Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to...

From 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 Wars answers 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? more

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Smarter Choice Ghost Wars : Secret History of the... by Steve Coll. ISBN13: 9781594200076. ISBN10: 1594200076. Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.. Edition: 04 Used	Textbooks.com 2,445 reviews *smarter certified	$30 $16.50 Coupon 2 coupons available Code:xicyx Detail: Use coupon code xicyx at checkout to enjoy Free Shipping on your order plus enter to win $500 at Textbooks. Expires:Dec-31-2009 Restriction:Unknow Code:No Code Required Detail: Free shipping w/ $25 purchase at Textbooks. Expires:Dec-31-2009 Restriction:Unknow	See it

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Recent Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-16-2009; Essential with THE LAST PHARAOH; Essential with THE LAST PHARAOH in order to understand how America is being underminded by its own so called allies such in Egypt. It was on eof the Black Holes and rife with torture. Unbelievable. The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-14-2009; Ghost Wars is terrific; Great book! A well researched, unbiased view of the CIA's relationship with Afghanistan's many personality's over the latter part of the twentieth century.; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-13-2009; Comprehensive and engrossing.; This is a thoroughly researched and very well written treatise on modern Afghanistan. Anyone interested in understanding the political, military and religious events leading up to the environment in which the Unites States is now...; read full review | report as inappropriate

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Aug-15-2009; How To Understand How we Got Here!; Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001This Book is ones best tutorial to understand why we are where we are in Afghanistan and some of the middle east. It...; read full review | report as inappropriate

Selected Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-16-2009; Essential with THE LAST PHARAOH; Essential with THE LAST PHARAOH in order to understand how America is being underminded by its own so called allies such in Egypt. It was on eof the Black Holes and rife with torture. Unbelievable. The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the...; read full review | report as inappropriate

3/5: From: Amazon; Posted: May-16-2009; Hard reading; Hard book to read. Author uses a lot of big words that were unnecessary, making the reading go really slow. Not like other books of it's kind, where you can't put them down because they are so interesting. Husband actually went and...; read full review | report as inappropriate

1/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jun-22-2008; Factually Incorrect; The only way this book would score more than one star is if people buy it as a work of fiction. It is riddled with factual holes and just plain wrong information, I don't know if this was by design to create an element of fiction, or...; read full review | report as inappropriate