13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781455538447 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Grand Central Publishing |
| Publication date: | 11/24/2015 |
| Edition description: | Media Tie-In |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Sales rank: | 47,512 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.25(w) x 8.12(h) x 1.00(d) |
| Lexile: | 1120L (what's this?) |
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13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi
4.5 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
126 reviews.
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No Politics - just a boots on the ground account of the horrific events of that night.
These guys are a dying breed - true American Heroes - willing to do whatever it takes for their job and their friends.
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Thoroughly researched and well written. Supplies MANY details left out of mainstream accounts of the debacle which resulted in the deaths of four dedicated Americans. How many of us knew that not only was there an attack on the Special Mission complex but no less than 2 1/2 firefights at the CIA Annex after that?
At least "The Government" evidently learned something from this. After reading this book, compare and contrast with published reports of the evacuation of the Tripoli Embassy at the end of July, 2014. While I am grateful that the government learned something, I am OUTRAGED and HEARTBROKEN at the cost paid to learn the necessary lessons. This is a citizen MUST READ.
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I read 13 Hours on my Nook and could not put my Nook down. Only the Commander in Chief can give the order to the Military to stand down regardless of who voices the order. Hillary should have been screaming in the president's ear to get her ambassador and his
people the help they needed to save their lives. The few operatives that went to the compound and then protected the annex, are the ones who deserved the highest medal for bravery. And then the Us could not even send a US plane to Benghazi to pick up the wounded and dead and the rest of the brave operatives. This book is important for every American to read.
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Since the embassy is in Tripoli, the United States Diplomatic Compound in Benghazi did not fall under the guidelines of the State Department’s standards for embassy security; therefore, the niceties of bulletproof glass and secure air supply went overlooked in the main residential villa used by Ambassador Chris Stevens during his stay in Libya’s second city. That was the first blunder. The second was keeping the American security contractors at a second compound, known as the Annex and controlled by the CIA, ten minutes distant. Probably the most fatal security breach was employing Libyans as guards. Most sentient persons know of the storming of the diplomatic compound and the killing of Ambassador Stevens, and three other Americans, on September 11, 2012, but the truthful details of what happened are less clear. While six heavily armed, expertly trained and highly motivated American security men chafed under the temporizing yoke of the mysterious CIA operative, “Bob,” Islamic terrorists had free range to set alight the Ambassador’s villa with himself and communications officer, Sean Smith, trapped inside the “safe haven.”
13 Hours in Benghazi lifts the cloud of political obfuscation from the facts of this American tragedy. Mr. Zuckoff’s collaboration with five of the surviving security contractors is an even handed, if gritty, depiction of that catastrophic night in Benghazi. Failing to do the right things, from the President to the Secretary of State to the embassy staff in Tripoli to the CIA head of station, Benghazi, is a national disgrace. Furthermore, the still ongoing denials and cover-ups by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and their spokespersons, is nothing less than calling five American heroes liars and denigrating the memory of the four deceased.
This should be required reading for all Americans. The story is told through the various viewpoints of the participants. It is concise and well paced. Sadly, the prose is, shall I say pedestrian—no, I should say atrocious. One has the sense that a race to market took precedence over good writing.
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I thought this book was exceptionally well written. It simply lays out the facts of what happened that night with no political agenda. These men are true heroes and I'm happy to have had a chance to read their story.
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WOW!!!! A must read for those wanting answers to the many questions concerning the events of the attack in Benghazi. You won't regret reading it. These men are HEROS!
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Very well written and fast paced account of what happened in Benghazi. Highly recommend book. As a woman I know I'm not the average reader of this type of book. Having said that I really wanted an unbiased account of the Benghazi security breech. This is definatly a very good account and recommend it.
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With all the arguments and politicization of Ambassador Stephens' death in Benghazi, it was a relief to read the experience of the security contractors on the ground. Although they couldn't know all the background discussions going on, you end up sharing their frustration with the State Department's reliance on local militia forces rather than adequate U.S. security at the embassy compound. Worse, you feel their rage and frustration as the CIA top agent on site put them on hold when the attacks began. Whatever the reason for his reluctance to commit his forces to a rescue, these warriors believed they could have prevented the subsequent deaths of the ambassador and communications expert, suffocated in the blazing main building. As it was, they finally ignored their leader's orders to stand pat and raced to the battle site. Zuckoff does a good job of sharing the various situations, factions, locations, and personalities in Benghazi and helps readers safe in America understand the fear, courage, and despair of the Americans facing a coordinated attack with limited resources. Kudos to the men who fought to protect other Americans and for now telling their part of the story. I shared their grief for the American dead (including two of their fellow warriors) by the end, which I think is the most important message to take from this story of truth about what happened in Benghazi from those actually there.
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WOW! I could not put this down! And finally the truth comes out from those who were there. And 'BOB' needs to be in front of a select committee answering for this!
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This is a well written book using a narrative style to tell the story of the Benghazi attack from the perspective of the brave operatives who fought to save and defend the people in the State Department's Special Mission Compound and near-by CIA Annex. The author has you right there in the action, and you can feel the emotions and thoughts of the men as the fight unfolds.
Knowing the facts from the people who were there, one comes away with the understanding that much could have been done prior to the attack to have given the American ambassador and his staff a better chance of survival.
The book is enhanced with many photos and diagrams to help the reader understand the situation faced that day.
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Well written, easy to read. I read over half of the book it in one day-I couldn't put it down. Gave me chills & sadness in some parts, mad in others. Felt like I was there. I loved the way it was outlined and the way the key people were introduced step by step and that you got a background on each person as they were introduced. You felt you knew who they were and what each person's role was and not just a lot of people thrown together at once. Doesn't go into the politics side of it (only where conference on radio takes place for help, etc), but felt it answered a lot of my questions. Still have a lot more to answer on the political side but I think these fine men answered A LOT of those, too!
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Well written and informative book. I commend the author for telling the story as told to him, leaving out all political agendas, just stating facts as remembered by the operatives that lived through this tragedy. Thank you for your unbiased writing of this event. It was one of the best books I've ever read. I hope those in the government have read your book and learn from it. A must read for those that want the facts of what happened in Benghazi.
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I hope this is a lesson to everyone that it is politics, not responsibility that governed the reaction of the State Dept to rescue its people in Benghazi. Shame on them!!!
I could not put the book down, it was so compelling.
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13 Hours was fantastic and the film was identical to this read. The maps shown in the book make it EXTREMELY easy to understand what's going on and who is where. Very little on the political mess that followed the events, a story of what happened that night by the people who were actually there.
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This book is written from the perspective of the CIA contractors hired to protect their facility in Benghazi. It does not try to say what the President and his staff and cabinet did prior to, during and after the attack that killed the US Ambassador and 3 other americans.
It does however show that the facility where the ambassador was staying was woefully unprepared for an attack. The attack had none of the supposed 'mob driven by a video' features. It was a professional attack on both the ambassador's residence and the agency annex. The CIA contractors were told to stand-down from attempting a rescue of the ambassador and his staff. However, it is still unknowable whether that half hour delay could have saved the two who died in that portion of the attack.
Anyone interested in what happened at Benghazi should read this book.
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Amazing true story of what happened in Benghazi.
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Great detailed account of what went down in Benghazi. The CIA should be ashamed of their leaders.
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Thia book had my attention from start to finish. Amazing.
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For anyone seeking to understand the unanswered questions about Benghazi, this book does a decent job of setting them out.
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This book was my second read of Mitchell Zuckoff's work, overall I felt the book was detailed and comprehensive in its communication. I also felt at times the flow of the story was interrupted by switching to a mini story, this made following the overall story a little jagged. These segments were necessary but when the writing got back to the main story I had to refocus on where The big picture story left off. This book for me was the same as the first book I read of his (Lost in Shangri-La) very hard to put down once you get into to the plot. I enjoyed the book and learned a lot, to which I now have a learned understanding of what happened there.
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Let Trey Gowdy sort out the politics...this account is a boots on the ground perspective of friends fighting and dying for each other.
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finally, the trruth
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This book is an excellent description of the attack on a US state department compound in Libya in September 2012. It gives a detailed background of the events leading up to the attacks as well as information about the CIA team that fought back against the terrorist intruders. The overall aim of the book is to provide a detailed description of everything that happened in Benghazi during the 13 hours of the attack.
The main theme of this book is heroism. The team of 6 men that protected the state department officials were not working for the state department. They were working near by as a security team for a CIA mission. When the state department compound was attacked, the team decided, on their own, to go protect the compound and save american lives.
13 Hours was a very intriguing read for someone who cares about either politics or the military. Some of the details of the political state of Libya and their relations with the US seemed a bit boring to me, but the description of the attacks and counter attacks was very entertaining and well written. This book is being made into a movie, and I agree with that decision because it was very action packed and focuses on an important political issue. As a journalist, Zuckoff had a simple and matter of fact writing style that made the events easy to understand. At times, his style was a bit boring, but his descriptions of the military confrontations made up for it. This book could be useful for school curriculum in a social studies class, because it gives good information about middle eastern conflict. Overall, it would give it a 4 out of 5 start rating.
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Excellent read
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