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Black Flags
- The Rise of ISIS
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
WINNER OF THE 2016 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NONFICTION
“A Best Book of 2015”—The New York Times, The Washington Post, People Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Kansas City Star, and Kirkus Reviews
In a thrilling dramatic narrative, awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents.
When the government of Jordan granted amnesty to a group of political prisoners in 1999, it little realized that among them was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist mastermind and soon the architect of an Islamist movement bent on dominating the Middle East. In Black Flags, an unprecedented character-driven account of the rise of ISIS, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick shows how the zeal of this one man and the strategic mistakes of Presidents Bush and Obama led to the banner of ISIS being raised over huge swaths of Syria and Iraq.
Zarqawi began by directing terror attacks from a base in northern Iraq, but it was the American invasion in 2003 that catapulted him to the head of a vast insurgency. By falsely identifying him as the link between Saddam and bin Laden, U.S. officials inadvertently spurred like-minded radicals to rally to his cause. Their wave of brutal beheadings and suicide bombings persisted until American and Jordanian intelligence discovered clues that led to a lethal airstrike on Zarqawi’s hideout in 2006.
His movement, however, endured. First calling themselves al-Qaeda in Iraq, then Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, his followers sought refuge in unstable, ungoverned pockets on the Iraq-Syria border. When the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, and as the U.S. largely stood by, ISIS seized its chance to pursue Zarqawi’s dream of an ultra-conservative Islamic caliphate.
Drawing on unique high-level access to CIA and Jordanian sources, Warrick weaves gripping, moment-by-moment operational details with the perspectives of diplomats and spies, generals and heads of state, many of whom foresaw a menace worse than al Qaeda and tried desperately to stop it. Black Flags is a brilliant and definitive history that reveals the long arc of today’s most dangerous extremist threat.
Critic reviews
"[A] crisply written, chilling account.... Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Warrick confidently weaves a cohesive narrative from an array of players - American officials, CIA officers, Jordanian royalty and security operatives, religious figures, and terrorists - producing an important geopolitical overview with the grisly punch of true-crime nonfiction.... The author focuses on dramatic flashpoints and the roles of key players, creating an exciting tale with a rueful tone, emphasizing how the Iraq invasion's folly birthed ISIS and created many missed opportunities to stop al-Zarqawi quickly." ( Kirkus Reviews)
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With the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. This collection draws on several articles he wrote while researching that book as well as many that he's written since, following where and how al-Qaeda and its core cultlike beliefs have morphed and spread.
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Contains much old material from "Looming Tower"
- By peter on 09-21-16
By: Lawrence Wright
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Anatomy of Terror
- From the Death of bin Laden to the Rise of the Islamic State
- By: Ali Soufan
- Narrated by: Aaron Abano
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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In Anatomy of Terror, former FBI special agent and New York Times best-selling author Ali Soufan dissects bin Laden's brand of jihadi terrorism and its major offshoots, revealing how these organizations were formed, how they operate, their strengths, and - crucially - their weaknesses.
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What every human on the planet needs to know!
- By drkraver on 05-24-17
By: Ali Soufan
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Holy War, Inc.
- Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: Peter L. Bergen
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The September 11 assault on the World Trade Center was the most sophisticated and horrifying in a series of operations masterminded by Osama bin Laden and his Jihad group - an organization that CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen calls Holy War, Inc. One of only a handful of journalists to have interviewed the world's most wanted man face to face, Bergen explains the Jihadist network that operates globally and in secrecy.
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sorry about spelling
- By Sergei on 10-18-07
By: Peter L. Bergen
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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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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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Highly Recommended
- By Drapeau on 02-01-07
By: George Packer
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The Siege of Mecca
- The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine & the Birth of Al-Qaeda
- By: Yaroslav Trofimov
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. The same morning, the first of a new Muslim century, hundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islam's holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen countries, launching the first operation of global jihad in modern times.
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"The Siege" - A Review
- By Mitch Emswiller on 05-31-08
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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 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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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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Fabulous
- By Charles S. on 10-23-23
By: Joshua Partlow
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Killing a King
- The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel
- By: Dan Ephron
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin remains the single most consequential event in Israel's recent history and one that fundamentally altered the trajectory for both Israel and the Palestinians. Killing a King relates the parallel stories of Rabin and his stalker, Yigal Amir, over the two years leading up to the assassination, as one of them planned political deals he hoped would lead to peace - and the other plotted murder.
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Tragic history well presented.
- By Mmday on 02-28-16
By: Dan Ephron
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Muqtada
- Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq
- By: Patrick Cockburn
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Whatever else the United States intended when it invaded Iraq in the spring of 2003, it was not to hand the country over to a 32-year-old militant cleric who fought against the U.S. presence from the start and was described by former Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer III as a "Bolshevik Islamist".
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truth in an era of lies
- By NF ironman on 11-29-17
By: Patrick Cockburn
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Fractured Lands
- How the Arab World Came Apart
- By: Scott Anderson
- Narrated by: Scott Anderson
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2011 a series of antigovernment uprisings shook the Middle East and North Africa in what would become known as the Arab Spring. Few could predict that these convulsions, initially hailed in the West as a triumph of democracy, would give way to brutal civil war, the terrors of the Islamic State, and a global refugee crisis. But, as New York Times best-selling author Scott Anderson shows, the seeds of catastrophe had been sown long before. In this gripping account, Anderson examines the myriad complex causes of the region's profound unraveling.
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Timely and a must to listen to!
- By becky robbins on 05-05-17
By: Scott Anderson
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The Longest War
- America and Al-Qaeda Since 9/11
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Longest War, Peter Bergen offers a comprehensive history of this war and its evolution, from the strategies devised in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to the fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond. Weaving together internal documents from al-Qaeda and the U.S. offices of counterterrorism, first-person interviews with top-level jihadists and senior Washington officials, along with his own experiences on the ground in the Middle East, Bergen balances the accounts of each side.
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More Bush bashing..yes, but still worth reading.
- By Dennis on 01-18-11
By: Peter L. Bergen
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The Way of the Knife
- The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth
- By: Mark Mazzetti
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Mazzetti examines secret wars over the past decade, tracking key characters from the intelligence and military communities across the world. Among the characters we meet in The Way of the Knife are a young CIA officer dropped into the tribal areas to learn the hard way how the spy games in Pakistan are played; an Air Force test pilot who fired the first drone missile in the Nevada desert; and a chain-smoking Pentagon official who ran an off-the-books spying operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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Excellent critique of covert operations
- By Keefer on 04-27-13
By: Mark Mazzetti
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ISIS
- Inside the Army of Terror
- By: Michael Weiss, Hassan Hassan
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Initially dismissed by US President Barack Obama, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has shocked the world by conquering massive territories in both countries and promising to create a vast new Muslim caliphate that observes the strict dictates of Sharia law. In ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, American journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan explain how these violent extremists evolved from a nearly defeated Iraqi insurgent group into a jihadi army of international volunteers who have conquered territory equal to the size of Great Britain.
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Dunce Hat, Please...
- By Mel on 02-16-16
By: Michael Weiss, and others
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Twilight Warriors
- The Soldiers, Spies, and Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War
- By: James Kitfield
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
In Twilight Warriors, award-winning foreign correspondent James Kitfield introduces us to the tight-knit brotherhood that strives to keep the United States safe from the dimly understood threats it now faces. Together these men have broken down the boundaries between their respective agencies to engineer a network-centric way of fighting using a seamless web of intelligence analysts, information networks, FBI forensics experts, and Special Forces units to take the fight to America's enemies as never before.
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South African Perspectives
- By Bernard Remacle on 03-22-17
By: James Kitfield
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Ghost Wars
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ISIS: The State of Terror
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The Islamic State, known as ISIS, exploded into the public eye in 2014 with startling speed and shocking brutality. It has captured the imagination of the global jihadist movement, attracting recruits in unprecedented numbers and wreaking bloody destruction with a sadistic glee that has alienated even the hardcore terrorists of its parent organization, al Qaeda. Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger, two of America’s leading experts on terrorism, dissect the new model for violent extremism that ISIS has leveraged into an empire of death in Iraq and Syria, and an international network that is rapidly expanding in the Middle East, North Africa and around the world.
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The American military is a tightly sealed community, and few outsiders have reason to know that a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay. But many officers have shared their anger with renowned military reporter Thomas E. Ricks, and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.
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Tens of thousands of men and women have left comfortable, privileged lives to join the Islamic State and kill for it. To them, its violence is beautiful and holy, and the caliphate a fulfillment of prophecy and the only place on earth where they can live and die as Muslims. The Way of the Strangers is an intimate journey into the minds of the Islamic State's true believers. From the streets of Cairo to the mosques of London, Wood interviews supporters, recruiters, and sympathizers of the group.
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A longer version of the Atlantic article
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Directorate S
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Resuming the narrative of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, best-selling author Steve Coll tells for the first time the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11.
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Slow At Times But Always Horrifying And Engaging
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Black Wave
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With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research, and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging sectarian violence from Egypt to Pakistan, the war for cultural supremacy led to many events.
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Unveiling the darkness of the Middle East
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Manhunt
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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!
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The Afghanistan Papers
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Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: Defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off-course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives.
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America's War for the Greater Middle East
- A Military History
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From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country's most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterprise - now more than 30 years old and with no end in sight.
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A Key to Understanding the US Need for Perp. War
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Blood in the Water
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- By: Heather Ann Thompson
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On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York to protest years of mistreatment. Holding guards and civilian employees hostage, the prisoners negotiated with officials for improved conditions during the four long days and nights that followed. On September 13, the state abruptly sent hundreds of heavily armed troopers and correction officers to retake the prison by force. Their gunfire killed 39 men - hostages as well as prisoners.
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Tragic Events, Well-Told
- By David on 10-27-17
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The Bin Ladens
- An Arabian Family in the American Century
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Erik Singer
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Abridged
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Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the national best seller Ghost Wars, Steve Coll presents the story of the Bin Laden family's rise to power and privilege, revealing new information to show how American influences changed the family and how one member's rebellion changed America.
By: Steve Coll
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The Secretary
- A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power
- By: Kim Ghattas
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In November 2008, Hillary Clinton agreed to work for her former rival. As President Barack Obama's secretary of state, she set out to repair America's image around the world - and her own. For the following four years, BBC foreign correspondent Kim Ghattas had unparalleled access to Clinton and her entourage, and she weaves a fast-paced, gripping account of life on the road with Clinton in The Secretary.
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Never got to the heart...
- By Mel on 04-17-13
By: Kim Ghattas
What listeners say about Black Flags
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- mike flavin
- 02-11-16
So much learned
Before listening to this book I knew very little about Isis or the situations it spawned from. I was nervous before starting the book that I would have issues with characters names and remembering who was who in the same way I struggled remembering who was who in the Russian classics like war and peace and crime and punishment. However the author did a good job reminding the reader who was who and at the same time didn't do it so much that someone who wouldn't have that problem wouldn't be annoyed by it. I learned so much about the situations that Isis evolved from and what countries in the area the key players came from. Although the book covers a large period of time and doesn't do it in a linear manor the history is digestible and the nonlinear nature of the book is setup in a way that keeps things interesting but not confusing. My only complaint about this book is how the reader over emphases words or phrases. At times it felt melodramatic to me. At the same time I understand that he didn't want to sound boring or dry and it's possible it's just me being weird and nothing to do with how the book was read. Overall I strongly recommend this book for anyone that wants to start to learn about Isis on a richer way.
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- T
- 03-18-16
Good storytelling.
A quick recap: The first 6 hours address faults at the Bush administration, there's 20 minutes addressing faults at the Obama administration and the rest is great listening as it discusses specifics about King Abdulla II and al-Zarqawi.
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16 people found this helpful
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- D. Landers
- 04-30-16
Very informative, detect a political bias
A great deal of information and was a good listen. Was slightly disappointed that there was some political bias. Bush was portrayed as incompetent but Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration was treated like they were just trying to do the right thing.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Luhmeherin
- 11-20-16
Misleading title and partisan history
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
This book subtitled "The rise of ISIS" spends less than a 1/3 of the text actually describing ISIS. Instead, the book details the rise and death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006, long before the Syrian crisis and the true rise of ISIS. Unfortunately, even given this attention, I gained little insight into Zarqawi's character from the text.
What was most disappointing about Joby Warrick’s story?
By focusing in on the rise of Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006, Warrick is able to blame the Bush administration for the rise of ISIS. The Bush policy shortsightedness and failures are well known and better documented elsewhere. However, the Obama administration, oppressive Arabic regimes, the Jordanian government and even Islamic radicalism are all let off the hook by Mr. Warrick. Why? The Jordanians foolishly released Zarqawi from prison, yet Warrick plays the role of Jordanian apologist. Why? The Obama administration failure to respect self imposed "red lines," abandonment of a leadership role in the Middle East and complete failure to see the oncoming extremist threat, despite real time warnings, is not even discussed by Mr. Warrick. Why not? Arab countries willingness and even active participation in anti-American and anti-semitic rhetoric is not discussed as a radicalizing force. Nor, is the oppressive Arabic regimes discussed as possible destabilizing threat. Why not?
The only reason is that Mr. Warrick eschewed a complex etiology for the ISIS rise in favor of a partisan, everything-is-Bush's-fault, ideology. As such, this book fails in explaining anything other than the author's very own prejudices.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Sunil Malhotra?
Anyone who could properly pronounce Arabic names.
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11 people found this helpful
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- LA in SC
- 11-11-15
Frightening
Good info, well laid out , evenhanded and informative. Makes the point that all Muslims are not the same. It lays some of the blame for the existence of ISIS on the failed US military adventure (particularity the botched post invasion period) in Iraq and our dithering in Syria. Anyone interested in the region should give this a listen.
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9 people found this helpful
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- SBG
- 11-04-15
Wonderfully written and read.
If you could sum up Black Flags in three words, what would they be?
Clear, riveting, terrifying and eye-opening.
What other book might you compare Black Flags to and why?
Hard to compare this to anything I've read; it would be easier to compare it to a movie--an exciting political thriller that's also educational, insightful, and explored without bias.
What about Sunil Malhotra’s performance did you like?
Wonderful voice; even-toned, with just the right inflections. He does a terrific job with a wonderful (if very dense and detail-packed) text, delivering it with an easy, conversational tone that I could (and do) listen to for hours on end. He also pronounces all the names correctly, which is a rarity in the world of audiobooks.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Black Flags: How the Menace Metastasized
Any additional comments?
I was hoping for a good book that would give me a preliminary education in the origins of ISIS. It exceeded my expectations tenfold.
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- Christopher
- 02-22-17
What a Disappointment . . .
This book was beyond a disappointment. It took ten hours to get to ISIS. The book failed to adequately explain why and how ISIS rose to power and instead is a biography of the men who came to lead ISIS. There's essentially no guidance on how to deal with ISIS going forward.
The narrator is also horrendous. He changes the cadence of voice at random as though to be dramatic. It's distracting and unnecessary.
This book is everything that the Looming Tower is not.
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- J.B.
- 11-29-15
Where We Are Today - Where We Were Before
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, by Joby Warrick is highly recommended for those who want to understand how and why ISIS came into existence, and what if anything it has/had to do with Al Qaida.
This is how history should be told. What do I mean by that? I believe history is the study of what/where we are today by assessment of what/where we were before. As such Warrick, provides for us an understanding of our present dilemma with ISIS as a result of what we, the West, and It, a claimant on behalf of Islam, did to get us where we are today. It is a story of antagonism between modern and pre-medieval values.
It is not a psychological study as to why the progenitors of vicious retribution on behalf of Islam are nihilists but rather just a story as to how ISIS’ leaders fell into their opportunistic but destructive circumstance.
The history tells how ISIS came into being and what foolery allowed its cruelty to flourish. The tale has its true heroes, and its requisite buffoons, evil doers and misguided forces. Actually, Warrick lists two distinct sets of champions and two distinct sets of satanic forces. There are the heads of state and the secrete service men and woman whose job it is to track threats to our equanimity and destroy those forces before they act and those demonic leaders and their blind faith followers who seek treachery and murder. An example of those on the hero side would be Abdullah II of Jordan and his Mukhabarat, Jordan’s secrete police or FBI/CIA. Yes, the Mukhabarat, can you imagine that? The controlling bad guys are Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the alleged progenitor of ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, its present leader/strongman. The buffoons being President George W. Busch, Vice President Dick Chaney and President Barack Obama. For example, Busch and Chaney had opportunity to take out Zarqawi and his then embryonic forces but past on the opportunity as it might have revealed their tenuous argument that Iraq was a threat to the West and in league with Al Qaida. That’s just a hint as to what the book revealed/claimed. Warrick is not very kind to Obama either. A worthwhile read, but beware as the stories of evil are difficult to hear and they do echo in one’s memories.
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- Drake
- 11-16-15
Bush's Blunder Crumbles On...
This is an excellent overview of what lead to ISIS and explains the movement's bizarre success. This will put the Paris attacks in better perspective.
Watch the Frontline documentary on the Rise of ISIS for some visual context.
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- Thinker77
- 10-28-15
A very complex topic but quite coherent
This book is dealing with a very complex topic and does so with reasonable success. There is not much time given in terms of a way forward or some educated predictions on what happens next. In that way it is a fairly historical account and reasonably unbiased. Worth listening to if you have a vested interest in the topic.
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4 people found this helpful