From the Soviet Invasion to September 10 - The Secret History of the CIA

Well written and comprehensive account of the events leading up to September 11, starting with the Soviet invasion in 1979. Required reading for ant student of modern American history. Coll weaves a compelling and intricate account of the governments, factions within governments and players.

I recommend this product. I listen to the audio book and then bought the book for reference. It is a review of the circumstances that led to the rise of the Taliban and Al Qaeda upto 2001 and 9/11. Although, I do not agree with all the conclusions. Most of the book criticise US lack of involvement in Afghanistan between the departure of the Soviets and 9/11. The author failed to realized that during the same period the US was engaged with the fall of the USSR, Rawadan, Somalia, and Bosnia. All these events impacted the options and the support for concentration on Afghanistan which was and is a backwater.

The book was captivating. It was like reading a fictional novel regarding the twists, turns, and players in the Afghan saga. He adeptly weaves a riveting story from what must have been a truckload of source material. The press & media have covered this topic for years but Steve Coll reveals the story like no other.

A must read book. If you have any questions regarding Afghanistan read this book. It gives you full details on how we became involved in that reigon of the World and a true understanding why we should remain their until the Mission is accomplished.The book explains why the afghan warlords do not trust the Americans and also how deeply we were involved in the Afghan - Russian War. It explains the role that the surrounding countries played during that period of time.If you read this book you should definately follow it up by reading "JAWBREAKER" by Gary Berntsen and Ralph Puzzullo.These two books should answer any questions you had are may have regarding America's position in that reigon.

Other reviewers have said more than I ever could, but this was a great read, very informative. The only caution to a potential reader is to make clear that the book is right up to, but not including the events of 9/11, it really does progress right up that line, but not past it, so don't expect to get that sort of additional coverage in this particular book. Still, it is a fascinating read and helps one understand the historical factors and climate that lead up the events of 9/11 and beyond.

A clear description of how we fixed a country and then abandoned it, to let it be taken hostage and turned against us.
All in all, I always thought our politics was one of the main reasons we couldn't prevent these atrocities. We have a malfunctioned government whose policies are based on the views of our fore fathers.

Colls 650 page book (including notes) is like scaling a Mountain in Afghanistan, there is just no way to approach as complex a topic concerning American foreign policy without doing this kind of methodical journalism and detailed research. After wading through all the history and political maneuvering laid out in Ghost Wars you come to realize that Afghanistan is a nexus point in a globally connected world filled not only with terrorists looking for a base of operations but nation states looking for leverage, buffers, and influence. Russia vs USA. Pakistan vs India. Shiites vs Sunnis. Iran vs Saudi Arabia. Radical Islam vs Everybody.

Ghost Wars shows in detail that from Kabul to Langley to Islamabad to Kandahar then back around to Riyadh to the Pentagon to the Whitehouse and to Kabul, everybody covert and overt was in on the game. Dozens of international players striving for control of one of the most hostile places on earth. Marxists, Capitalists, Arab Jihadists, CIA, ISI, Saudi Intelligence services, Gun runners, Opium runners, Islamic Fundamentalism, Iran, India, Russia and any other regional powers with a remote stake. (Everybody but the Afghan tribes who have lived there for thousands of years.) And for what? Regional influence, the Taliban and one spoiled ex-Saudi brat - Osama Bin Laden.

Colls research shows that you cant oversimplify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with uninformed comedic idiotic criticism like that of Maher, Moore or Stuart. It's not Bush's fault. We can't just pullout. It's not just about Bin Laden. And were not there for Israel and oil.

Additionally Colls book helps us understand whose at fault for 9/11. If we want to spread blame for the 3000 deaths then it has to go to 3 sources in order of increasing responsibility and guilt. 1)Saudi Islamic Charity organizations that secretly funded the Taliban/Bin Laden 2)The Pakistan ISI that trained, supported, and funded the Taliban/Bin Laden. 3)Bill Clinton(And administration) whose scandal with Monica Lewinsky undercut his authority, credibility, and political decisiveness. In the name of saving civilians a Democrat administration lost thousands of US civilians when one Tomahawk missile strike either at Tarnak or the Hunting camp could have spared the USA the tragedy of 9/11. The Clinton administrations indecision, confusing and unrealistic directives, and lack of real world experience indirectly effected the CIAs ability to do their jobs well. Its of particular importance to note that the Bush administration and the CIA under it, accomplished more in Afghanistan in 1 year than Clinton in 8.

I bought this post 9/11 commission edition book April 2011. Several weeks later on May 1st Bin Laden was finally killed (in Pakistan! what a huge surprise!) by Seal Team 6 on orders from a Chicago style Democrat President Barack Obama. (Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton would not have or did not have the testicular fortitude(Jesse got them)). Despite it being a huge victory for the free world it was, in the end, 12 years late.

An incredibly informative and important book. The core of the book is the dysfunctional relationship between the US and Pakistan where the US funds the worse elements of Pakistani society in attempts to influence events in Central Asia. As the region becomes more and more unstable the need for influence increases, the funding increases and the region becomes ever more unstable. The insanely dangerous situation build first to undermine the Soviets in Afghanistan and now to try to create a different society, on molds which we cannot even successfully describe, in Central Asia results in ever larger negative interference in Pakistan.
I had some rudimentary knowledge of the region and the role of the U.S. sponsorship, but the scale of it, and the inherent Saudi support which the US encouraged and relied upon makes the current scenario ever more a reasonable and foreseeable consequence of past policy.
No one who has read this book would be surprised when it was revealed that Bin Laden’s ultimate location was in a major Pakistani city. The reading is unnerving in that, without advocating in a particular faction, but only by a careful account of facts, we perceive that future events in with this particular strategy can only lead to more dangerous and negative futures.
If you find cable news superficial and would like to understand more why Central Asia is the way it is today, and what role the U.S. has in this situation there isn’t a better book for you.

If you have any interest in al Qaeda, Afganistan, the Taliban, and the recent history of this region of the world, this tome is the first book you MUST read. Steve Coll is a genius in his ability to organize the history of the region since the 70s, the intricacies of the interactions of various ethnic and political influences, and the forces that are driving the event of the region. Buy it and read it before you spout any opinions about US involvement in the region. It will give you an informed voice as opposed to an ignorant rant based upon personal prejudice.

This book covers the history of the conflicts in Afghanistan, the involvement of the United States and Saudi Arabia, and the hunt for Osama Bin Laden over the past thirty years. Although we all know how the story ends, I was still gripped by this book's depiction of the near misses and never-used plans to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden.

this book is EXTREMELY-INTELLIGENTLY WELL-RESEARCHED, (facts), honest, truthful, compelling and should be MANDATORY reading for all high school, university, graduate students, lazy, rich, incompetent US politicians, especially judges, lawyers, professors, all academics, educators, CEO's, drug dealers who somehow learned to read, diplomats,Tea Party, Fox, and Right Wing Bible-supporting enthusiasts, plus the CIA-State Dept., all USA secret spies, the President and his colleagues, all military personnel and secret weapons manufacture employees for the Defense Dept. including Los Alamos Labs. employees, (scientists), their families, drone button pushers, historians, etc and be STATE-nationally academically tested with individual "standardized testing" (like a standardized written driver's test) before EVER be legally-allowed to graduate, to receive an academic degree, to get behind the wheel to drive on American highways, to open their mouths to speak, to think outloud, to think quietly, to condemn, to travel, to watch the evening news, to use Internet, to attempt to intellectually see the bigger picture as American values continue to sink even deeper below the mark as the rest of the world moves ahead, including Israel, without its domestic hegemonistic military arrogance, for example, the crumbling, arrogant British Empire....

;

This book covers a complicated and complex part of the world during a very troubled time. The author has done a lot of research to write this and as he states, this edition is more accurate than the first with included newly released freedom of information data. It's a difficult read if you want to completely understand the detail, especially all of the names of various people. It gives an excellent overview and left me with the conclusion - "what's going to happen next?". With the benefit of hindsight it shows how flawed, to the point of inept, US foreign policy has been in Afghanistan and understanding how to deal with Muslim extremes.

Very much an in-depth history of our times. This book describes activities that were lightly or never reported in the news yet had and have extreme bearing on US policy and current conditions in the Middle East. Well researched book with lengthy reference list.

The scope of this book is amazing. The author is able to impart a bit of each main decision-maker's humanity, while at the same time placing them well within the immense web of individuals, governments, militias and organizations that played a role in the events leading up to September 11th.

Still the best documented account of the intelligence and military background for the Afghanistan wars and the origins of Al Queda. Totally relevant still. Excellent, but a bit of a slog if you tend to get caught up in footnotes, as I do. The documentation is extensive, but that's the point of it after all. Pinnacle of investigative reporting, and sadly doesn't get enough attention or credit. May someday be recognized as the go-to tome on this topic.

A detailed account of what transpired prior to 9/11 in Afghanistan and Pakistan between the various intelligence agencies and militarily. Well-written and researched in painstaking detail, an excellent, and recommended read, particularly for those who wish to know and understand what transpired prior to today's conflicts and why.

This is an extremely important book that tell how much of America's problems in the Middle East are of our own making. Most Americans, I suspect, would be surprised to learn that U.S. support for armed fundamentalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan helped with the birth of Muslim fanaticism. This is a shocking story, which if nothing else, dramatizes the failures of U.S. foreign policies.

I recommend every American read this book. It most likely won't change your mind about what we should or shouldn't do, or who we should or shouldn't vote for. But it will educate you as to what already happened.

It is an informative book. It should be mandatory reading for fans of stupid conspiracy theorists like the "Loose Change" idiots, or the "Israel/ Bush planned the whole thing" nutters.

The book is also a good chronology of the failures of the CIA in Afghanistan. The same Afghanistan that was also the one of the CIA's greatest successes.

The CIA after years of making mistakes and not seeing the threat did come around, and then it was politicians and the State Dept that foiled the CIA's efforts and failed the people of Afghanistan and the US.

The Clinton white house engaged Bin Laden the same ineffectual non conscientious way they engaged North Korea. They also ineffectually engaged the genocide being committed by the Serbs in Bosnia, and then later by the Serbs in Kosovo. As well as ineffectually engaging Iraq.

OBL declared war on the US and all US citizens in the 1990's. It wasn't a secret declaration of war. And it came as no surprise to US allies in Afghanistan who were enemies of the Afghan Arabs and the Taliban. They had been trying to tell us the same for years.

The CIA told the white house that there was a war declared on us. The CIA was slow, but with each attack;

The attack on the USS Cole.

The attack on the Embassies in Africa.

The attack on the Air Force Barracks in Saudi Arabia.

Various attacks on CIA personnel in Yemen and Afghanistan.

With each attack the lower levels of the CIA became more outspoken. After the embassy bombings, one CIA employee tearfully told Tenet that the blood was on his hands. Guys at the CIA knew an attack on American soil was coming. By the late 90's even the reluctant CIA director had come around (though he never endorsed any of his people's plans against Osama or the Taliban). Tenet did warn his buddy democratic congressman to avoid air travel and to not congregate in public at the end of 1999 because of the imminent Al Qaeda threat. They were a big enough threat to warn a congressman that his life might be in danger around large amounts of US citizens that might be victims. But Al Qaeda was apparently not big enough a threat to warrant helping their opposition the Northern Alliance. Not big enough a threat to OK a strike against them.

Well one of the CIA's many suggestions was taken. A cruise missile attack was launched on the day that the FBI came back with the DNA evidence on Monica Lewinsky's dress. Unfortunately the Pakistanis were told about the upcoming cruise missile attack and they in turn told the Taliban, who informed their main benefactor OBL.

When the Bush administration came into office, they had in mind to unscrew many of the many many many mistakes of the previous administration (and perhaps some of the mistakes of the administration of the elder Bush).

As everyone knows, they did not act swiftly enough. And as I read the book that thought loomed over my head. And truthfully, even though Clinton probably understood the CIA when they told him that an attack were coming, there was not much he could do with an uncooperative military, and a congress that did not trust him on either side of the isle.

Clinton knew the CIA was right when customs had the good luck of interdicting a car bomb destined and capable of destroying a third of LAX. The FBI and other agencies were able to thwart attacks of the new millennium. And Clinton understood when the various agencies told him that it was luck alone that had enabled them to stop that Millennium attacks, and that they would most likely not catch the next one. Even if Clinton had done all the right things at that time, still the attack that was 9/11 was already launched. Killing bin Laden at that time would have unlikely stopped anything.

When the Clinton cronies left over in the white house told the new occupant, the Bush administration, of the Danger of bin Laden, they did not warm up to the facts fast enough.

Like the Clinton administration before it the Bush administration were told of the very likely upcoming attack. I think it was Richard Clark who told them; "act now like you are going to act after the attack, treat our uncooperative allies of Pakistan and the Gulf States, as if the attack had already happened". He said that or something like it. From all accounts I read sometimes Clarke was spot on, but other times he was a selfish toolbag.

Condoleezza Rice did eventually push for all the right decisions to be made. She did finally decide that the Taliban was our enemy, and that it was unlikely that any amount of diplomacy was going to change that. Nor was any amount of diplomacy going to make Pakistan and the various Gulf States realize that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were our enemy with our current policies.

By the time that Rice decided that Al Qaeda was our enemy, about a decade and a half of various of our Afghan allies constantly pleading to us the same thing. Rice agreed for the CIA to help Ahmed Shah Massoud and a coalition of other Afghan opponents of the Taliban genocide, and their extremist Wahabbi interpretation of Islam. The US finally agreed to help our allies against our sworn enemies, about the same time the Al Qaeda finally figured out how to kill the wily, brilliant and elusive Massaud.

It should be noted that despite all the rhetoric of the injustice of the Palestinian situation. That was not the cause of 9/11. The Arab jihadists held the Palestinian cause as an afterthought at best.

Also not a motivation for the attack was any Afghan policy that we had. If anything it was a lack of a US policy in Afghanistan that caused the attack. We stood by and did nothing while the most extreme elements in the Middle East and Pakistan funded and equipped a faction in Afghanistan foreign to Afghans and Afghan history. We even did some standing by while Pakistan used our money to fund our enemies.

The main motivation of the 9/11 attacks was our policy of containment in Iraq.

Also I'd like to note that one of the reasons that the Clinton administration did not want to help Massaud, even when it became clear the abuses that the Taliban were inflicting on women, and even after it became clear that Al Qaeda had attacked US already over seas, and was planning an attack on US soil. The main reason that Clinton did not want to help our ally fight our enemy is the pariah of American liberty, the drug war. To compete with the funding of oil Sheikhs, and the funding and assistance of the Pakistani military, Massaud was benefiting off of the number one cash crop in Afghanistan, opium.

If there is one thing today that will ensure that our enemies in Afghanistan stick around a little longer than they should, it is our attempt at eradicating the poppy fields. We are driving the vast profits of the drug trade away from the legal government, and to whoever will oppose us. We are probably not going to stop a single European drug user from getting his fix, and I don't know why we are trying.

Well written non fiction about the operational en strategical actions of the CIA in the Middle East and about the interwoven relationsships between regional powers, especiallly between Saoudi Arabia and Pakistan. It gives a special view behind the curtains of the middle east where most of us westerners are not familiar with. In some cases it is frightening to know that some of these unstable countries are nucleair powers.

Herman de Jong
Holland

Great book! Essential to understanding the context of the conflicts that the US is currently engaged in. I can't recommend this book highly enough to anybody interested in the history of the conflict(s) in Southwest Asia.

Have not finished it yet, but Steve Coll provides a wealth of information (with sourcing that is useful) on a topic we are still dealing with today. His writing is clear and he covers his subject in depth...a good read.

This was a beautifully written, comprehensive, analysis if everything the title says. This book was a required college text, but I couldn't put it down, and I read it for leisure. I hope to meet Mr. Coll one day so I can ask him to sign my book.

Great Book Steve!

Excellent. Written in a flowing, novel style it outlines the history of the CIA and it's covert wars in the Middle East in an interesting, chronological narrative. Giving one a clear picture of what the US Government is doing on in that region of the world for good or evil.

Simply an amazing story, well told. The amazing part is that the vast majority of Americans don't know the history of our involvement in Afghanistan, given the current expenditures of American blood and cash.