Author reveals truth behind 9/11

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and managing editor of the Washington Post Steve Coll exposed what he calls the truth behind the CIA's involvement in the 9/11 attacks in front of a crowd of students and faculty Tuesday night in the Whittenberger Auditorium. \nIn his book, "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001," Coll chronicles the past 20 decades of U.S. relations with Afghanistan.\n"My goal was to bring to light a hidden history of the American government's engagement with the Islam radical government and the problems of Afghanistan," Coll said. "I wanted to show that Sept. 11 did not just come out of the blue."\nSumit Ganguly, director of the Department of India Studies and a long-time friend of Coll's, invited him to speak with the purpose of making students aware of a book that he calls a "work of intellectual integrity." \n"People who read the book can gain an understanding of how the network of al Qaeda developed and the difficulty of tracking down such an elusive figure as bin Laden," Ganguly said.\nColl's interest in the Islamic government stems from nearly 20 years of investigation. From 1989 to 1992 he covered Afghanistan as the Post's South Asia bureau chief, where he accumulated a wealth of information. \nWith more than 600 pages of narrative, "Ghost Wars" is the product of hundreds of interviews with CIA agents and national security advisors. \n"I was looking for a title that would be evocative and true to the theme of the book," Coll said. "I found that it was the secret history that led to 9/11."\nColl's investigation has caused a stir, as readers have become more aware of U.S. foreign policy. Faculty and students alike are beginning to question the Clinton and Bush administrations for having prevented the CIA from taking action against al Qaeda. \n"We basically walked away from Afghanistan and allowed the country to collapse into a factional civil war and consequential anarchy," Ganguly said.\nStudents in the political science and India studies departments said they were intrigued by Coll's anecdotes and first-person accounts. \n"It's interesting that while this whole thing has come to the forefront, it's actually been going on beneath the surface," said graduate student Rafia Zakaria. \nGanguly said IU was extremely fortunate to have Coll speak.\n"He wrote a phenomenal book, a work that's the envy of most academics," Ganguly said.\n-- Contact staff writer Lyssa Rebholz at lrebholz@indiana.edu.