Customer Rating: 
Summary: A must read
Comment: One of the best books I have read in a long time. Using first hand accounts the author pieces together the complex history and the relationsips between the US/Pakistan and Afghanistan. These are then clearly explained and set out, leaving you feeling well informed and filled with the necessary knowledge to understand what, and how, the world is faced with today.
Customer Rating:
Summary: EXPLOSIVE READING
Comment: This literary masterpiece from Pulitzer prize winning author Steve Coll will blow your mind.The apparent relentless and exhaustive research that made this book shows Colls dedication to bringing the full story to the reader.Beginning with the US support of the Afghan fighters during the Soviet invasion and finishing just days before the attacks on 9/11 Coll will take you on a mind boggling journey encompassing delicate matters such as:the US support of the taliban,the CIA attempts to buy back Stinger missiles it had given to the Mujaheddin for $150,000 apiece!! hare brained and expensive attempts to remove Osama Bin Laden and constant policy changes and in-fighting within the CIA.Throw in the main characters:an impeached president,a president with no clue on foriegn policy,tribal leaders more concerned with personal enrichment than the liberation of their people and radical jihadists like Osama the world hide and seek champion!!Add to this mix the ineptitude of the CIA and you have an extremely interesting plot.Read this book for the story and you will become more informed on the origins of al-Qaeda,the history of Afghanistan and the entanglement of the US government.Study this book and you will see layer upon layer of CIA incompetence,could 9/11 have been prevented?
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Whats Missing
Comment: Well after reading this book, iam think did Steve Coll write the 9/11 Commision Report. As the 9/11 Report blames nobody in the CIA, FBI, NSA for 9/11. Coll fails even to mention the Bin Ladens being flown out of the USA on 9/12/01, when nobody was flying. The book fails to menion the the guy who knew the most about Osama, AL"CIADA" John Oneil . Oneil was the lead FBI investigator of the Cole bombing, resigned from the FBI becuase the Bush administration told him to "back off the Bin Laddens". John Oneil took over secuirty in the Twin Towers on 9/11 , he never made it out . Also mising was this,The first instance is the electronic memo of July 10, 2001 from Kenneth Williams, an FBI agent in Phoenix, Arizona, noting the number of students with ties to radical Islamic fundamentalists enrolled at local aviation training schools, and suggesting that a nationwide canvass of these schools be carried out to determine if there was a pattern. The guy who sat on this memo David Fracsa , was promoted. Now there is some good information in the book, but its been editited t by Bush White House. . The Books says the CIA NEVER HAD ANY CONTACT WITH BIN LADDEN EVER. I wont be buying his new book The Bin Laddens. The paper back was published after the 9/11 commision report was put out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Comment: This has become my favourite book of all time. Each page is packed with information, the whole book is extensively referenced too. It also puts to bed many misconceptions and myths (a common one is that the CIA funded bin Laden, which is not true).
Coll also describes the feelings of those who worked in the CIA and State Dept. and he shows their many conflicts and competing ideologies. The split feelings and decisions within the U.S. policy makers with respect to Massoud, bin Laden and the Taliban are very well told.
Recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You could not want for a better history
Comment: This is by far the clearest and most complete account I have yet read about the roots of al-Qaeda. The style of writing is exemplary: this is a big book on a tricky subject and could have turned out very dull and difficult indeed in the hands of a poorer writer, but Steve Coll deserves all the prizes and acolades that he has received for his work.
The book clearly traces the foundations of radical islam from the years before the Soviet invasion of Afgaistan, through the rise of the Taliban and up to the eve of 11th September 2001.
A must-read for anyone struggling to understand where why the world has got to today.
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