A Time to Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran

An interesting and absorbing account. However, some of his accounts of unverifiable conversations seem a bit too convenient to the image of himself he is trying to present (e.g. confronting his friend about the morality of his role in the regime right before the friend gets killed).

A Time to Betray is Reza Kahili’s story of how he became disillusioned with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and came under the influence of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides a unique insight into the role of the CIA in information gathering in the country, life under the religious fundamentalism, and how working as a double agent affected Kahili’s family life. In this regard, this is more of a memoir. Anyone looking for a hard hitting expose of how the CIA worked during Kahili’s era might be disappointed. However, the book carries a lot of human interest and insight into how the life of a spy can disrupt an entire life. Segments of the book seemed a little melodramatic to me, but my personal preferences should not deter one from enjoying this excellent book. The reading of Richard Allen is excellent.

Have you EVER wondered just HOW the U.S. finds people to spy on their own country? I always found that a bit puzzling. The author was right in the center of Iran as many historical events happened going all the way back to the 1970's. He was very pro-American before the Iranian Revolution, and was constantly torn with his loyalties, double life and deadly secrets. Many times I felt seriously moved by the author's tale. Other times, I felt like a fly on the wall in a different era in Iran. I felt that I learned something about another country and their people. I had ONE reservation....in the back of my head, I constantly wondered if this story is exactly what it claims to be. I kept getting a feeling that many parts of this book were compiled from multiple sources, intelligence reports and real spy stories, then rewritten as a coherent first-person narrative. The book gives a face to problem. It strongly supports a military agenda against Iran, and (at the end) even suggests that Iran assisted with September 11th. Either way, this story can't all be propaganda....there is something still very human at its center. Lastly, the narrator here gives one of the best audio book performances I've yet heard. He captures a wounded kind of nobility that really brings this story to life. Still....totally worth the read!

This is perhaps the best book I have listened to this year. The narrator is excellent and you will be unable to put this book down. This book gets close and personal as a single man tries to free his country from the grip of terror brought about by Islamic terrorist. It is too bad our country has turn a deaf ear to the cries of woman and children that are being slaughtered on a daily basis in Iran.

Good insight on the inner workings of a Moslem led government. This proves the value to me the value of a separation of church and state.

OK, so if you haven't bought this book yet, buy it. Stop reading this right now and go buy it. Why are you still reading this? Why haven't you started listening to this book yet?

This story is interesting and about a very secretive society in a very secretive country

Someone with a Persian accent should have been cast or alternatively someone that can impersonate a Persian accent. This guy does a terrible job and his fake accent isn't close. I've spent lots of time in the Middle East and have Persian friends. It's just irritating to hear a voice so far off base.

One of the best.

When he described the look in the eyes of his friend's father, after his sons and daughter had been imprisoned, tortured, and the daughter executed. It was shocking to find out what happened in those prisons and to hear it from one who had seen it happen to people he had known all his life.

Yes.

This is a great story from a man who made choices and took risks that most of us will never have to. He chose to betray his country after witnessing horrendous acts of cruelty, risking his own torture and death in the process.

I gave up listening to this book due to the narrator's accent. It's not that he has a bad voice--for a different book, I'd probably really like him. But as an Iranian, it's not "right." And when he fakes an Iranian woman, it's like fingernails on blackboard to me.

The book seems a bit stilted in it's language, and somehow the combination just doesn't do it for me. Too bad, because the subject is interesting. I wish the author success, but I just had to give up on this book.

This man is a real hero. The story is well told and it is utterly amazing.