Days That Shaped America - September 11thThe largest terror attack in our nation's history left images seared into our conscience that will never be forgotten. But for those caught in the middle, the memories are as strong today as they were in 2001. Distributed by A&E Television Networks.
ISIS, Birth of a Terrorist StateThis film covers the rise of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and explains the significance of its proclaimation of a Caliphate and its status as a terrorist group controlling vast territory and resources. It shows how ISIS unites local Sunni grievances with international jihadist ambitions. It examines the future of the war between ISIS and its enemies.
Homegrown : The Counter-Terror DilemmaA timely exploration of one of today's most divisive and pressing issues-the threat posed by homegrown Islamic extremism and the challenges of detecting and countering it. Directed by Emmy award-winner Greg Barker (HBO's Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden), Homegrown: The Counter-Terror Dilemma is a gripping, insider's account of the homegrown terrorist threat in America, told from the perspectives of those who helped construct America's counterterrorism machine-as well as those who are its targets.
Losing IraqWith Islamic extremists gaining ground in Iraq, and the Obama administration being pulled back into the conflict, FRONTLINE presents Losing Iraq, a timely and late-breaking report on the crisis in Iraq. From the FRONTLINE investigative team that produced Lost Year in Iraq, The Torture Question, Endgame, and Bush's War, this new hour-long film will draw on the team's experience and sources to trace the history of America's involvement in Iraq and follow events on the ground and at the White House.
Bill Moyers Journal : Al Qaeda in Iraq?As the Bush administration promotes the idea of a growing al Qaeda threat in Iraq, the Journal analyzes the facts on the ground to explore who the U.S. is really fighting. In this program, Bill Moyers gets perspective from Brian Fishman of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, whose research focuses on the impact of the war in Iraq on terrorism globally, and Fawaz A. Gerges of Sarah Lawrence College and the author of the highly acclaimed books The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global and Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy. Moyers also reports on the hidden Congressional spending provisions known as earmarks-often used as payback for political contributions-and reflects on the death of a young soldier.
Iraq : War and TruthThe invasion of Iraq was the most extensively-reported conflict in history, with more than 2,000 journalists descending on the country. But paradoxically, most of this coverage never made the news back home. This documentary contrasts coverage of the Iraq War with the reporting of previous conflicts, revealing how the 2003 invasion was sanitized and repackaged for the American public, and assessing the wider implications of the media's role in war coverage. With commentary from Steve Katz, former counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs; Danny Schecter, author of Death of the Media; Prof. G. Kurt Piehler; and journalists Roger Peterson, Dorie Griggs, and Sig Christenson.
Alive Day Memories : Home from IraqThree-time Emmy winner James Gandolfini returns to HBO with this documentary special about wounded soldiers. It surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through memories of their "alive day," the day they narrowly escaped death in Iraq. Soldiers share questions about their future, severe disabilities and devotion to their country. The film also looks at the advances in military medicine that allow soldiers to return home and celebrate what they call their "Alive Day". Emmy Nominated.
Last Letters Home : Voices of American Troops from the Battlefields of IraqTouching and powerful, Last Letters Home is an emotional documentary that features 10 families reading aloud the last letters they received from loved ones who lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Presented in a suitably straightforward, unembellished style by director Bill Couturié (director of HBO's Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam), the film displays close-up pictures of the soldiers in military and civilian life as family members read and reminisce (of the 10 soldiers profiled, the oldest was 51 years old; the youngest was only 19). In the end, this film, which premiered on HBO, is really about the families left behind to mourn and honor the lives of the fallen. In one typically poignant piece, the mother of fallen SPC Robert Allen Wise relates the moment when she received the dreaded news. It was her birthday. She had been expecting to hear from her son but, as she says, "I got a knock on the door instead.... When you open the door and you see two uniforms and a chaplain... nobody has to say anything." To their credit, the families are admirably open in sharing their experiences; there are outpourings of profound grief and sadness, but there is also immense pride and joy in the memories of their loved ones who served. It may be difficult to watch at times, but seeing the personal cost of war, unfiltered by network news and unstained by political agendas, makes Letters an intensely intimate and human experience. --Dan Vancini
The Last Outpost : AfghanistanThe Last Outpost: Afghanistan tells the story of the U.S. effort to build up the Afghan army, America's only real exit strategy. Shot from the ground and on the frontlines, the film chronicles the war through the portrait of two Afghans and an American soldier in an embedded team of 130 Afghans. The two cinematographers/directors, Tim Grucza and Yuri Maldavski, spent a month and a half with the soldiers in a tiny outpost by the Pakistan border looking into Waziristan. Ultimately, the film is a look at the absurdity of the war and the impossibility of the fight. It will also explore the psychology, motivation, and identity of soldier allies fighting a common enemy but radically opposed in their cultures and ways of life.
War on the Home FrontAfter 9/11, America's stated mission was to "bring the fight to the terrorists." Iraq and Afghanistan became, in essence, two battlefields in the West's war on terror. But what happens when terror rises from the very soil that foreign wars are waged to protect? Are European countries in particular overlooking the need to fight a different kind of fight, one in which the hearts and minds of their own citizens are at stake? This program looks at developments in England and Belgium (the correspondent's native country) in an effort to understand how radicalism can take root after being imported from extremist hotbeds in Pakistan and other Islamic countries. Viewers meet worshippers from mosques where the London subway bombers of 2005 were radicalized, two Brussels detectives who broke up a regional al Qaeda network, and a Pakistani organization known as al-Muhajiroun, which functions as a sort of travel agency for aspiring terrorists.
Road to 9/11 by Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation" ... this dramatic documentary chronicles the deep historical roots of Al-Qáida, examining the years of political oppression, economic stagnation, religious fanaticism, and violence that gave rise to the attacks of September 11. 2002. It features rare footage, and insightful commentary by leading scholars and journalists including Bernard Lewis, Fareed Zakaria, Thomas Friedman, Irshad Manji, Azar Nafisis, Kanan Makiya, Fawaz Gerges, and David Fromkin."
Call Number: AV HV6432 .R63 2006 (Deerwood)
ISBN: 9780793692484
Publication Date: 2005
In memoriam : New York City 9/11/01 by HBO Home VideoOn Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 8:47am., New York City would be jolted into its worst nightmare as a chain of tragic events unfolded, changing the lives of New Yorkers and Americans forever. People from 115 different countries died at the World Trade Center. This documentary draws from unprecedented access to City Hall including interviews with the major's key staff, as well as visual material from 118 everyday citizens and 16 news agencies, much of it never-before seen, from in and around New York City.
Call Number: AV HV6432.7 .I5 2002 (North)
ISBN: 026359197024
Publication Date: 2002
The rise of ISIS by Frontline production with RAINmediaIn The Rise of ISIS, Martin Smith (Gangs of Iraq; Beyond Baghdad) draws on in-depth interviews with Iraqi politicians, and American policymakers and military leaders to explore and explain how the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) became a major force so quickly. What does it mean for the U.S. to be back in Iraq, fighting a new war on terror, less than three years after American troops pulled out of the country? Smith delivers a revelatory look at how ISIS grew out of the disaffection of Iraqi Sunnis who were sidelined and targeted by Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after the American withdrawal. The film traces how they gained strength in Syria, how they're funded, how they operate, and how, city by city, from Ramadi to Fallujah to Mosul, ISIS swept across Iraq--seizing territory, recording and broadcasting mass executions, and drawing recruits from an estimated 80 countries. With ISIS continuing to take and hold territory in Iraq and Syria despite U.S. and coalition airstrikes, and President Obama's foreign policy legacy hanging in the balance, The Rise of ISIS is the definitive account of how the U.S. has reached this point.
Call Number: AV HV6433.I722 R57 2014 (Kent, North)
ISBN: 841887023221
Publication Date: 2014
Dirty wars by Distributed by MPI Media GrouIt's the dirty little secret of the War on Terror: all bets are off, and almost anything goes. The rules of the game and of engagement have fundamentally changed. Today drone strikes, night raids, and U.S. government targeted killings occur in corners across the globe, killing untold numbers of civilians. Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill traces the rise of the Joint Special Operations Command, the most secret fighting force in U.S. history, exposing operations carried out by men who do not exist on paper and will never appear before Congress. No target is off-limits for the JSOC "kill list," not even U.S. citizens.
Call Number: AV UB251.U5 D57 2013 DVD (Kent)
ISBN: 9780788617201
Publication Date: 2013
Meeting Osama Bin Laden by Distributed by PBS Home VideoA biography of Osama Bin Laden, from his parents' humble origins through the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Features interviews with those who have met him, including his grade school teacher, family friends, and journalists from the West and Middle East. Includes many documentary photographs, film and video sequences.
Call Number: AV HV6430.B55 M44 2004 (South)
ISBN: 9780793690084
Publication Date: 2004
Restrepo : [one platoon, one valley, one year] by Tim Hetherington, Sebastian JungerThis documentary chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, starting in 2007. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, Restrepo, named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats.
Call Number: AV DS371.4123.K67 R47 2010 (Cecil, Kent, South)
ISBN: 9786313868469
Publication Date: 2010
American Heroes on the Homefront by Oliver North (Read by); Peyton Tochterman (Read by)From the New York Times bestselling author of Heroes Proved, a moving collection of "straightforward, honest testimonials to the courage American troops display on and off the battlefield" (Kirkus Reviews). For more than a dozen years, combat-decorated Marine Oliver North and his award-winning documentary team from FOX News Channel's War Stories traveled to the frontlines of the War on Terror to profile the dedicated men and women who serve our nation. This time, he follows them from the battlefield to the homefront and finds extraordinary inspiration in their triumph over life-altering adversity. In this new volume of his New York Times bestselling American Heroes series, North describes the courage, commitment, and strength of those who serve--and those who love them. The term "selfless devotion" may be a clich to many--but not to the men and women on the pages of this book. Their stories resound with bravery, a warrior ethos, and spiritual strength that will encourage us all. Heroes are people who knowingly place themselves at risk for the benefit of others. Since the terror attack of 9-11-01, more than 2 million young Americans have volunteered to serve in difficult and dangerous places. No military force in history has been asked to do more than those who have served and sacrificed in this long fight. They are American heroes. So too are their loved ones here at home. These are their stories.
Call Number: AV DS79.766.A1 N67 2013ab CD (Kent)
ISBN: 9781442367029
Publication Date: 2013-11-05
Ghost Wars: [the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001] by Steve Coll; Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrated by)The explosive firsthand account of America's secret history in AfghanistanTo what extent did America's best intelligence analysts grasp the rising threat of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did they fail? Comprehensively and for the first time, this Pulitzer Prize–winning work by journalist Steve Coll recounts the history of the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks. Based on scrupulous research and firsthand accounts by key government, intelligence, and military personnel both foreign and American, Ghost Wars details the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of bin Laden, and the efforts by US forces to find and assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Call Number: eAudiobook
ISBN: 9781455115174
Publication Date: 2012-01-20
The last girl : my story of captivity, and my fight against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad ; foreword by Amal ClooneyIn this intimate memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story. Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon. On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia's brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade. Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety. Today, Nadia's story--as a witness to the Islamic State's brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi--has forced the world to pay attention to the ongoing genocide in Iraq. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.
Call Number: eAudiobook
ISBN: 9780525493242
Publication Date: 2017
Lone Survivor: the eyewitness account of operation Redwing and the lost heroes of Seal Team 10 by Patrick Robinson (As told to); Kevin T. Collins (Read by); Marcus LuttrellFour US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July, 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumoured to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive. This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, SEAL team leader Marcus Luttrell and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history. His squadmates fought valiantly beside him until he was the only one left alive, blasted by an RPG into a place where his pursuers could not find him. Over the next four days, terribly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell crawled for miles through the mountains and was taken in by sympathetic villagers who risked their lives to keep him safe from surrounding Taliban warriors. A born and raised Texan, Marcus Luttrell takes us from the rigours of SEAL training, where he and his fellow SEALs discovered what it took to join the most elite of the American special forces, to a fight in the desolate hills of Afghanistan for which they never could have been prepared. His account of his squadmates' heroism and mutual support renders an experience for which two of his squadmates were posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for combat heroism that is both heartrending and life-affirming. In this rich chronicle of courage and sacrifice, honour and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers a powerful narrative of modern war.
Call Number: AV DS371.413 .L87 2013ab (Kent)
ISBN: 9781478927082
Publication Date: 2013-11-19
Manhunt: the ten-year search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad by Peter L. Bergen; Mark Deakins (Read by)From the author of theNew York TimesbestsellingHoly War, Inc., this is the definitive account of the decade-long manhunt that killed the world’s most wanted man, Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda expert and CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen paints a multidimensional picture of the hunt for bin Laden over the past decade, including the operation that killed him. Other key elements of the book will include: A careful account of Obama’s decision-making process as the raid was planned The fascinating story of a group of CIA analysts—largely women—who never gave up assembling the tiniest clues about OBL’s whereabouts The untold and action-packed history of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the SEALs An analysis of what the death of OBL means for al Qaeda, and for Obama’s legacy. Just asToo Big to Failcaptured, in riveting detail, the anatomy of this decade’s financial disaster, so too isManhuntone of the key stories of this decade: the authoritative, immersive account of the operation that killed the man who organized the largest mass murder in American history.
Call Number: AV HV6430.B55 B473 2012ab FSCJ (Kent)
ISBN: 9780307969545
Publication Date: 2012-05-01
Playing to the edge : American intelligence in the age of terror by Michael V. Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency and CIAAn unprecedented high-level master narrative of America's intelligence wars, demonstrating in a time of new threats that espionage and the search for facts are essential to our democracyFor General Michael Hayden, playing to the edge means playing so close to the line that you get chalk dust on your cleats. Otherwise, by playing back, you may protect yourself, but you will be less successful in protecting America.'Play to the edge'was Hayden's guiding principle when he ran the National Security Agency, and it remained so when he ran CIA. In his view, many shortsighted and uninformed people are quick to criticize, and this audiobook will give them much to chew on but little easy comfort; it is an unapologetic insider's look told from the perspective of the people who faced awesome responsibilities head on, in the moment.How did American intelligence respond to terrorism, a major war and the most sweeping technological revolution in the last 500 years? What was NSA before 9/11 and how did it change in its aftermath? Why did NSA begin the controversial terrorist surveillance program that included the acquisition of domestic phone records? What else was set in motion during this period that formed the backdrop for the infamous Snowden revelations in 2013?As Director of CIA in the last three years of the Bush administration, Hayden had to deal with the rendition, detention and interrogation program as bequeathed to him by his predecessors. He also had to ramp up the agency to support its role in the targeted killing program that began to dramatically increase in July 2008. This was a time of great crisis at CIA, and some agency veterans have credited Hayden with actually saving the agency. He himself won't go that far, but he freely acknowledges that CIA helped turn the American security establishment into the most effective killing machine in the history of armed conflict.For 10 years, then, General Michael Hayden was a participant in some of the most telling events in the annals of American national security. General Hayden's goals in writing this audiobook are simple and unwavering: No apologies. No excuses. Just what happened. And why. As he writes,'There is a story here that deserves to be told, without varnish and without spin. My view is my view, and others will certainly have different perspectives, but this view deserves to be told to create as complete a history as possible of these turbulent times. I bear no grudges, or at least not many, but I do want this to be a straightforward and readable history for that slice of the American population who depend on and appreciate intelligence, but who do not have the time to master its many obscure characteristics.'
Call Number: eAudiobook
ISBN: 9780147524850
Publication Date: 2016
The threat matrix : inside Robert Mueller's FBI and the war on global terror by Garrett M. Graff.An intimate look at Robert Mueller, the sixth Director of the FBI, who has just been named special counsel to oversee the investigation into ties between President Trump's campaign and Russian officials.Covering more than 30 years of history, from the 1980s through Obama's presidency, The Threat Matrix explores the transformation of the FBI from a domestic law enforcement agency, handling bank robberies and local crimes, into an international intelligence agency--with more than 500 agents operating in more than 60 countries overseas--fighting extremist terrorism, cyber crimes, and, for the first time, American suicide bombers.Based on access to never-before-seen task forces and FBI bases from Budapest, Hungary, to Quantico, Virginia, this book profiles the visionary agents who risked their lives to bring down criminals and terrorists both here in the U.S. and thousands of miles away long before the rest of the country was paying attention to terrorism. Given unprecedented access, thousands of pages of once secret documents, and hundreds of interviews, Garrett M. Graff takes us inside the FBI and its attempt to protect America from the Munich Olympics in 1972 to the attempted Times Square bombing in 2010. It also tells the inside story of the FBI's behind-the-scenes fights with the CIA, the Department of Justice, and five White Houses over how to combat terrorism, balance civil liberties, and preserve security. The book also offers a never-before-seen intimate look at FBI Director Robert Mueller, the most important director since Hoover himself.Brilliantly reported and suspensefully told, The Threat Matrix peers into the darkest corners of this secret war and will change your view of the FBI forever.