Seeds of Terror, Gretchen Peters
Seeds of Terror, Gretchen Peters
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Seeds of Terror
How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda

Author: Gretchen Peters

Narrator: Laural Merlington

Unabridged: 7 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/16/2009


Synopsis

Most Americans think of the Taliban and al-Qaeda as a bunch of bearded fanatics fighting an Islamic crusade from caves in Afghanistan. But that doesn't explain their astonishing comeback along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Why is it that eight years after we invaded Afghanistan, the CIA says that these groups are better armed and better funded than ever?

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.

About 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 Award 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 award-winning photojournalist John Moore, and their two daughters.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on August 30, 2021

Gretchen Peters image from DC Environmental Film Festival Gretchen Peters was a very young field reporter for ABC news in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She was much intrigued with the role of narcotics trafficking in the politics of the region. Ultimately, her thesis is that what we think of as the Ta......more

Goodreads review by Brett on August 08, 2021

"The Taliban were no longer fighting for Allah, but for the almighty dollar." pg. 116 This was an interesting subject on something I knew nothing about. This book explained all the intricacies of the drug trade (raw poppy, opium, and somewhat processed heroin) out of Afghanistan and into the world. I......more

Goodreads review by Lars on July 11, 2010

As a journalist with a deep interest in Afghanistan, Gretchen Peters offers an extensively researched account of the evolution of the heroin trade within Afghanistan and Pakistan. The recent escalation of hostilities in the region and the resurgence of the Taliban can be directly attributed to the p......more

Goodreads review by Clayton on June 10, 2009

Everyone should read this book. I read it because I had to interview the author. It's an eye opening investigation into what's fueling the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan. To a greater extent heroine over ideology! Gretchen Peters spent nearly a decade reporting from this region and her understa......more

Goodreads review by Dennis on March 06, 2019

Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda by Gretchen Peters is a book that I read too late to really feel the full impact of it. Peters lays out a very convincing case that the Taliban is heavy embedded into opium production and the heroin trade in Afghanistan and Pakistan......more