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
Dining with al-Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Many Worlds of the Middle East Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 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 stars5/5How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gray Work: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stealing Manhattan: The Untold Story of America's Billion Dollar Gem Heist Masterminds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStalking the Caravan: A Drug Agent in Afghanistan 1971-1973 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, Girls, and Greed: I Was a Blackwater Mercenary in Iraq Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Whistles from the Graveyard: My Time Behind the Camera on War, Rage, and Restless Youth in Afghanistan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5America at War: Concise Histories of U.S. Military Conflicts from Lexington to Afghanistan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Taliban Safari: One Day in the Surkhagan Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCounterterrorism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDisinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Culture of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold Wa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Death to the Dictator!: A Young Man Casts a Vote in Iran's 2009 Election and Pays a Devastating Price Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hunting Che: How a U.S. Special Forces Team Helped Capture the World's Most Famous Revolutionary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Burning Shores: Inside the Battle for the New Libya Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War Stories: Operation Iraqi Freedom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Among the Headhunters: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival in the Burmese Jungle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War in the Middle East: A Reporter's Story: Black September and the Yom Kippur War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marathon War: Leadership in Combat in Afghanistan 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 ratingsSummary of Gary Weiss's Retail Gangster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Modern History For You
The Cold War: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Plain Sight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Revolution: The War for Independence and the Birth of the United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Generation Kill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican 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 stars4/5Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascism: A Warning 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 Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval 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 stars4/5Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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.