Ghost Wars

The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

By: Steve Coll

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 26 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2005

Lionel Gelber Prize

New York Times Notable Book

The explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan.

With the publication of Ghost Wars, Steve Coll became not only a Pulitzer Prize winner, but also the expert on 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.

©2011 Steve Coll (P)2011 Penguin

Critic reviews

“Certainly the finest historical narrative so far on the origins of al Qaeda in the post-Soviet rubble of Afghanistan . . . Ghost Wars provides fresh details and helps explain the motivations behind many crucial decisions.”—The New York Times Book Review

“The CIA itself would be hard put to beat his grasp of global events . . . Deeply satisfying.”—The New York Review of Books

“A well written, authoritative, high-altitude drama with few heroes, many villains, bags of cash, and a tragic ending—one that may not have been inevitable.”—The Washington Post

Informative

The author brought a great deal of facts that can correct some of the misunderstandings about the role of the CIA in Al Qaeda creation.

What an eye opener!

A story of bureaucratic and political incompetence, political self preservation, greed and laziness with a pinch of self delusion.

An excellent book of a fairly modern history

This book does an excellent job at demystifying the events surrounding global terrorism and Afghanistan. I will definitely be picking up Directorate S after finishing this.

Amazing from Beginning to End

I thought I knew a fair amount about U.S. operations in Afghanistan pre- 9/11 but this author's research was absolutely amazing. He tells the CIA story so clearly as if he were on the ground the entire time leading these missions. The first chapter immediately captured my attention and it only got more intense chapter after chapter. This is one of the few books I have proactively suggested to my colleagues that they need to read to learn about this amazing story.

Interesting and important but not riveting

This book would make a great read. But for an audiobook it is too dense and a bit dry.

Essential Reading

Essential reading when trying to understand the decades of events which lead to the  September 11th attacks and our twenty-year war in Afghanistan that followed. 

great book, minor recording/narrating flaws

What made the experience of listening to Ghost Wars the most enjoyable?

great story telling, accurate and abundant information, unbiased reporting.

What aspect of Malcolm Hillgartner’s performance would you have changed?

the russian helicopter in the book is a Mil-17, through out the read, he reads it as an MiG 17. for someone with a decent military hardware background, it drove me nuts. couple of other similar misuse of technical terms.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no

Any additional comments?

glitches in the recording, skipped lines and sentences. could be a bad burn to CD...

A good historical account...

Any additional comments?

Packed with a lot of substance, I kept trying to take notes on those things that were new to me. I certainly learned a lot about these decades. This book contravenes some well rooted myths about the CIA, Taliban and other actors. The CIA did a heroic job in Astan. The only drawback for me was organization and some redundancy in the material, although I didn't mind too much.

Terrible editing

The editing in this is very poorly done. The last sentence of each chapter is cut off. Other than that though the story is fantastic

Great book, poor recording.

This book is an excellent, thorough, and unbiased assessment of American involvement in the middle east from the 1970s to September 10, 2001. The only flaws were present in the recording, where there were often words or sentences partially cut out of the recording.