Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda
Written by Gretchen Peters
Narrated by Laural Merlington
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Seeds of Terror will reshape the way you think about America's enemies, revealing them less as ideologues and more as criminals who earn half a billion dollars every year off the opium trade. With the breakneck pace of a thriller, author Gretchen Peters traces their illicit activities from vast poppy fields in southern Afghanistan to heroin labs run by Taliban commanders, from drug convoys armed with Stinger missiles to the money launderers of Karachi and Dubai.
This isn't a fanciful conspiracy theory. Seeds of Terror is based on hundreds of interviews with Taliban fighters, smugglers, and law enforcement and intelligence agents. Their information is matched by intelligence reports shown to the author by frustrated U.S. officials who fear the next 9/11 will be far deadlier than the first-and paid for with drug profits.
Seeds of Terror makes the case that we must cut terrorists off from their drug earnings if we ever hope to beat them. This war isn't about ideology or religion. It's about creating a new economy for Afghanistan-and breaking the cycle of violence and extremism that has gripped the region for decades.
Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters has covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for more than a decade, first for the Associated Press and later for ABC News. A Harvard graduate, Peters was nominated for an Emmy for her coverage of the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto and won the SAJA Journalism Award for a Nightline segment on Pervez Musharraf. She lives in the United States with her husband, the Robert Capa Gold Medal-winning photojournalist John Moore, and their two daughters. She is the author of Seeds of Terror.
Related to Seeds of Terror
Related audiobooks
The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Year: The Unraveling of Western Counterterrorism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Culture of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America at War: Concise Histories of U.S. Military Conflicts from Lexington to Afghanistan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taliban Safari: One Day in the Surkhagan Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarathon War: Leadership in Combat in Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing Che Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, Girls, and Greed: I Was a Blackwater Mercenary in Iraq Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Guerrilla Factory: The Making of Special Forces Officers, the Green Berets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counterterrorism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolicing Saigon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The US Army's First, Last, and Only All-Black Rangers: The 2nd Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne) in the Korean War, 1950-1951 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStalking the Caravan: A Drug Agent in Afghanistan 1971-1973 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold Wa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Time to Lead: For Duty, Honor and Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Modern History For You
Generation Kill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Revolution: The War for Independence and the Birth of the United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Plain Sight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Final Witness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Path Between the Seas Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Michigan Murders: The True Story of the Ypsilanti Ripper's Reign of Terror Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Seeds of Terror
4 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is unquestionably an important topic, but the book doesn't do it justice. The narrative meanders around in circles, repeating points both major and minor; the reader is left to drown in detail. As someone who has been following the news, little of this felt new or surprising to me; I'm sure that some of the details were specific to this book, but they weren't set apart or highlighted in such a way that I could appreciate them. Ultimately, it read like a long -- a very long -- newswire story, without enough life or color to bring the story and color alive. A good narrative nonfiction book finds a way to organize its material and make it compelling; this one doesn't.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An excellent perspective on the main problem facing the people of Afghanistan and those countries and organizations seeking to help them develop their long neglected country. If you want to know why we aren't making any progress and need to continue to place more assets and lives in harms way then you should read this book.