Ghost Wars- The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan,and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10,2001, written by Steve Coll, published in 2004 by PenguinPress

Reviewed by Major Agha H Amin (retired)

I first saw Ghost Wars with my friend Professor Rasul Amin at hisKabul office in Kolala Pushta in July 2004.I read the book in 2004-2005 and made notes but was unable towrite a review for various reasons.So this book review 1 years late but still relevant as Ghost Warsis still relevant and will remain relevant for many years to come ,or lets say many decades to come ! On page-6 Coll analyses that US had no Afghan policy beyond avague wish for peace and prosperity.Colls narrative is a stark analysis of US CIAs failures as a credibleintelligence agency in ignoring Ahmad Shah Massoud in at least

the initial phase in Afghanistan in 1992-94. 

Coll proceeds smoothly in his analysis but on page.60 makes twomajor factual errors , which were unnecessary and avoidable !This is just like Stephen Cohen thoughtlessly stating in hisfamous book Pakistan Army that there were no All Muslim units inBritish Indian Army , an absolute distortion of history !So here on page.60 we find Steve Coll stating fallaciously “Mohammad Zia ul Haq was a young captain in a Punjabi unit ofBritains Colonial Army when London’s exhausted governmentfinally quit India in 1947”.Now why does Mr. Coll state such absolute nonsense , based onno facts in an otherwise brilliant book ?Because he has heard that Pakistan Army and British Indian Armywere Punjabi shows !The harsh fact Mr Coll is that 13 Lancers in which Zia wascommissioned had only one third Punjabis ! Its class compositionwhen Zia joined in 1945 was a Pathan Squadron , a MuslimRajput Squadron , again non Punjabi and one Punjabi Sikh Squadron ? 

So how does this make 13 Lancers a Punjabi unit ?And why Steve Coll has to produce such non factual statements ?Zia was sent on an adverse report in 1945-46 to Guides Cavalrywhich at that time had Sikh , a Dogra and a Pathan Squadron .These two facts are probably unknown to Coll ?Coll states on page.60 that His father had been an Anglophiliccivil servant ? Zias father was a head clerk or something like thatand not a civil servant who in India and Pakistan are officers ofgrade 17 and above.On page.64 converts Akhtar Abdul Rehman into son of a Pathanmedical doctor from Peshawar , while Akhtar Abdul Rehmansfather was a Jullundhur Pathan from East Punjab.Pathan by racebut a Punjabi by language and upbringing ! Just as much asEisenhower may be a German !Coll highights that Akhtar Abdul Rehman was a champion boxerand wrestler but probably does not know that Abdul Rehman hadnear zero war record ! 

ISI civilian Sohail Naqvi in an interview with me in 2000-2001while I was editor Defence Journal and he was serving at SMSrecounted that Rahman was known to his neighbours in Pakistan

Military Academy in early 1960s as wife basher, whose neighborofficers complained that they were disturbed from his frequentwife bashing !Incidentally Pakistani generals have a notorious wife bashingtradition.Pakistani general K.M Sheikh serving as ambassador atTokyo broke his wife Shehla Legharis arm in early 1960s !On page -65 Coll shifts ISI headquarters to Pindi from Islamabad! It is an Americans privilege to do anything he feels like fromchanging class composition of 13 Lancers or Guides, to location ofISI headquarters.On page.65 Coll fallaciously states that ISI was staffed down theline by army officers and enlisted men.In reality ISIs major cadre and its backbone are its civilian staffwho have no connection with the army at all.Armed forces 

personnel join ISI on deputation periods of 2 to 5 years andrevert to their parent services.On page-70 Coll quotes CIA station chief Hart making aninteresting remark about Soviets in Afghanistan attackingPakistan.Thus Coll quotes Hart as stating “ the fuckers haven’tgot the balls”.Ironically the same was true for US forces in Afghanistanin 2001 to 2014 .Proving to be the same fuckers as statedby Hart in not having the balls to attack Pakistan despiteknowing that Pakistan was supporting Afghan insurgents.History does repeat itself Mr Coll !On page-73 Colls claim of Saudi Air Force providing aircover to Karachi is also highly questionable ! In 1971Indian air force was attacking Karachi at will, so wherewas this air cover Mr Coll ? And the source Badeeb thatyou quote from ORBIS appears to be a chronic liar !Interestingly Indian Air Force managed to hit a civilianhouse in Karachi belonging to Pakistans future army chief 

Generals Begs brother, I think a colonel or major in thearmy !On page-103 Coll quotes Pakistans ISI chief General Akhtar asstating his strategy as Kabul must burn !Now this was one nonsense gimmickal phrase of Akhtar.I asked my distant relative and close friend Colonel Salman whowas teacher of all who mattered in Afghan War from Massoud to

Haqqani , Hekmatyar down to Mullah Omar and OBL.Salman known as Colonel Faizan in Afghanistan had the followingto state :---Akhtar Abdul Rehman was not a particularly brilliant manand had memorized some phrases like Kabul must burn .He had limited operations to Kabul because he wantedpublicity. I was it as a narrow way of waging guerrilla war.It may be noted that the pioneer of Afghan operations wasBrigadier Raza Ali a special forces officer with anoutstanding service profile.Akhtar Abdul Rehman 

developed a personality clash with Brigadier Raza Ali andsidelined him and placed him in logistics. Akhtar AbdulRehman preferred artillery officers who were narrow inmindset and knew little about guerrilla warfare.Akhtar Abdul Rehman inducted Brigadier Yusuf because hewas a non commando and was controllable.Yusuf had no concept of guerrilla warfare but his inductiondid not matter as the basic team of SSG commando officerswas intact and ran the real show.According to Colonel Salman Akhtar Abdul Rahman bears agreat deal of blame for Afghanistans failure as he hadsimply no North of Hindu Kush strategy !All these failures escape the Solomons sagacity and wisdom ofSteve Coll ! On page 166 Coll performs an ingenious US change of race andconverts ISIs Colonel Imam who was a Punjabi from Chakwal intoa Pathan . 

On page 253 Penguin Book editors fail in detecting spellingmistake of word wrecked as wracked !If we believe Colls statement that CIA was created to preventanother Pearl Harbour then 9/11 was a grand intelligence failureof CIA ! But Mr Coll no one was held accountable !Steve Colls glorification of Coffer Black is questionable !Coffer Black glorified in Steve Colls Ghost Wars also joinedBlackwater after his retirement.as Vice PresidentIt is common knowledge that Coffer was the main reason forUSA ’s phenomenal intelligence failure against Al Qaeda.Coffer’s ideas about intelligence revolved around abduction andelimination ! Black’s limited mentality may be imagined from the

fact that he told Gary Schroen a seasoned CIA professional thathe wanted Usama Bin Laden’s severed head shipped to him in dryice.Schroen retorted that he could not find dry ice in Afghanistan

! Schroen states that he was shocked to hear in his three decadelong career that an intelligence professional wanted a man deadrather than captured alive.Black also told Gary to severe Laden’shead with a machete !The CIA itself it may be noted laterdismissed Black for inefficiency !The fact that Coffer Black was appointed as Coordinator forcounter terrorism with the rank of Ambassador at large inOctober 2002 speaks volumes for the quality of US policy in theso called war on terror.On page 336 Coll again performs another masterly trick in changeof ethnicity when he converts Aimal Kansi’s ethnicity into Baluchfrom Pashtun ! I don’t think that New York Times Book Reviewsnoted this despite all claims of total wisdom !On 349 Coll starts traffic at Salang Tunnel whereas as far as Iknow Salang was closed and inaccessible to traffic in 1994-2001and Shibar Pass was used.On page 371 again Coll Turns Aimal Kansi into Baluch ! 

And once again on 373 ! My question is what made it so difficultfor Coll to find Kansi’s ethnicity ?Colls information and assessment about Nawaz Sharifs firingPakistan Army Chief Karamat on page 437-38 is totally incorrectand flawed.Actual facts are as below :---In September 1998 then Army chief General Karamat startedpressurizing the political leadership to include the army in thepolitical decision making .Nawaz had done his homework well.With the ISI firmly under theprime ministers command under Lieutenant General Ziauddin onesenior officer Zulfiqar presently chairman WAPDA had been sentto Ukraine to find details of kick backs given to General JahangirKaramat in the Ukraianian tank deal with Pakistan.Full evidence was prepared of Jahangirs complicity in taking kickbacks.Once Karamat asserted his political ambitions Nawazthreatened him with prosecution for taking kick backs ! 

 Thus Jahangir Karamat’s unceremonial exit from power ! USA’slikely agent of change had been removed ! 

On page 438 Coll demonstrates his total lack of knowledge aboutCorps of Engineers as an arm of service which never producedarmy chiefs !Does Mr Coll not know that US Armys most eminent leaders Lee ,Meade and Mac Arthur were from Corps of Engineers !On page 475 Mr Coll performs yet another magicians trick inraising social status of Generals Musharrafs father from a cypherclerk into an Imperial bureaucrat.Musharrafs father was promoted to officer rank long after 1943 towhich Coll refers. And this happened in 1960s or so. There is thussimply no question of Musharraf having been an officer in 1943.Why cannot US authors stay out of making unnecessary storiesabout events without serious hard work and efforts ? 

Again on page 475 Coll is wrong in saying Pakistans leadingmilitary academy , because Pakistan unlike USA had only oneofficer candidate training school .On page 486 Colls questionable claims about Angela Duile andMarwans conversations are un supported with any references.But Col can do it because he is an American prophet. 

On page 504 Coll thrusts a battle honour on General Mahmud intoassigning him with the glory of being the frotline commander atKargil ! Whereas Mahmud hardly went within 100 km near thefighting in Kargil and over saw the operation from safety of hiscorps headquarters in Pindi , while Pakistani army men werecowardly abandoned to be picked and buried by Indians as nonarmy Mujahids ! 

By and large Colls book is extremely interesting back groundhistory , but limited analytical value and misses the larger partsof the overall strategic picture about why Pakistan acted as it didand why US policy about Afghanistan was so myopic.Coll also misses the point that many offers were made by manyparties to the US for eliminating OBL but at heart the Americans

were just not interested in eliminating Bin Laden despite all token 

claims that Colls sources in CIA made and were transmitted intoColls book.