Know Thy Enemy
ISIS: Know Thy Enemy
A downloadable open-source investigation examining the organization, its networks, and the threat it continues to present.
Open investigationThe Library
Come in.
This is a place where I share what I’ve learned, what I’m still learning, and the questions I think are worth asking. Take what is useful. Leave with more than you arrived with.
Insight that informs. Resources that strengthen. Knowledge that endures.
01From the Shelves
Investigations, reports, books, maps, timelines, and original source material.
02Choose Your Path
Follow a subject through connected research and practical resources.
03The Commons
Practical guides, briefing notes, and tools meant to be shared and put to work.
04Sarah’s Shelf
A quiet corner for books and ideas that have shaped how I think.
From the Shelves
Recently added investigations.
Know Thy Enemy
Hamza bin Laden: Know Thy Enemy
An investigation into Hamza bin Laden’s survival, leadership role, family network, and place inside Al-Qaeda’s evolving structure.
Open investigation
Know Thy Enemy
Abbey Gate: Know Thy Enemy 2.0
An expanded investigation into the attack at Abbey Gate, the network behind it, and the compressed plotting window that preceded it.
Open investigation
Know Thy Enemy
ISKP: Know Thy Enemy
A detailed examination of Islamic State Khorasan Province, its networks, and the Taliban’s public claims about fighting it.
Open investigationContributed work
Projects built with others.
The goal was never command and control. It was connection: bringing the right people, knowledge, and purpose together around work that mattered.
Television collaboration
Inside the CIA: Secrets & Spies
Sarah contributed to the National Geographic series and its episode examining the search for Abu Anas al-Libi.
View the episode
Book contributor
The Gathering Storm
A Pineapple Press project examining Afghanistan, the withdrawal, and the people who carried its consequences.
View the bookMy Book
Benghazi: Know Thy Enemy
The investigation in book form, bringing together the attack, the network behind it, and the unfinished lessons that still matter.
Book · Sarah Adams & Dave Benton
Benghazi: Know Thy Enemy
Sarah Adams and Dave “Boon” Benton reconstruct the Benghazi attacks, the network behind them, and the lessons that remain unfinished.
View bookA writer in the family
Meet Hannah Adams.
My ancestor Hannah Adams was the first woman in the United States known to support herself through writing. Her place here connects family history, independent scholarship, and the long work of making knowledge accessible.
Enter her collection“A life built around books, questions, and the courage to keep writing.”
Footsteps
Follow Virginia Hall across the Pyrenees.
A special Library journey through resistance, tradecraft, adaptation, and the quiet determination to find another way forward.
Follow the footstepsA nod to my last life
The Spy Library.
Memoirs and histories by and about the people who lived the intelligence profession.
Liza Mundy
The Sisterhood
Liza Mundy’s history of the women who transformed CIA operations, analysis, and modern targeting.
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Ric Prado
Black Ops
Ric Prado recounts a career spanning the Cold War, the Bin Laden Task Force, and the CIA’s Special Activities Group.
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Toby Harnden
First Casualty
Toby Harnden tells the story of Team Alpha, Mike Spann, and the first CIA mission sent into Afghanistan after September 11.
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Amaryllis Fox
Life Undercover
Amaryllis Fox offers an intimate memoir of clandestine work, family, identity, and the human side of intelligence operations.
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Nada Bakos
The Targeter
Nada Bakos recounts the analytical and targeting work behind the campaign against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
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Sonia Purnell
A Woman of No Importance
Sonia Purnell restores Virginia Hall’s extraordinary story of spycraft, resistance, and service during World War II.
View bookChoose Your Path
Begin with the question that brought you here.
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“Not all those who wander are lost.”J.R.R. Tolkien