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

Resource Information

The work Ghost wars : the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Chattahoochee Valley Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

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Label

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

Title remainder

the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001

Statement of responsibility

Steve Coll

Creator

• trueColl, Steve

Subject

• United States, Central Intelligence Agency
• trueInternational relations
• trueTerrorism
• trueUnited States -- Foreign relations -- Afghanistan
• trueAfghanistan -- History -- 1973-
• trueAfghanistan -- History -- 1989-2001
• trueAfghanistan -- History -- Soviet occupation, 1979-1989
• trueAfghanistan -- Politics and government -- 1989-2001
• Bin Laden, Osama, 1957-2011

Language

eng

Summary

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

Tone

• trueThought-provoking

Writing style

• trueCompelling
• trueAccessible
• trueWell-researched

Award

• Lionel Gelber Prize (Canada), 2004.
• Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, 2005.
• New York Times Notable Book, 2004

Cataloging source

DLC

Illustrations

maps

Index

index present

Interest level

UG

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Reading level

11.8

Study program name

Accelerated Reader AR