Against All Enemies cover art

Against All Enemies

Inside America's War on Terror

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Against All Enemies

By: Richard A. Clarke
Narrated by: Richard A. Clarke
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

 The real war on terror has happened largely behind closed doors, run by the White House, drawing on secret intelligence and operations around the world. There is no man who knows more about it than Richard Clarke, the former Counterterrorism Czar for both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the man who has led our efforts against al Qaeda and all other terrorist enemies for years, serving under seven presidents and in the White House for George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, until he resigned in March 2003. He has had a front-row seat at every major battle in this war, from the first World Trade Center bombing, to 9/11, to Afghanistan, to Iraq.
Clarke knows the secret stories of Bill Clinton's great victories -- shutting down anti-U.S. terrorism sponsored by Iran and Iraq -- and his great frustrations -- failing to kill Usama Bin Laden despite many attempts. When President Bush took office, Clarke was ready to present him with a master plan to roll back and destroy al Qaeda -- yet the president did not grant a briefing for months. His aides had little interest in Usama Bin Laden, preferring to talk about Saddam Hussein at every turn. Clarke knows why we failed to shut down terrorist financing within our borders prior to 2001.
After ignoring existing plans to attack al Qaeda when he first took office, George Bush made disastrous decisions when he finally did pay attention. Thanks to the determined, even conspiratorial views of Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and Bush, we went after the wrong enemy.
The charges Clarke levels against the current administration must be taken seriously by every American, Democrat or Republican. Our security depends upon it. Freedom & Security Political Science Politics & Government United States War & Crisis World Middle East Iran American Foreign Policy
All stars
Most relevant
Great book but chapters being out of alignment spoils the experience, surely this is remediable?

Chapters out of alignment

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Clarke served from 1998-2003 as the USA's National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism, also known as the Counterterrorism Czar. Thus it was his job to coordinate the response to events of the 9th September 2001. His account of that day is revealing in many ways. Certain facts stand out. One of them being the difficulty he had communicating with the Vice President who was ultimately in charge, seeing that the President happened to busy reading aloud stories in a children's school. When Clarke did eventually obtain access to the secure underground control bunker, he found that the Vice President was more interested in watching how the news was being reported on TV than in talking to his security coordinator about what they should do about it. On following days, Clarke found himself heavily pressured by the President to link the events of the 11th to Iraq, even though he, the FBI and the CIA were clear that there weren't any links. Clarke comes across as a genuine, patriotic American who did his best to serve his country and who is cautiously angry with the behaviour of the administration he was obliged to serve.

Clear, concise, compelling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Richard Clarke has a beautiful voice and is a joy to listen to. The subject matter sad, infuriating yet fascinating and compelling. This man, in my opinion, is trustworthy, believable, erudite and it's a pity there weren't more people like him running America instead of that Orange Tellytubby lunatic in power as I type this.
I thoroughly recommend this book. Make sure you read The Looming Tower and Richard Clarkes other book We Failed You, Your Government Failed you.

CLEARLY WRITTEN & BEAUTIFULLY READ

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.