Research Catalog

Title

Ghost wars : the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001 / Steve Coll.

Author

Coll, Steve

Publication

New York, NY : Penguin Books, 2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvii, 712 p. : ill., maps; 22 cm.

Summary

"Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll tells the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan, including its covert program against Soviet troops from 1979 to 1989, and examines the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of bin Laden, and 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 Wars 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."--Jacket.

Subjects

• History
• Bin Laden, Osama, 1957-2011
• United States > Central Intelligence Agency
• Afghanistan > History > 1989-2001
• Afghanistan > History > Soviet occupation, 1979-1989

Genre/Form

History

Note

• "Updated with new documents from the 9/11 Commission"--Cover.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [667]-679) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• -- Blood brothers -- The one-eyed man was king -- The distant enemy.
• Accounts receivable September 1996 -- Blood brothers: November 1979 to February 1989: We're going to die here; Lenin taught us; Go raise hell; I loved Osama; Don't make it our war; Who is this Massoud?; Terrorists will own the world; Inshallah, you will know my plans; We won -- One-eyed man was king: March 1989 to December 1997: Serious risks; Rogue elephant; We are in danger; Friend of your enemy; Maintain a prudent distance; New generation; Slowly, slowly sucked into it; Dangling the carrot; We couldn't indict him; We're keeping these Stingers; Does America need the CIA? -- The distant enemy: January 1998 to September 10, 2001: You are to capture him alive; Kingdom's interests; We are at war; Let's just blow the thing up; Manson family; That unit disappeared; You crazy white guys; Is there any policy?; Daring me to kill them; What face will Omar show to God?; Many Americans are going to die; What an unlucky country.

ISBN

• 0143034669 (pbk.)
• 9780143034667 (pbk.)
• 0141020806 (pbk.)
• 9780141020808 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^2004275974

OCLC

• 57351514
• SCSB-10014740

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library