Ghost Wars
Subtitle: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The; Penguin Press
Published: February 23, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 720
ISBN-13: 9781594200076
Subjects: Espionage & secret services; World history: postwar, from c 1945 -; Soviet occupation, 1979-1989; History - General History; U.S. Foreign Relations; U.S. Government - Intelligence Agencies; Political Science; Politics/International Relations; USA; International Relations - General; Asia - Central Asia; Conspiracy & Scandal Investigations; Political Freedom & Security - Terrorism; Political Science / International Security; United States; United States; 1989-2001; Afghanistan; Central Intelligence Agency; History
First sentence: IT WAS A SMALL RIOT in a year of upheavals, a passing thunderclap disgorged by racing skies.
Description: An 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. The author 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, this story 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.