Download or read book A House in the Sky written by Amanda Lindhout and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-09-03 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The spectacularly dramatic memoir of a woman whose curiosity about the world led her from rural Canada to imperiled and dangerous countries on every continent, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity in Somalia—a story of courage, resilience, and extraordinary grace. The dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world’s most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity—an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress in Calgary, Alberta, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia—“the most dangerous place on earth.” On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road. Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives “wife lessons” from one of her captors, and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory—every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity—and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured. Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity.
Download or read book The Destined Hour written by Barbara Rosen and published by Doubleday Books. This book was released on 1982 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Former hostage, Barry Rosen, gives a first-person account of the take-over of the American embassy in Iran and his 444 days in captivity juxtaposed with his wife's account of the effect of these events on the families of the hostages.
Download or read book Taken Hostage written by David Farber and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took sixty-six Americans captive. Thus began the Iran Hostage Crisis, an affair that captivated the American public for 444 days and marked America's first confrontation with the forces of radical Islam. Using hundreds of recently declassified government documents, historian David Farber takes the first in-depth look at the hostage crisis, examining its lessons for America's contemporary War on Terrorism. Unlike other histories of the subject, Farber's vivid and fast-paced narrative looks beyond the day-to-day circumstances of the crisis, using the events leading up to the ordeal as a means for understanding it. The book paints a portrait of the 1970s in the United States as an era of failed expectations in a nation plagued by uncertainty and anxiety. It reveals an American government ill prepared for the fall of the Shah of Iran and unable to reckon with the Ayatollah Khomeini and his militant Islamic followers. Farber's account is filled with fresh insights regarding the central players in the crisis: Khomeini emerges as an astute strategist, single-mindedly dedicated to creating an Islamic state. The Americans' student-captors appear as less-than-organized youths, having prepared for only a symbolic sit-in with just a three-day supply of food. ABC news chief Roone Arledge, newly installed and eager for ratings, is cited as a critical catalyst in elevating the hostages to cause célèbre status. Throughout the book there emerge eerie parallels to the current terrorism crisis. Then as now, Farber demonstrates, politicians failed to grasp the depth of anger that Islamic fundamentalists harbored toward the United States, and Americans dismissed threats from terrorist groups as the crusades of ineffectual madmen. Taken Hostage is a timely and revealing history of America's first engagement with terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, one that provides a chilling reminder that the past is only prologue.
Download or read book Blindfold written by Theo Padnos and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning journalist’s extraordinary account of being kidnapped and tortured in Syria by al Qaeda for two years—a revelatory memoir about war, human nature, and endurance that’s “the best of the genre, profound, poetic, and sorrowful” (The Atlantic). In 2012, American journalist Theo Padnos, fluent in Arabic, Russian, German, and French, traveled to a Turkish border town to write and report on the Syrian civil war. One afternoon in October, while walking through an olive grove, he met three young Syrians—who turned out to be al Qaeda operatives—and they captured him and kept him prisoner for nearly two years. On his first day, in the first of many prisons, Padnos was given a blindfold—a grime-stained scrap of fabric—that was his only possession throughout his horrific ordeal. Now, Padnos recounts his time in captivity in Syria, where he was frequently tortured at the hands of the al Qaeda affiliate, Jebhat al Nusra. We learn not only about Padnos’s harrowing experience, but we also get a firsthand account of life in a Syrian village, the nature of Islamic prisons, how captors interrogate someone suspected of being CIA, the ways that Islamic fighters shift identities and drift back and forth through the veil of Western civilization, and much more. No other journalist has lived among terrorists for as long as Theo has—and survived. As a resident of thirteen separate prisons in every part of rebel-occupied Syria, Theo witnessed a society adrift amid a steady stream of bombings, executions, torture, prayer, fasting, and exhibitions, all staged by the terrorists. Living within this tide of violence changed not only his personal identity but also profoundly altered his understanding of how to live. Offering fascinating, unprecedented insight into the state of Syria today, Blindfold is “a triumph of the human spirit” (The New York Times Book Review)—combining the emotional power of a captive’s memoir with a journalist’s account of a culture and a nation in conflict that is as urgent and important as ever.
Download or read book Stalling for Time written by Gary Noesner and published by Random House Incorporated. This book was released on 2010 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A longtime FBI Lead Hostage Negotiator offers a behind-the-scenes account of the many high-profile cases he worked on--from hijackings and prison riots to religious-cult and right-wing-militia standoffs--and explains how such failures as Ruby Ridge and Waco could have been averted.
Download or read book The ISIS Hostage written by Puk Damsgard and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a tense and riveting narrative, The ISIS Hostage details freelance photographer Daniel Rye's 13-month ordeal at the hands of the Islamic State after he was captured in Syria, and the misery inflicted upon him, and 19 other hostages, by their guards.This compelling account also follows Daniel's family and the nerve-wracking negotiations with his kidnappers. It traces their horrifying journey through impossible dilemmas, and offers a rare glimpse into the secret world of the investigation launched to locate and free not only Daniel, but also the American freelance journalist and fellow hostage James Foley.Written with Daniel's full cooperation and based on interviews with former fellow prisoners, jihadists, and key figures who worked behind the scenes to secure his release, The ISIS Hostage reveals for the first time the torment suffered by the captives and tells a moving and terrifying story of friendship, torture, and survival.
Download or read book Out of Captivity written by Marc Gonsalves and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-02-24 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Out of Captivity, " Gonsalves, Stansell, and Howes recount for the first time their amazing tale of survival, friendship, and, ultimately, rescue, tracing their five and a half years as hostages of the FARC--a Colombian terrorist and Marxist rebel organization.
Download or read book In the Shadow of the Ayatollah written by William Daugherty and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2016-08-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Still vivid in many Americans' memories are the 444 days of 1979 when Islamic militants held U.S. diplomatic personnel hostage in Iran. Though their story has been told before, never has it been related from such a perspective. Unique among the hostages, the author was an officer for the Central Intelligence Agency serving at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Once his CIA connection was discovered, Bill Daugherty became a special target of his captors and was subjected to extraordinarily harsh treatment. He managed to survive the ordeal by relying upon his Marine Corps training and combat experience and his remarkable inner reserve of fortitude. Ultimately he was awarded the State Department Medal of Valor and the CIA Exceptional Service Medal. Drawing on intelligence information not readily available to previous writers, recently declassified materials, interviews with such key government officials as former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and former CIA director and ambassador to Iran Richard Helms, and to his own firsthand knowledge, Daugherty sheds light on this disturbing event, particularly with respect to the decision-making process in the White House. Among his revelations is the involvement of the Soviet Union. Despite his personal involvement, Daugherty has produced an impressively objective account of the tragedies and triumphs that marked this black time in U.S. history. It is both a harrowing adventure story and a serious look at U.S.-Iran relations. The pivotal event continues to evoke emotions and begs careful analysis for potential lessons learned.
Download or read book Six Years a Hostage written by Stephen McGown and published by Robinson. This book was released on 2023-02-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE LONGEST-HELD AL QAEDA CAPTIVE IN THE WORLD Stephen McGown was en route from London to South Africa, on a once-in-a-lifetime trip by motorbike, returning home to Johannesburg. He had reached Timbuktu, in Mali, when he was captured, along with a Dutch and a Swedish national, by Al Qaeda Islamist militants. Steve was taken because he held a British passport. He was subsequently held hostage at various camps in the Sahara Desert in the north-west of Africa for nearly six years before eventually being released. Life as Steve had known it changed in that instant that he was taken at gunpoint. He had nothing to bargain with, and everything to lose. For the next six years, he reluctantly engaged in what he came to call the greatest chess game of his life. Thousands of kilometres to the south, in Johannesburg, the shock of Stephen's capture struck the McGown family and his wife, Cath, with whom he had, until recently, been living in London. They immediately began efforts to secure Steve's release, through diplomatic channels and in every other way they felt might have a chance of seeing Stephen freed. But as the months of captivity became years, Steve was compelled to go to extraordinary lengths to survive. Making it back home alive became his sole aim. To accomplish this, he realised that he would have to do everything he could to raise his status in the eyes of his captors. To this end, he taught himself Arabic and French, and also converted to Islam, accepting a new name, Lot. To this day, Steve retains the unenviable record of being the longest-held, surviving prisoner of Al Qaeda. While he was undoubtedly always Al Qaeda's captive, through the long years he spent in intimate proximity to his captors, Steve got to see the Islamist militants as few other Westerners have ever seen them. Six Years a Hostage is not only a remarkable story of mental strength, physical endurance and the resilience of the human spirit, but also, significantly, a unique and nuanced perspective on one of the world's most feared terrorist groups. Steve did not merely survive his terrible ordeal; he emerged from the desert a changed - stronger, more positive - human being. This is Stephen McGown's remarkable story, as told to Tudor Caradoc-Davies, a freelance writer, editor and author based in Cape Town, South Africa. After seven years spent working for glossy magazines such as Men's Health, GQ, Best Life and Women's Health, he now contributes to a range of publications. He also writes for the (South African) Sunday Times, and Red Bulletin.
Download or read book Captive written by Jere Van Dyk and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An American reporter's chilling account of being kidnapped and imprisoned by the Taliban, in the no-man's-land between Afghanistan and Pakistan Jere Van Dyk was on the wrong side of the border. He and three Afghan guides had crossed into the tribal areas of Pakistan, where no Westerner had ventured for years, hoping to reach the home of a local chieftain by nightfall. But then a dozen armed men in black turbans appeared over the crest of a hill. Captive is Van Dyk's searing account of his forty-five days in a Taliban prison, and it is gripping and terrifying in the tradition of the best prison literature. The main action takes place in a single room, cut off from the outside world, where Van Dyk feels he can trust nobody—not his jailers, not his guides (who he fears may have betrayed him), and certainly not the charismatic Taliban leader whose fleeting appearances carry the hope of redemption as well as the prospect of immediate, violent death. Van Dyk went to the tribal areas to investigate the challenges facing America there. His story is of a deeper, more personal challenge, an unforgettable tale of human endurance.
Download or read book Even Silence Has an End written by Ingrid Betancourt and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-09-21 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Betancourt's riveting account...is an unforgettable epic of moral courage and human endurance." -Los Angeles Times In the midst of her campaign for the Colombian presidency in 2002, Ingrid Betancourt traveled into a military-controlled region, where she was abducted by the FARC, a brutal terrorist guerrilla organization in conflict with the government. She would spend the next six and a half years captive in the depths of the Colombian jungle. Even Silence Has an End is her deeply moving and personal account of that time. The facts of her story are astounding, but it is Betancourt's indomitable spirit that drives this very special narrative-an intensely intelligent, thoughtful, and compassionate reflection on what it really means to be human.
Download or read book America Held Hostage written by Pierre Salinger and published by Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday. This book was released on 1981 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A behind-the-scenes account of the negotiations to free the 52 hostages held by revolutionary students in Iran.
Download or read book An Evil Cradling written by Brian Keenan and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brian Keenan went to Beirut in 1985 for a change of scene from his native Belfast. He became headline news when he was kidnapped by fundamentalist Shi'ite militiamen and held in the suburbs of Beirut for the next four and a half years. For much of that time he was shut off from all news and contact with anyone other than his jailers and, later, his fellow hostages, amongst them John McCarthy.
Download or read book A Sliver of Light written by Shane Bauer and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2014 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three Americans captured by Iranian forces and held in captivity for years reveal, for the first time, the full story of their imprisonment and fight for freedom.
Download or read book Held Hostage written by Dennis Flynn and published by WildBlue Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “riveting true life account” goes inside the life-or-death world of a Las Vegas police crisis negotiator: “a must read" (Gary W. Noesner, Chief, FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit, author of Stalling For Time). What do you say to prevent someone from committing “suicide-by-cop”? How do you talk someone down when he’s pointing a gun at a hostage? What tactics do you use when lives depend on your words? Veteran police negotiator Lieutenant Dennis Flynn spent nearly two decades responding to more than a thousand high-intensity incidents with the Crisis Negotiations Team in Las Vegas, Nevada. He approached every scenario with the same goal: bring everyone out alive. This vivid memoir offers a rare, behind-the-scenes view of the life-and-death situations that police negotiators face on a daily basis. Taking readers through both exhilarating successes and tragic failures, Flynn offers a guided tour of the extreme and potentially deadly side of Sin City.
Download or read book 57 Hours written by Vesselin Nedkov and published by Penguin Global. This book was released on 2003 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To celebrate the last night of a business trip in Moscow, Canadian resident Vesselin Nedkov and a friend picked up two tickets to the hottest musical in town. Halfway through the show, his life was changed forever. 57 Hours is Nedkov's harrowing account of being trapped between two immovable and unpredictable forces: inside the theatre, suicidal Chechen rebels, loaded with explosives, demanded an end to the bloody civil war that was ravaging Chechnya; outside, Russian special forces prepared to storm the theatre, refusing to negotiate with the rebels. Through fifty-seven hours of fear and fatigue, Nedkov discovered courage and ingenuity he never knew he had. Here he takes us into the maelstrom of the civil war that still plagues Russia.
Download or read book Held Hostage written by Ken Cooper and published by Chosen Books. This book was released on 2009-08 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Former felon describes a succession of armed robberies, getting caught and going to prison. He says Jesus Christ can ransom anyone held hostage by sin.
