Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001From the managing editor of the Washington Post, a news-breaking account of the CIA's involvement in the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and gave rise to bin Laden's al Qaeda. For nearly the past quarter century, while most Americans were unaware, Afghanistan has been the playing field for intense covert operations by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies-invisible wars which sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks and which provide its context. From the Soviet invasion in 1979 through the summer of 2001, the CIA, KGB, Pakistan's ISI, and Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Department all operated directly and secretly in Afghanistan. They primed Afghan factions with cash and weapons, secretly trained guerrilla forces, funded propaganda, and manipulated politics. In the midst of these struggles bin Laden conceived and then built his global organization. Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll tells the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan, from its covert program against Soviet troops from 1979 to 1989, to the rise of the Taliban and the emergence of bin Laden, to the secret efforts by CIA officers and their agents to capture or kill bin Laden in Afghanistan after 1998. Based on extensive firsthand accounts, Ghost Warsok is the inside story that goes well beyond anything previously published on U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. It chronicles the roles of midlevel CIA officers, their Afghan allies, and top spy masters such as Bill Casey, Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al Faisal, and George Tenet. And it describes heated debates within the American government and the often poisonous, mistrustful relations between the CIA and foreign intelligence agencies. Ghost Warsanswers the questions so many have asked since the horrors of September 11: To 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? |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - antao - LibraryThingEssential, bloody, real and tragic. One important underlying issue is what this means for the future, because there are similarities between the inflation of the Afghan government with western cash ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - LamSon - LibraryThingThis book chronicles the rise of the jihadist movement, starting with mujahedin fighters in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. It continues with the rise of the Taliban and the ... Read full review
Contents
Were Going to Die Here | 21 |
Lenin Taught Us | 38 |
Go Raise Hell | 53 |
Dont Make It Our War | 89 |
Who Is This Massoud? | 107 |
The Terrorists Will Own the World | 125 |
Inshallah You Will Know My Plans | 151 |
We Won | 170 |
Does America Need the CIA? | 353 |
You Are to Capture Him Alive | 371 |
The Kingdoms Interests | 397 |
We Are at War | 416 |
Lets Just Blow the Thing Up | 437 |
The Manson Family | 451 |
That Unit Disappeared | 470 |
You Crazy White Guys | 487 |
PART | 187 |
A Rogue Elephant | 205 |
We Are in Danger | 225 |
A Friend of Your Enemy | 240 |
Maintain a Prudent Distance | 257 |
A New Generation | 266 |
Slowly Slowly Sucked into It | 280 |
Dangling the Carrot | 301 |
We Couldnt Indict Him | 314 |
Were Keeping These Stingers | 336 |
Is There Any Policy? | 504 |
Daring Me to Kill Them | 520 |
What Face Will Omar Show to God? | 538 |
Many Americans Are Going to Die | 553 |
What an Unlucky Country | 567 |
Notes | 577 |
Bibliography | 653 |
Acknowledgments | 665 |
Other editions - View all
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden Steve Coll Limited preview - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
action Afghan Afghanistan agency agents aides allies American Arab army asked attack began believed bin Laden bombing border cable called camps Casey Central chief CIA officers CIA's Clinton close colleagues commanders Committee continued Counterterrorist Center covert Department direct director early East embassy forces foreign former going Hekmatyar inside interviews involved Islamabad Islamic Islamist issue jihad Kabul Kandahar kill Laden Langley later leaders March Massoud meeting military missile months moved Muslim National Security needed never October officers operations Pakistani intelligence Pashtun political president Press Prince Qaeda radical rebels recalled reports Saudi Saudi Arabia secret seemed Senate senior September Soviet station Taliban talked Tenet terrorism terrorist threat tion told traveled Turki U.S. officials United wanted Washington weapons White House York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 |
| Author | Steve Coll |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Penguin, 2004 |
| ISBN | 1594200076, 9781594200076 |
| Length | 695 pages |
| Subjects | › › POLITICAL SCIENCE / Intelligence & Espionage POLITICAL SCIENCE / Terrorism Political Science / International Relations / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |