{"title":"Steve Coll","description":"Steve Coll is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars and a professor and dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and from 2007 to 2013 was president of the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington, D.C. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker and previously worked for twenty years at The Washington Post, where he received a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism in 1990. He is the author of nine books, including On the Grand Trunk Road, The Bin Ladens, Private Empire, Directorate S, and The Achilles Trap.","products":[{"product_id":"ghost-wars-the-secret-history-of-the-cia-afghanistan-and-bin-laden-from-the-soviet-invasion-to-september-10-2001-pulitzer-prize-winner-paperback","title":"Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the Cia, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (Pulitzer Prize Winner) - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction - A \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestseller \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"The CIA itself would be hard put to beat his grasp of global events . . . Deeply satisfying.\" --\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the award-winning and bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eDirectorate S \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Achilles Trap \u003c\/i\u003ecomes the explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTo what extent did America's best intelligence analysts grasp the rising thread of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did they fail? Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll recounts the history of the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks. Based on scrupulous research and firsthand accounts by key government, intelligence, and military personnel both foreign and American, \u003ci\u003eGhost Wars\u003c\/i\u003e details the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan (including its covert operations against Soviet troops from 1979 to 1989), the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of bin Laden, and the failed efforts by U.S. forces to find and assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51365573918943,"sku":"9780143034667","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/yXJCFgBMLC9780143034667.webp?v=1789066452"},{"product_id":"directorate-s-the-c-i-a-and-americas-secret-wars-in-afghanistan-and-pakistan-paperback","title":"Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction \u003cb\u003e- \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eNominated for the National Book Award for Nonfiction \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eGhost Wars \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Achilles Trap\u003c\/i\u003e, the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9\/11 \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePrior to 9\/11, the United States had been carrying out small-scale covert operations in Afghanistan, ostensibly in cooperation, although often in direct opposition, with I.S.I., the Pakistani intelligence agency. While the US was trying to quell extremists, a highly secretive and compartmentalized wing of I.S.I., known as \"Directorate S,\" was covertly training, arming, and seeking to legitimize the Taliban, in order to enlarge Pakistan's sphere of influence. After 9\/11, when fifty-nine countries, led by the U. S., deployed troops or provided aid to Afghanistan in an effort to flush out the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the U.S. was set on an invisible slow-motion collision course with Pakistan. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eToday we know that the war in Afghanistan would falter badly because of military hubris at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the drain on resources and provocation in the Muslim world caused by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and corruption. But more than anything, as Coll makes painfully clear, the war in Afghanistan was doomed because of the failure of the United States to apprehend the motivations and intentions of I.S.I.'s \"Directorate S\". This was a swirling and shadowy struggle of historic proportions, which endured over a decade and across both the Bush and Obama administrations, involving multiple secret intelligence agencies, a litany of incongruous strategies and tactics, and dozens of players, including some of the most prominent military and political figures. A sprawling American tragedy, the war was an open clash of arms but also a covert melee of ideas, secrets, and subterranean violence. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eColl excavates this grand battle, which took place away from the gaze of the American public. With unsurpassed expertise, original research, and attention to detail, he brings to life a narrative at once vast and intricate, local and global, propulsive and painstaking. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is the definitive explanation of how America came to be so badly ensnared in an elaborate, factional, and seemingly interminable conflict in South Asia. Nothing less than a forensic examination of the personal and political forces that shape world history, \u003ci\u003eDirectorate S\u003c\/i\u003e is a complete masterpiece of both investigative and narrative journalism.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51365575360735,"sku":"9780143132509","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/QXJLd1EwcDNOTld1V1EvSTFnMTZkUT09.webp?v=1789066461"},{"product_id":"the-bin-ladens-the-bin-ladens-an-arabian-family-in-the-american-century-paperback","title":"The Bin Ladens: The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eGhost Wars\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Achilles Trap\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Riveting . . . The most psychologically detailed portrait of the brutal 9\/11 mastermind yet.\" - Michiko Kakutani, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Bin Ladens\u003c\/i\u003e, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Steve Coll continues where \u003ci\u003eGhost Wars\u003c\/i\u003e left off, shedding new light on one of the most elusive families of the twenty-first century. Rising from a famine-stricken desert into luxury, private compounds, and even business deals with Hollywood celebrities, the Bin Ladens have benefited from the tensions and contradictions in a country founded on extreme religious purity, suddenly thrust into a world awash in oil, money, and the temptations of the West. But what do these incongruities mean for globalization, the War on Terror, and America's place in the Middle East? Meticulously researched, \u003ci\u003eThe Bin Ladens\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a remarkably varied and often dangerous family that has used money, mobility, and technology to dramatically different ends.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368254832863,"sku":"9780143114819","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/clI1kJaOm09780143114819.webp?v=1789125119"},{"product_id":"the-achilles-trap-saddam-hussein-the-c-i-a-and-the-origins-of-americas-invasion-of-iraq-paperback","title":"The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eWashington Post \u003c\/i\u003eNotable Book - Named a Best Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker - \u003c\/i\u003eNominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Excellent . . . A more intimate picture of the dictator's thinking about world politics, local power and his relationship to the United States than has been seen before.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Another triumph from one of our best journalists.\" \u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Voluminously researched and compulsively readable.\" \u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eAir Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and a news-breaking investigation into one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, its message was clear: Iraq, under the control of strongman Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction that, if left unchecked, posed grave danger to the world. But when no WMDs were found, the United States and its allies were forced to examine the political and intelligence failures that had led to the invasion and the occupation, and the civil war that followed. One integral question has remained unsolved: Why had Saddam seemingly sacrificed his long reign in power by giving the false impression that he had hidden stocks of dangerous weapons? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Achilles Trap \u003c\/i\u003emasterfully untangles the people, ploys of power, and geopolitics that led to America's disastrous war with Iraq and, for the first time, details America's fundamental miscalculations during its decades-long relationship with Saddam Hussein. Calling on unpublished and underreported sources, interviews with surviving participants, and Saddam's own transcripts and audio files, Steve Coll pulls together an incredibly comprehensive portrait of a man who was convinced the world was out to get him and acted accordingly. A work of great historical significance, \u003ci\u003eThe Achilles Trap \u003c\/i\u003eexposes how corruptions of power, lies of diplomacy, and vanity--on both sides--led to avoidable errors of statecraft, ones that would enact immeasurable human suffering and forever change the political landscape as we know it.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368464875743,"sku":"9780525562283","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/JXMBQmy7729780525562283.webp?v=1789128471"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/steve-coll.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}