Spring Break
Pulitzer Prize winner tells of bin Laden Hunt
Stuhldreher, Katie
Issue date: 9/30/05 Section: News
Steve Coll, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist, drew upon his journalistic endeavors in India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghan-istan to explain the importance of the ongoing hunt for Osama bin Laden and the restructuring of the intelligence community after Sept. 11 in the Jordan Auditorium Thursday.
Coll, a former South Asia bureau chief for The Washington Post and author of "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001," focused his lecture on past frustrations and failures of the U.S. intelligence community and misperceptions about bin Laden and the Taliban following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
"I think that our biggest missed opportunity at the statecraft level was when the Soviets made it clear that they were leaving Afghanistan and we left as well," Coll said. "I think that this was mere indifference, not actual deliberation. We didn't have enough of an interest to consider alternatives to giving up and leaving the Afghans in their misery."
He described the rise of Osama bin Laden from this point forward as well as the failed attempts of the Clinton Administration and the CIA to effectively contain or eliminate him.
"I'm just trying to emphasize how difficult it is to defend our values, laws and constitution against people who don't recognize or respect these rules," Coll said.
Coll also explained his findings about the rise of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in the context of Pakistan military domination with the United States as a willing bystander. Coll said the lack of American leadership and involvement in Afghanistan after the Soviet pullout allowed that area to become a breeding ground for al-Qaeda.
"Why throughout the entire period of the 1990s did the U.S. not see the Taliban as an adversary?" Coll asked. "We continued to talk to them in a very nuanced way to try to persuade them to expel bin Laden. It's hard now in 2005 to remember how far away the rest of the world seemed back then."
Coll, a former South Asia bureau chief for The Washington Post and author of "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001," focused his lecture on past frustrations and failures of the U.S. intelligence community and misperceptions about bin Laden and the Taliban following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
"I think that our biggest missed opportunity at the statecraft level was when the Soviets made it clear that they were leaving Afghanistan and we left as well," Coll said. "I think that this was mere indifference, not actual deliberation. We didn't have enough of an interest to consider alternatives to giving up and leaving the Afghans in their misery."
He described the rise of Osama bin Laden from this point forward as well as the failed attempts of the Clinton Administration and the CIA to effectively contain or eliminate him.
"I'm just trying to emphasize how difficult it is to defend our values, laws and constitution against people who don't recognize or respect these rules," Coll said.
Coll also explained his findings about the rise of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in the context of Pakistan military domination with the United States as a willing bystander. Coll said the lack of American leadership and involvement in Afghanistan after the Soviet pullout allowed that area to become a breeding ground for al-Qaeda.
"Why throughout the entire period of the 1990s did the U.S. not see the Taliban as an adversary?" Coll asked. "We continued to talk to them in a very nuanced way to try to persuade them to expel bin Laden. It's hard now in 2005 to remember how far away the rest of the world seemed back then."