Description

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Seeds of Terror is a groundbreaking triumph of reporting, a book that changed U.S. policy toward the Afghan heroin trade and the fight against terror.

Gretchen Peters exposes the deepening relationship between the Taliban and drug traffickers, and traces decades of America's failure to disrupt the opium production that helps fund extremism. The Taliban earns as much as half a billion dollars annually from drugs and crime, and Peters argues that disrupting this flow of dirty money will be critical to stabilizing Afghanistan. Based on hundreds of interviews with fighters, smugglers, and government officials, Seeds of Terror is the essential story of the narco-terror nexus behind America's widening war in Afghanistan.

About the Author

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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 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 Robert Capa Gold Medal-winning photojournalist John Moore, and their two daughters. She is the author of Seeds of Terror.

Praise For…

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“Stunning . . . A must-read for all western policy makers and President Obama.” —Ahmed Rashid, New York Times Bestselling author of Taliban and Descent into Chaos

“Seeds of Terror offers layer after layer of fascinating information about the deadly consequences of decades of disastrous policy decisions. This is a well-written, well-documented, and exemplary work of journalism.” —Lewis Perdue, Barron's

“Meticulously researched.” —The Sunday Times (London)

“Excellent … Gretchen Peters's disturbing book plainly states that unless the opium-smuggling industry is put out of business, the nation-building exercise in Afghanistan is destined for failure. We should heed her warnings.” —Emran Qureshi, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“Clear and persuasive.” —Booklist

“An important examination of ‘the nexus of [drug] smugglers and extremists' in the global war against terrorists. Peters builds a solid case [and] has exhaustively framed one of the thorniest problems facing policy makers in this long war.” —Publishers Weekly

“A vitally important book. Until the United States admits what Peters knows, and changes course, the virulent narco-terrorism spreading across South Asia will cause us to lose not only Afghanistan but Pakistan as well.” —Robert Baer, New York Times bestselling author of Sleeping with the Devil and The Devil We Know

“Required reading for anyone interested in public-policy issues concerning drugs, defense, and diplomacy . . . Buy it.” —National Post (Canada)

“Peters has done a superlative job with Seeds of Terror. It is a primer for the new administration--a blueprint for what must be done in Afghanistan to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat.” —Jack Lawn, DEA chief under Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush

“The linkage between fighting drugs and fighting terrorism is, with Seeds of Terror, now firmly established. Gretchen Peters, combining personal experience and in-depth research, paints a frightening picture and tells us how to surmont the problem. A critically important book.” —Raymond W. Baker, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and author of Capitalism's Achilles Heel

“Detailed and highly readable . . . masterfully traces the enormous success of the illegal heroin trade in Afghanistan.” —Frederick P. Hitz, former inspector general of the CIA and author of Why Spy?