caption: U.S. Army Spc. Kevin Welsh provides security before boarding a CH-47 Chinook helicopter after completing a mission in Chak valley in the Wardak province of Afghanistan on Aug. 3, 2010.

Unwinding the shadowy backstory of the war in Afghanistan

Apr 05, 2018 at 8:34 am

By

John O'Brien

Steve Coll is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book, a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winner “Ghost Wars,” is “Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016.”

The new work, he writes, “seeks to provide a thorough, reliable history of how the CIA, ISI, and Afghan intelligence agencies influenced the rise of a new war in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, and how that war fostered a revival of Al Qaeda, allied terrorist networks, and eventually, branches of the Islamic state.”

Steve Coll spoke at Seattle University’s Pigott Auditorium on February 15. His appearance was co-presented by The Elliott Bay Book Company and Town Hall Seattle. Jennie Cecil Moore recorded the talk.

Listen to the full version below: