A Pretext for War cover art

A Pretext for War

9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

A Pretext for War

By: James Bamford
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 This book says outright what many have merely hinted at: that President George W. Bush knowingly misused the findings of the erroneous and incompetent U.S. intelligence community to provide a pretext for war with Iraq. The author hones in on the systematic weaknesses of the intelligence agencies that caused them to ignore the crucial signs leading up to the attacks of 9/11. Incompetence, deception, and misinformation from these agencies simply left the door open for President Bush and his cronies, who were less interested in the capture of Osama bin Laden and the destruction of his terror network than in following a dubious agenda in Iraq. The missing "weapons of mass destruction" are merely the latest by-product of Bush's co-optation of intelligence for political ends.Want to learn more about the author and A Pretext for War? Listen to James Bramford on the June 8, 2004, edition of Fresh Air.©2004 James Bamford (P)2004 Books on Tape Espionage Freedom & Security Military Political Science Politics & Government True Crime United States War & Crisis World Middle East National Security War Iran Gulf War Africa Computer Security

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Top Secret America cover art
The Shadow Factory cover art
Body of Secrets cover art
Confront and Conceal cover art
Playing to the Edge cover art
Putin's Wars cover art
Against All Enemies cover art
Intelligence Matters cover art
The Finish cover art
Dereliction of Duty cover art
Washington Bullets cover art
I Am Legend cover art
The Hacker and the State cover art
Spies, Lies, and Algorithms cover art
The Cell cover art
Hard Measures cover art

Critic reviews

"Much of the information and many of the theories in Mr. Bamford's book will be familiar to readers from earlier magazine and newspaper articles, and other books....But Mr. Bamford unearths new details about everything from the identity of one of the disclosed locations used by Vice President Dick Cheney after 9/11...to the failures of a special CIA unit charged with tracking Osama bin Laden, and he connects the many dots, both old and new, to create a vivid, unsettling narrative." ( The New York Times)
All stars
Most relevant  
brilliant from start to finish.

Worth listening to if you want the truth behind the secret state.

revealing and interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is an excellent telling of the lead-up to the Iraq war - it shows how far apart lie the fiction and the reality surrounding America's intelligence services.

It also tells the truth about the real duplicity of the US President and his allies (especially UK Prime Minister) in their push for regime change.

One thing about the reader, who is generally very good and deals well with many difficult names - I did laugh out loud when he talked about the infamous 'doggy dossier' (it should be prodnounced 'dodgy' - dɒdʒi/ or 'dod-gi').

An important contribution to the history of 9/11

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