Audiobooks by James Risen

The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator's Fight to Save D

In this "gripping . . . spectacular piece of reporting" (Ken Burns), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines Senator Frank Church, the man at the center of numerous investigations into the abuses of power within the American government. For decades now, America's national security state has grown ever bigger, ever more secretive and powerful, and ever more abusive. Only once did someone manage to put a stop to any of it. Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community. The dark truths that Church exposed-from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI-would shake the nation to its core, and forever change the way that Americans thought about not only their government but also their ability to hold it accountable. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams of unpublished letters, notes, and memoirs, some of which remain sensitive today, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Risen tells the gripping, untold story of truth and integrity standing against unchecked power-and winning-in The Last Honest Man.

James Risen (Author), Kevin Stillwell (Narrator)

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The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB

A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the dramatic inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose through the ranks to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War. The clandestine operations they masterminded took them from the sewers of Moscow to the back streets of Baghdad, from Cairo and Havana to Prague and Berlin, but the action centers on Washington, starting in the infamous 'Year of the Spy'--when, one by one, the CIA’s agents in Moscow began to be killed, up through to the very last man. Behind the scenes with the CIA's covert operations in Afghanistan, Milt Bearden led America to victory in the secret war against the Soviets, and for the first time he reveals here what he did and whom America backed, and why. Bearden was called back to Washington after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan and was made chief of the Soviet/East Euro-pean Division--just in time to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall, the revolutions that swept across Eastern Europe, and the implosion of the Soviet Union. Laced with startling revelations--about fail-safe top-secret back channels between the CIA and KGB, double and triple agents, covert operations in Berlin and Prague, and the fateful autumn of 1989--The Main Enemy is history at its action-packed best.

James Risen, Milton Bearden (Author), Christopher Lane (Narrator)

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Krieg um jeden Preis: Gier, Machtmissbrauch und das Millardengeschäft mit dem Kampf gegen den Terror

'Eine beängstigende Lektüre' Johanna Adorján FAS Unter dem Deckmantel der Terrorismusbekämpfung führt die US-Regierung einen Krieg, der in keinem Verhältnis mehr zur tatsächlichen Bedrohung durch terroristische Organisationen steht. Es geht um ein Milliardengeschäft und das Interesse einiger Menschen, diesen Krieg am Laufen zu halten - koste es, was es wolle. James Risen zeigt, wer die Akteure sind. Seit 9/11 führt Amerika einen endlosen Krieg gegen den Terror, weltweit und ohne das Versprechen auf Frieden. James Risen, Journalist bei der New York Times und zweifacher Pulitzerpreisträger, offenbart in seinem neuen Buch das unvorstellbare Ausmaß der verborgenen Kosten dieses Krieges, erzählt von Profitgier und verschwendetem Geld, von unerhörtem Machtmissbrauch, von Kriegen gegen Normalität, Anstand und Wahrheit. Unter dem Deckmantel der Terrorismusbekämpfung hat die US-Regierung schändliche Dinge getan - und heute wird alles getan, um diese zu verdecken. Wer profitiert vom Krieg gegen den Terror? Wer verdient konkret daran? James Risen deckt auf.

James Risen (Author), Andreas Denk (Narrator)

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Krieg um jeden Preis: Gier, Machtmissbrauch und das Millardengeschäft mit dem Kampf gegen den Terror

Eine beAngstigende LektUre Johanna AdorjAn FAS Unter dem Deckmantel der TerrorismusbekAmpfung fUhrt die US-Regierung einen Krieg, der in keinem VerhAltnis mehr zur tatsAchlichen Bedrohung durch terroristische Organisationen steht. Es geht um ein MilliardengeschAft und das Interesse einiger Menschen, diesen Krieg am Laufen zu halten – koste es, was es wolle. James Risen zeigt, wer die Akteure sind. Seit 9/11 fUhrt Amerika einen endlosen Krieg gegen den Terror, weltweit und ohne das Versprechen auf Frieden. James Risen, Journalist bei der New York Times und zweifacher PulitzerpreistrAger, offenbart in seinem neuen Buch das unvorstellbare Ausmaß der verborgenen Kosten dieses Krieges, erzAhlt von Profitgier und verschwendetem Geld, von unerhOrtem Machtmissbrauch, von Kriegen gegen NormalitAt, Anstand und Wahrheit. Unter dem Deckmantel der TerrorismusbekAmpfung hat die US-Regierung schAndliche Dinge getan – und heute wird alles getan, um diese zu verdecken. Wer profitiert vom Krieg gegen den Terror? Wer verdient konkret daran? James Risen deckt auf.

James Risen (Author), Andreas Denk (Narrator)

Audiobook

Pay Any Price

Ever since 9/11 America has fought an endless war on terror, seeking enemies everywhere and never promising peace. In Pay Any Price, James Risen reveals an extraordinary litany of the hidden costs of that war: from squandered and stolen dollars to outrageous abuses of power to an attack on normalcy, decency, and truth. In the name of fighting terrorism, our government has done things every bit as shameful as its historic wartime abuses — and until this book, it has worked very hard to cover them up. Among the many stunning revelations: • As much as $14 billion in cash was flown to Iraq by the United States government—only to have much of it stolen. Approximately $2 billion of the money was secretly transported out of Iraq in what may be one of the largest robberies in modern history. More than $1 billion of that cash is now sitting in a bunker in Lebanon, beyond our reach despite the fact that we have known about it for years. • The Pentagon tried to set up its own version of the CIA, complete with foreign agents working for cover corporations—only to find itself in bed with questionable Middle Eastern figures, including one who allegedly sought to use a covert Pentagon operation to launder hundreds of millions of dollars. On the side, there were also proposals that could have led to sales of drones to Syria and Lebanon and sales of chemicals that could have been used for explosives to other customers. An internal criminal investigation of the fiasco has been kept secret, until now. • Here at home, when whistleblowers at the National Security Agency tried to protest some of the abuses of domestic surveillance revealed by Risen and, later, in much greater detail, by Edward Snowden, their careers were destroyed, thanks to government persecution.

James Risen (Author), Christopher Lane (Narrator)

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State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration

State of War is an explosive book, filled with revelations, about the secret scandals of the Bush administration and a national-security bureaucracy run amok. With relentless media coverage, breathtaking events, and extraordinary congressional and independent investigations, it is hard to believe that we might not know some of the most significant facts about the presidency of George W. Bush. Yet beneath the surface events of the Bush presidency lies a secret history, a series of hidden events that makes a mockery of many of the stories on the surface.

James Risen (Author), Boyd Gaines (Narrator)

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