Looming large in the minds of the American people since the devastation of September 11, 2001--and perplexing
their political analysts, media, and elected leaders--are two unsettling questions: To what extent did America"s
best intelligence analysts grasp the rising threat of Islamist radicalism? And, Who tried to stop bin Laden and
why did they fail? Steve Coll, managing editor of The Washington Post, provides answers in an exhaustively researched
account of US 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 that sowed the seeds of
the September 11 attacks and that provide its context. From the Soviet invasion in 1979 through the summer of 2001,
the CIA, KGB, Pakistan"s IST, 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.
Table of Contents
Part One: Blood Brothers - November 1979 to February 1989
1. "We"re Going to Die Here
2. "Lenin Taught Us"
3. "Go Raise Hell"
4. "I Loved Osama"
5. "Don"t Make It Our War"
6. "Who Is This Massoud?"
7. "The Terrorists Will Own the World"
8. "Inshallah, You Will Know My Plans"
9. "We Won"
Part Two: The One-Eyed Man Was King - March 1989 to December 1997
10. "Serious Risks"
11. "A Rogue Elephant"
12. "We Are in Danger"
13. "A Friend of Your Enemy"
14. "Maintain a Prudent Distance"
15. "A New Generation"
16. "Slowly, Slowly Sucked into It"
17. "Dangling the Carrot"
18. "We Couldn"t Indict Him"
19. "We"re Keeping These Stingers"
20. "Does America Need the CIA?"
Part Three: The Distant Enemy - January 1998 to September 10, 2001
21. "You Are to Capture Him Alive"
22. "The Kingdom"s Interests"
23. "We Are at War"
24. "Let"s Just Blow the Thing Up"
25. "The Manson Family"
26. "That Unit Disappeared"
27. "You Crazy White Guys"
28. "Is There Any Policy?"
29. "Daring Me to Kill Them"
30. "What Face Will Omar Show to God?"
31. "Many Americans Are Going to Die"
32. "What an Unlucky Country"
