American Made

By: Shaun Attwood

Narrated by: Randal Schaffer

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Set in a world where crime and government coexist, American Made is the mind-twisting true story of CIA pilot Barry Seal that the Hollywood movie starring Tom Cruise is afraid to tell.

Barry Seal flew cocaine and weapons worth billions of dollars into and out of America in the 1980s. After he became a government informant, Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel offered a million for him alive and half a million dead. But his real trouble began after he threatened to expose the dirty dealings of George HW Bush.

American Made rips the roof off Bush and Clinton's complicity in cocaine trafficking in Mena, Arkansas.

©2016 Shaun Attwood (P)2017 Shaun Attwood

amazing!

What made the experience of listening to American Made the most enjoyable?

This book will change your worldview about politicians and the corruption at the heart of the war on drugs. I can tell by the Tom cruise trailer that the Hollywood movie is a total whitewash of Barry seal’s life. This book has the real story. It is even endorsed by Barry Seal’s son, Aaron Seal.

3 people found this helpful

An engrossing listen with a different perspective

With all the lies told about the War on Drugs, it's really refreshing to find new information presented in such an entertaining way. Packed with details but never too densely to lose sight of such an exciting story, American Made definitely merits repeated listening.

The narrator really brings the characters alive, working well with the snappy dialogue and the revelations about some of our most famous political families are truly explosive.

If you're curious to learn more after watching Narcos or you want to know true story that the Tom Cruise movie is afraid to tell, this one is for you.

3 people found this helpful

WOW... What an exciting, informative page-turner!

Where does American Made rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Compared to other audiobooks, this stood out to me because it was not only interesting, but the narrator was engaging.

What did you like best about this story?

I was informed but I didn't feel like I was being forced to think a certain way. I felt the author did a great job at informing the reader and keeping them interested without trying to force an opinion down the reader's throat.

Have you listened to any of Randal Schaffer’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not, but I think Shaun Attwood chose a perfect narrator, Randal Schaffer, to read his masterpiece!

If you could give American Made a new subtitle, what would it be?

I'm satisfied with the title.

Any additional comments?

As a fan of Shaun Attwood's books, I was pumped up to hear about his continued writing on Pablo Escobar being available via Audible. Shaun keeps it exciting and I steer other readers towards this elucidative narration.

2 people found this helpful

conspiracy fact - wake up people

This audiobook is an excellent analysis of the life of Barry Seal, and his work for the CIA which got him killed, which the movie is not going to show because it is a line the director cannot cross. As well as Barry's story, this book also contains the stories of his murder suspects, Pablo Escobar and George HW Bush, which are equally as fascinating.
Reading the audiobook reviews about tin-foil hats, it seems some of the listeners still believe in mainstream media, worship the Bush family and believe all the lies and propaganda. If this audiobook did not help you wake up, then you probably never will.

4 people found this helpful

Conspiracy theory galore

Good history about Barry Seal and the drug trade. Then the author ruined it in the last 4 hours going to great length to prove his conspiracy theory that the US government is responsible for everything wrong. Typical conspiracy theorist who thrives on convincing people that everything we’ve been told is a lie and that behind every fact, is a sinister ‘truth’ that should be believed instead. Because salaciousness sells....

1 person found this helpful

The title should be a how every conspiracy can be linked to George H. Bush

This book covered every conspiracy theory from the Kennedy assassination to high power pedophile rings. It tells a short tale about Berry Seal's life and his connection to Lee Harvey Oswald along with drug and gun running. It tells a brief history of Pablo Escobar then ties George H. Bush to the Kennedy and Reagan shooting, a covert CIA war and large scale drug smuggling into the US. It also mentions that Bush is heavily invested in weapons and pharmaceuticals and that that was his motive for the Gulf War. Some things are stranger than fiction and we weave a tangled web but this book just tried to tie up to many things. I just saved you 40 hours of your life.

1 person found this helpful

What we never knew about behind the scenes.

The things that happen that the public just never knows. This book tells of thing we never heard about as it was happening. Not even afterwards and Tom Cruise left out of his movie. This story well make you want to read or hear more of Shaun Attwood 's books . There's no candy coating in this book . Really interesting to hear how things happened to get us where we are now. History we need to remember to prevent more problems in our country.

1 person found this helpful

Wow! Bush CIA Drug Trafficking Exposed

If you’ve watched the Tom Cruise movie, this is a must read. With thorough research unavailable from mainstream sources, Attwood masterfully weaves together the diabolical plot of George HW Bush to dispose of Barry Seal, who knew way too much. Bush comes across as a bigger monster than Escobar.

1 person found this helpful

Deep down the rabbit hole!

What did you love best about American Made?

This book takes you deeper down the rabbit hole of Bush, Clinton, CIA cocaine trafficking through Mena, Arkansas than any other book or commentary from David Icke or Alex Jones. The other books contain pieces of a puzzle that Attwood has put together and solved.

What did you like best about this story?

suspense

Which scene was your favorite?

assassination

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

cia cocaine

Any additional comments?

no

2 people found this helpful

reads like a bad conspiracy theory book.

having finished watching Narcos Mexico and Narcos. I thought this would be a great read more in detail. however from the start to finish. the books seemed like one run on sentence after another. the pace was way too fast with barely any pause in between sentences. that made it extremely hard to follow the narration. also after reading one gets the impression that it's a conspiracy theory book. facts are allegedly used. I was very disappointed with books 1 and 2. wish I had not used 2 credits for these books.

great story

great story, look forward to hearing more from Shaun. would definitely recommend this book to people

2 people found this helpful

WOW

If you could sum up American Made in three words, what would they be?

This book will change your worldview about politicians and the corruption at the heart of the war on drugs. I can tell by the Tom cruise trailer that the Hollywood movie is a total whitewash of Barry seal’s life. This book has the real story. It is even endorsed by Barry Seal’s son, Aaron Seal.

2 people found this helpful

Could not stop listening.

Tightly-paced and thoroughly researched, American Made reveals the damning connections between US establishment figures and the international drugs trade spanning decades.

Tying together the threads from the other books in his War on Drugs series, Attwood makes a solid case against the Bush/Clinton dynasties and the CIA, showing their complicity in high crimes and misdemeanors committed in the fog of the failed drug war.

The narration is excellent, with great characterisation.

1 person found this helpful

Outstanding

Any additional comments?

I can highly recommend all of Shaun Attowood's books. This is the first time I have listened to an audio book. It's brilliant for the car.

1 person found this helpful

Astounding

This book has opened my eyes to government corruption at the highest levels.

Excellent read

Great book

Fantastic, well researched, Shaun unearths the truth and hopefully will help topple the status quo

Mind-blowing

Fascinating from beginning to end.
Non stop revelations throughout the whole book. Well worth the time and effort

We live in a corrupt system but without the dirty money we wouldn’t be able to survive

I have watched Narcos on Netflix, this book was interesting and informative, I have learnt more about the drug cartels and it’s extremely disturbing how involved some people are, we live in a corrupt system but without the dirty money, we wouldn’t be able to survive.

A story about a pilot but much more than that....

What did you like most about American Made?

Having heard not too much about the premise of the story it was fascinating to find out about the background to some of the players connected to the lead character. The difference in the public personas of various politicians - extremely senior ones at that- compared to the lives they allegedly led was staggering

What was one of the most memorable moments of American Made?

I think that some of the revelations of corruption regarding future presidents of the USA are absolutely dynamite. Just one example would be the way Gov.Clinton ran the state of Arkansas, making a tidy living from sanctioning black CIA flights to/from the Caribbean and South America.

Have you listened to any of Randal Schaffer’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No, I haven't listened to any others.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The whole way though I as the listener found myself rooting for the lead character - you can't help but get behind this fascinating, daredevil, humourous character who is described brilliantly by the author. When the end comes for him that is a very sad moment.

Any additional comments?

nope.

Fact or Fiction?

I had high expectations of this book ... the topic is explosive enough and I assumed that the author had a good knowledge of the matter and a proper methodology to approach it. Alas! Shaun is knowledgeable but apart from the chapters where he writes about Escobar and Bush (namely their biographies), every other chapter is simply ruined by quasi-factual claims. I do not argue that events did not happen as the author has described them, the thing is that Shaun presents his claims with little or no support at all. Statements such as ‘birds can fly’ do not request much deliberation, but claims that Clintons are closely connected to drug trafficking demands more meet on the bone. He does provides a lot of information but piled up facts do not constitute an argument. Reading a lot on this topic, I am inclined to take his viewpoint but then again …. where do you draw the line between author’s imagination/construct and facts. This distinction line is not clear in his book. Please do not take me wrong, the narrative flow is very dynamic, I cannot say I was bored at any point but … many times Shaun was all over the place and not sticking closely to the topic at hand. I have just finished reading “The devil’s chessboard” by David Talbot and maybe that book raised my expectations too high so when I started “American Made”, I was somewhat disappointed. Notwithstanding this, I think that Shaun has a very good material that needs more editorial work (for example, leave out all dialogues unless they are part of court room notes – Shaun was definitely not there when Berry talked to his wife or his friends so why bother presenting it as something that really happened – it just ruins the book). If he publishes a second edition and has a good editor, then this book can be a really, really good read. As it stands, it is an entertaining read that is on the border between fiction and factuality (I would rather place it on the ‘fiction’ shelf).

1 person found this helpful