 10-20-12
By: Mark Bowden
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It Worked for Me
- In Life and Leadership
- By: Colin Powell
- Narrated by: Colin Powell
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,827
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,469
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,457
It Worked for Me is filled with vivid experiences and lessons learned that have shaped the legendary career of the four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. At its heart are Powell's "Thirteen Rules" - such as "Get mad, then get over it" and "Share credit" - that introduce his principles for effective leadership: conviction, hard work, and, above all, respect for others. A natural storyteller, Powell offers warm and engaging parables with wise advice on succeeding in the workplace and beyond.
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5 out of 5 stars
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It worked for me too.
- By Ian on 06-04-12
By: Colin Powell
What listeners say about The Operators
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- David Jacobs
- 08-13-18
Enriched my worldview. Recommended.
The reviewer:
Age: 29
Country: South Africa
Education: Post-graduate (International Relations and Economics)
Profession: Foreign affairs
My system:
5 - Deeply impactful, changed the way I view the world
4 - Enriched my worldview, will use favourably in conversations and arguments
3 - Entertaining, will mention in light conversations
2 - No markable impact, will probably forget I read it
1 - Will actively dissuade people from reading and will bash during conversations
My review:
This book has enriched my understanding of the war in Afghanistan and the politics shaping it. As a work of high quality and committed investigative journalism, the book succeeds admirably. There is a reason it had such an impact.
The pace is very good with crisp language, never boring, and manages to point out the major political and military landmarks without losing sight of why it was written in the first place.
Certainly of interest to military, academic and diplomatic professionals - and anyone with a healthy interest in security and current affairs - the book stands as a strong tribute to the life of Michael Hastings.
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