The Convenient Terrorist Two Whistle..., John Kiriakou
The Convenient Terrorist Two Whistle..., John Kiriakou
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The Convenient Terrorist: Two Whistleblowers' Stories of Torture, Terror, Secret Wars, and CIA Lies

Author: John Kiriakou, Joseph Hickman

Narrator: Eric Martin

Unabridged: 3 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Novel Audio

Published: 06/27/2017


Synopsis

A startling spotlight on the darkest corners of America’s “War on Terror,” where nothing is quite what it seems.

The Convenient Terrorist is the definitive inside account of the capture, torture, and detention of Abu Zubaydah, the first “high-value target” captured by the CIA after 9/11. But was Abu Zubaydah, who is still being indefinitely held by the United States under shadowy circumstances, the blue-ribbon capture that the Bush White House claimed he was? Authors John Kiriakou, who led the capture of Zubaydah, and Joseph Hickman, who took custody of him at Guantanamo, draw a far more complex and intriguing portrait of the al-Qaeda “mastermind” who became a symbol of torture and the “dark side” of US security. From a one-time American collaborator to a poster boy for waterboarding, Abu Zubaydah became a “convenient terrorist”—a way for US authorities to sell their “War on Terror” to the American people.

About John Kiriakou

John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former counterterrorism consultant for ABC News. He was responsible for the capture in Pakistan in 2002 of Abu Zubaydah, then believed to be the third-ranking official in al Qaeda. In 2007, Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA's torture program, telling ABC News that the CIA tortured prisoners, that torture was official U.S. government policy, and that the policy had been approved by then-President George W. Bush. He became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act-a law designed to punish spies. He served twenty-three months in prison as a result of the revelation.

In 2012, Kiriakou was honored with the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage, an award given to individuals who "advance truth and justice despite the personal risk it creates," and by the inclusion of his portrait in artist Robert Shetterly's series Americans Who Tell the Truth, which features notable truth-tellers throughout American history. He won the PEN Center USA's prestigious First Amendment Award in 2015, the first Blueprint International Whistleblowing Prize for Bravery and Integrity in the Public Interest in 2016, and the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, also in 2016.

Kiriakou is the author of The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror and The Convenient Terrorist: Abu Zubaydah and the Weird Wonderland of America's Secret Wars.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Midhu

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou explains the entire history of Abu Zubaydah, including his abduction and torture. The books describe how Abu Zubaydah was misconstrued by the CIA. Their perception of Abu Zubaydah as Al Queda's number three and all of the CIA's intelligence turned out to be false. Th......more

Goodreads review by Dan

This one was a bit of a letdown. Which I should have realized with that page count and it being written by a CIA agent and a former Guantanamo guard, so that’s really on me. The oddly whimsical title made me think this would really go into how Abu Zubaydah’s case illustrated the workings of CIA rendi......more

Recommended reading and a shattering indictment of the Central Intelligence Agency by the former analyst, case officer and Chief of Counterterrorist Operations in Pakistan, who led a series of military raids on al-Qaeda safehouses that culminated in the capture of Abu Zubaydah.......more

Goodreads review by Kevin

John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer, who was involved in the capture of Abu Zubaydah. Joseph Hickman is a former U.S. Marine, who was stationed at the Guantanamo Bay military prison. Both are whistleblowers, and they recognized they had the credibility to challenge the official narrative on Zubayd......more